First Look: Casey Thompson’s Brownstone in Ft. Worth

The buzzy place to be Saturday night was at the preview of Brownstone, Hot Chef , er, Top Chef Casey Thompson’s new digs in Fort Worth’s West 7th development.

Despite the heat (the AC was on the fritz), the capacity crowd snacked on fried chicken livers, venison sliders on homemade biscuits, chicken pot pie pastries (nice, flaky pastry dough), even berry cheesecake parfaits.

The GM is James Rose, who Dallas diners will remember from his years running the front of the house at Bob’s Steak and Chop House on Lemmon Avenue, and, later, the Bob’s in Plano.

The interior design looks a bit spartan: exposed brick, painted walls, pendant lighting, bookshelves with knickknacks, stained concrete floors. (All the tables and chairs had been removed to make more room for mingling.)

Where was Casey? She sure wasn’t working the room. Maybe she was in the kitchen. Hmm, don”t see her through the glass windows that face Currie Street.

Oh, wait, there she is–I snapped this quickpic while she popped out for a photo with a VIP then, like Samantha in Bewitched, quickly disappeared, which is why the photo is blurry. Guess you learn that when you go TV Land.

Will Brownstone be a hit? Hard to tell from the preview, but the kitchen has potential. The opening has already been pushed back to next week.

Meda Kessler, the in-the-know editor of FW lux glossy 360West Magazine, wrote on FaceBook that “there’s surprisingly little buzz about Brownstone…despite being the first original-concept restaurant to open in FW in quite awhile.”

Across the street, though, Bailey’s Prime Plus and the new Patrizio were packed.

[googleMap name=”Brownstone” width=”300″ height=”200″ directions_to=”false”]840 Currie street, Fort Worth, Texas[/googleMap]
Fort Worth, TX 76107-2940
(817) 332-1555