Food Haters

Fort Worth and Garland among worst cities in America for foodies

Fort Worth's lack of gourmet grocers and bakers helped it earn the title as sixth worst city in America for food lovers.

Photo courtesy of Fort Worth CVB

Lest we in Dallas-Fort Worth get too prideful, a new study by the real estate site Movoto is knocking North Texas down a peg. Garland is the second worst city in America for food lovers, and four other Texas towns including Fort Worth made the top 10.

San Bernardino, California, was deemed to be the worst city for foodies, but Garland’s second place (as well as Fort Worth’s No. 6 spot) put North Texas in the corner.

So how did Garland, Fort Worth, El Paso, Laredo and Corpus Christi make the list? Well, they lack quantity, because this was a “per capita” study that looked at restaurants, bakeries, food trucks, ice cream shops, candy shops, food and wine festivals, caterers and gourmet grocery stores.

The rankings were then formulated by taking data from the 100 most populated cities on this criteria from places like Yelp and Foursquare and only including places strictly within city limits (i.e., the whole of North Texas doesn’t serve Fort Worth or Garland.)

Garland’s only top three finish was in caterers — oh god, where do people in Garland find caterers?! — but it consistently ranked in the bottom 10 percent in categories such as restaurants, food trucks, candy stores and gourmet grocers.

Of course, Fort Worth is the second-worst for gourmet grocers on the list, behind El Paso and in front of Arlington (the 13th worst city for foodies). Laredo and Lubbock came in second and third for food trucks by dint of both having only one food truck apiece.

Also — and this bears repeating — candy stores is one of the metrics. For foodies. Anyway, Dallas isn’t on the list, but Irving, Lubbock and San Antonio also made the top 50, so Dallas is clearly better. It’s part of a study. That’s science.

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McDonald's News

McDonald's closes 2 CosMc's beverage spinoffs in Dallas-Fort Worth

Photo courtesy of CosMc's

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After less than a year, McDonald's is cutting back on its CosMc's beverage spinoff, and that includes shutting down locations in Dallas-Fort Worth.

McDonald's introduced the beverage led concept in December 2023, when it opened the first location in Bolingbrook, Illinois. The concept — which seemed to be competing with Swig, the drive-through drink chain from Utah — features coffee, lemonade, slushies, and energy drinks, plus bites such as the Egg McMuffin, hashbrowns, and McPops — like doughnut holes.

They went on to open six more locations, all in Texas: two in San Antonio and four in DFW. Both San Antonio locations still show up on the website as open but two have closed in DFW so far, as follows:

Watauga at 7304 Denton Hwy.
Arlington at Abram's Alley, 300 E. Abram St. #150

Their website currently shows the Dallas location at Campbell Road, which was the original location, as still open, as well as a location in Fort Worth on McPherson Boulevard.

Despite the closures, McDonald's still plans to continue the test in the US for the foreseeable future, a spokesperson says, including opening two new smaller format stores in Texas in 2025.

That includes a location in Allen at 861 W. Stacy Rd.

The plan is to close three of the larger locations that were remodeled into CosMc’s locations — meaning that one of the locations currently still open is due to close.

"Since opening CosMc’s, we have had the benefit of testing out different location sizes and setups – from revamping larger restaurant spaces to building smaller prototype locations that focus more on the drive-thru and digital experience," their statement says. "We learned that the smaller format stores allow us to test new, unique circumstances that are reflective of our customer base. As a result, we will open two new smaller format stores in Texas in 2025, and close three of the larger locations that were remodeled into CosMc’s locations."