Restaurant Roundup: A peek at Grady’s

A large cactus at the front door of Grady’s Restaurant in the Park Hill neighborhood of ‘Cowtown’ readied our palates for West Texas ranch cuisine. At Grady’s they call it upscale cuisine with cowboy charm. And most of us know who that cowboy is — Fort Worth’s own Grady Spears, who began his culinary career at Reata downtown Fort Worth and in Alpine.

A warm greeting by the wait staff and the Chef’s Mom, who had stopped in for dinner, started our evening with smiles. Chef/owner Grady Spears, after attending his son’s soccer game, arrived minutes later. He whisked by to say ‘hello’ and then dashed to the kitchen.

The bar has such heavy duty style chairs that it is a good thing the seat swivels so you can move in close and ‘slide up’ to the bar. A choice of classic and contemporary cocktails, a variety of beers, and whites, reds, and sparklers from a global wine list are offered.

While pondering the wine list, we found ourselves enjoying the colorful framed paintings of cowboys at sunset and cowboys with their horses. We noshed on baby corn muffins with rosemary honey...love the small shape because it creates lots of crust.

Although the list offers an excellent Texas white and a red by the glass or the bottle, we would like to see more Texas wines on the list to complement Grady’s Texas cuisine. Our glass of Brennan Viognier from Comanche was full of peaches and citrus in both aroma and an unoaked flavor. With our entrees, we ordered Pellegrini Red ‘Family Blend’ from Sonoma - full of plum and spice.  It is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Carignan but will change varietals every vintage to be drinkable for the discerning palate.

Slow braised cabrito tacos certainly sounded tempting, but we were hungry for salad.  The Mexican Caesar salad was wonderful but the favorite, now often a classic in good restaurants, was spinach, candied bacon, roasted cherry tomatoes, red onions and blue cheese.

Maple crusted tenderloin with green onion smashers topped with butternut squash was accented by Hank Williams singing “Honky Tonkin.”  Rack of lamb with creamy red grits made from sun dried tomato accented with crisp shoe string potatoes, was cooked perfectly juicy and red.  Now we sit listening to more country music while chewing on a lamb bone.

Banana bread pudding or root beer ice cream float?  We picked both and ended the evening with Patsy Cline singing “Honky Tonk Merry-go-round.

Spears sixth book, Cooking the Cowboy Way published by

Andrews McMeel, was released last month.  What a great Christmas present.

Grady’s Restaurant

2443 Forest Park Blvd.

Fort Worth 76110

817-922-9980

www.gradysrestaurant.com

Open Tuesday - Saturday