Handout photo
FORT Worth
Hardly ever does a new cafe open without months of publicity and hullabaloo.
But il Modo, opening Wednesday in a new Most important Road resort, has quietly established up shop to grow to be downtown Fort Worth’s vacation spot for Italian meals.
The place is ideal: 714 Most important St., on the corner struggling with Grace, Funds Grille and the steakhouse row recognized as the “beef block.”
“There was a need to have for Italian food items in Fort Well worth,” mentioned chef Matt Williams, a product or service of Chicago Italian places to eat these kinds of as Bar Siena.
In the first-ground corner of the Kimpton Harper hotel, a prolonged-in the past lender and latest XTO Electricity building converted for the San Francisco-centered Kimpton chain, il Modo facilities all-around pasta-producing.
Diners have a panoramic view of the pasta-creating tables and drying racks, and il Modo ideas in-dwelling pasta classes.
That interprets into a large amount of pastas on the menu, alongside with fresh seafood, mussels and a wagyu rib-eye steak with roasted garlic.
“The house owners dedicated so substantially house to pasta production — they definitely want this to stand out from other dining places,” Williams explained.
There isn’t a lot area level of competition at this stage proper now. The closing a calendar year back of La Piazza, the city’s only good-dining Italian restaurant, and downtown’s Taverna remaining Piattello Italian Kitchen as the city’s most popular Italian restaurant, with a nod to Nonna Tata’s homestyle pastas and Gemelle’s pizzas.
Pizza is not on the menu at il Modo, despite the fact that there will be a considerably less highly-priced lunch menu with sandwiches and salads. A brunch will be thought of later on, Williams reported.
The hotel also has a penthouse bar, Refinery 714. It has a complete 180-degree streetscape of Key Street, the courthouse and Fort Worthy of Convention Center, like a view wanting down on the rooftop bar at the nearby Sinclair.
Going to Texas has been a culture shock for the il Modo chef, accustomed to functioning in Chicago’s tall towers.
“The properties are smaller sized listed here but most people is truly wonderful — truthfully, most people is so friendly,” he said. “In Chicago, you don’t wander down the street with strangers stating, ‘Hello’ and ‘Good morning’ and ‘Have a superior working day.’ “
He’s met chef Blaine Staniford and owner Dain Adam Jones at nearby Grace, one of the city’s finest places to eat, along with Ellerbe Wonderful Food items and Paris 7th.
“They’re good men,” he said. “And I’m very curious about barbecue.”
(That exploration could choose for a longer time.)
So much, il Modo is open nightly 817-415-0144, theharperfortworth.com.
Columnist Bud Kennedy is a Fort Worth dude who coated superior school soccer at 16 and has moved on to two Super Bowls, 7 political conventions and 15 Texas Legislature periods. Considering that 1985, he has also created extra than 2,000 “Eats Beat” columns about Texas dining, dining places and food items.