Taco News

El Fenix honcho launches new Mexican restaurant concept in Fort Worth

Tacos will soon be on the menu in Fort Worth’s West Seventh District.

Photo courtesy of Taqueria La Ventana

A new Mexican restaurant concept, with tacos and more, is coming to Fort Worth from Mike Karns, owner of El Fenix, Meso Maya, and Taqueria La Ventana. With a working title of Tortaco, it will open at 910 Currie St., in the space previously occupied by the Fixi Shop.

Karns was not available for comment, but a staffer familiar with the project said that it would be a new concept entirely different from any of Karns' other restaurants, with a hybrid mode of service. "It'll be self-serve during the daytime, and full-service for dinner," the staffer said.

The menu will be a step up from Taqueria La Ventana, with tacos and more.

Karns has bagged a dynamite location in the thick of the West Seventh District, directly across the street from Fred's Texas Cafe, behind Dude, Sweet Chocolate and behind Waters, Jon Bonnell's seafood restaurant, and next-door to Steel City Pops.

The former Fixi Shop is a charming building built in 1955 with a Googie-esque sloping roof. It's unique in that it's a stand-alone building; a representative from the realtor said that Karns bought it outright. "He wanted to own the location," she said.

Construction is already underway, with most of the interior gutted, but the exterior is being saved.

Karns opened the first Taqueria La Ventana in 2012, followed by a branch in Addison which opened in May 2015. A third Taqueria La Ventana is slated to open at the Dallas Farmers Market. Karns also owns the Snuffer's burger chain, which he acquired in 2014.

openings tex-mex tacos

Bagel News

Buzzy Northeast chain PopUp Bagels ready to debut in Dallas

PopUp Bagels

PopUp Bagels coming to Dallas.

A buzzy bagel concept founded in the Northeast is coming to Dallas: Called PopUp Bagels, it famously started as a backyard project during the pandemic, and will open a location at Inwood Village, in the former I Heart Yogurt shop (which only just closed), next to the Inwood Theatre at 5450 W Lovers Ln. #143.

Signage has already gone up on the location and according to a spokesperson, the shop will open in early spring.

PopUp Bagels was founded in Westport, Connecticut by entrepreneur and home baker Adam Goldberg, with his cousin Jeff Lewis, as a side project during the pandemic, when everyone was baking at home. The bagels earned such a warm reception that Goldberg started hosting bagel popups in various locations near his home.

The concept's success has been helped by a national surge of interest in bagels, as well as viral moments on TikTok and other social media. Goldberg sold the concept to equity growth firm Stripes in 2023, who drew celebrity investors such as Paul Rudd and Michael Phelps, with plans to open hundreds of locations across the U.S. Talk is cheap but for now, there are 23 locations in New York, Maine, Florida, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, and North Carolina.

One of their selling points for a seamless expansion is that they've kept things simple including a compact menu of bagels, spreads, and a pound of smoked salmon. There's a minimum purchase of three bagels, along with a mandatory tub of cream cheese or butter, for $12, and they only offer five flavors: plain, salt, poppy, sesame, and everything.

Bagels are sold whole only, no sandwiches and also not sliced — leading to their nickname "rip and dip," in which customers rip the bagels and dip them into spreads. Their texture is softer and lighter than the classic New York dense bagel, making them easier to "rip."

They're also known for their collaborations on over-the-top schmear flavors — beyond their regular original cream cheese, scallion cream cheese, and vegan cream cheese — which they rotate in with frequency. Recent specialty schmears include Honey Chipotle Cream Cheese, Salted Maple Banana Bread Schmear, Cheez-It Schmear, and a Lemon Pepper Schmear just announced with WingStop that summons the wing chain's Lemon Pepper sauce.

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