Closure News

Rock & Brews restaurant founded by KISS members closes in The Colony

Rock & Brews

fortworth.culturemap.com

A restaurant chain with rock-star ties is closing: Rock & Brews, founded by KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, will close its location in The Colony at 5351 Nebraska Furniture Mart Dr. in Grandscape, after nine years.

According to a statement from the restaurant, it will close on June 1.

The restaurant was part of a chain with 20 locations across the U.S. This location first opened in 2015 and was the first to open in Dallas-Fort Worth, and the second to open in Texas.

In a post on the closure, the restaurant stated that it had been "a great honor & privilege" to serve The Colony & Dallas-Fort Worth community.

"Our team is thankful for everyone's support over the past 9 years. We look forward to serving those who rock in the future at our other locations in Grapevine (DFW) and San Antonio," the post read.

According to a staff member, the location is closing because "it's a growing area and the owners decided to go a different direction."

Rock & Brews restaurant Gene Simmons Paul Stanley KISS band Rock & Brews has KISS on its side. Rock & Brews Facebook

Simmons and Stanley founded the concept with a group of music-industry insiders, opening the first location in southern California in 2010 with a menu of American classics, featuring bar food staples such as wings, pizza, and burgers.

A full bar features cocktails, international and local craft beers, and a focus on bourbons. Their "rocktails" are amusingly named for rock songs such as Smoke on the Water or Frozen Purple Haze with blueberry vodka, lime juice, and sangria.

A couple of their menu items give a nod to rock figures including a "poison burger" in collaboration with musician Alice Cooper, and the Texas Flood margarita, an ode to the band of the same name.

That leaves one remaining location in DFW in Grapevine, which opened in July 2024.

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Wings News

New chicken wing joint sells 'em by the pound in Dallas' Deep Ellum

Wings By the Pound

A no-nonsense wing spot has debuted in Dallas' Deep Ellum: Called Wings By the Pound, it sells exactly that, at a shop at 2707 Main St., in the former home of the Slutty Vegan burger joint, which closed in 2024.

Wings by the Pound states proudly that it "isn't a combo joint" but is instead "a counter built on one idea — call your weight, watch it hit the scale, and take it off the scale." Then presumably you take it home, you eat it, end of story.

It presents itself as an alternative to typical wing spots which sell wings by the number. Numbers are complicated.

"We sell you weight. Pick wings or tenders, call your poundage from a half-pound to four, and we weigh it up in front of you," they say.

From there it's the standard wing-joint set of choices: wings or tenders, level of heat, sauces, and sides. "No combos, no guessing," they brag, although is there a lot of guessing with wings?

Here's some very specific numbers:

One pound of wings, which they approximate at 12 pieces, is $15.05. Two pounds, or 24 pieces, is $27.11.
One pound of tenders, which they approximate at 8 pieces, is $17.02. Two pounds, or 16 pieces, is $25.06.

They also sell french fries — crinkle cut — in choice of plain, cheese sauce, or "pound sauce" for $8 to $15. Pound sauce is their version of the prototypical secret sauce, which generally boils down to Russian-ish dressing, i.e., mayonnaise and ketchup with various add-ins, spicy and otherwise; the version at Wings By the Pound incorporates hot sauce.

There are wet sauces, including Thai, chipotle, hot honey, and garlic Parm; dry rubs, including suya (peanut) and jalapeño-lemon; and five dips: cheese sauce, ranch, bleu cheese, honey mustard, and pound sauce.

Some might recall that there was a Wings By the Pound concept that first debuted in 2020 at Trinity Groves, the restaurant incubator in West Dallas, but that closed in 2022.

This Wings By the Pound is a new concept from ArkDal Hospitality Group, headed by Cary Thompson, Royce Colley, and Mo Wells, which also operates Velour Restaurant in Victory Park.

The location in Deep Ellum has no seating on premise and functions as a take-out spot only. A spokesperson said that the location opened in mid-June.

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