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.

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Drink Up

Sigel's stores across Dallas rebrand as Austin flagship Twin Liquors

Twin Liquors/Instagram

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A longtime brand name in the Dallas liquor store world is about to fade into the distance. Sigel's, the chain founded in Dallas in 1905 by the Sigel family, will officially rebrand as Twin Liquors, adopting the name of its Austin-based parent company.

The change will affect all seven Dallas-Fort Worth-area Sigel's stores. Depending on where you shop, the change is either coming soon, in process, or already happened.

Sigel's was acquired by Twin Liquors back in 2018, but the company wanted to be thoughtful in the rebranding process, says Twin Liquors' marketing director Sandra Spalding.

"When Twin Liquors acquired Sigel’s in 2018, we recognized how deeply the brand was woven into the fabric of the Dallas-Fort Worth community, so we kept the Sigel’s name intact," Spalding says. "As we continue to grow throughout the DFW area, uniting under one consistent Twin Liquors voice feels like a natural evolution."

Sigel's drew local nostalgia, not only as a longtime presence but also for its 50s-era sign that presided over the location at Lemmon Avenue and Inwood Road.

Unfortunately for Sigel's, they were forced to file for bankruptcy. Twin Liquors rescued them in 2018.

The Hudson Oaks Sigel's, east of Weatherford, is already now a Twin Liquors store, while stores on Dallas' Riverfront Boulevard and Fitzhugh Avenue are next on the list. The remaining Dallas-area locations include Richardson, Rockwall, and Plano.

Twin Liquors' history dates back to 1937, when the Jabour family opened a combo liquor store, drugstore, and soda fountain. They soon grew to operate three liquor stores before the founding generation of Jabours retired in 1981.

A new generation of the family decided to get back into the liquor-store business in 1982, opening at the corner of 7th and Red River in downtown Austin. The name "Twin Liquors" is in honor of Theodore Jabour, one of the twins who owned the original Jabour’s Package Store.

Twin Liquors now encompasses 100-plus stores and spans most of the Lone Star State.

Perhaps the most important question: Will DFW finally get to partake of Twin Liquors' famous Dollar Sale? This legendary event is one of the most anticipated liquor sales in Texas, offering deals on premium bottles of wine and spirits. It's a 3-day sale that takes place in-store-only, once (sometimes twice) a year, and most recently in August 2025.

Spalding confirms that, yes, North Texas stores will join the party.

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