Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival’s Burgers, Brews & Blues capped weekend’s top events

The weekend capped off with some terrific food and beverage events, including the reprise to last year’s inaugural Fort Worth Food & Wine Festival, now an annual event. The Hatch crew headed to Clear Fork at the Edwards Ranch Saturday night for FWFWF’s Burgers, Brews and Blues event, which featured 11 area burger joints and 22 breweries offering generous samples to a crowd of roughly 1,200.

For me, the runaway hit of the evening was the Cherry Popper burger from FW burger king, Fred’s Texas Cafe, who spared cut no corners on ingredients. Built on a base of flat-top grilled Akaushi beef, Fred’s added a schmear of sweet, tart black cherries, a gooey slice of melted brie, peppery arugula and a couple of surprises: crushed graham crackers and toasted almonds. The folks at Luck, from Trinity Groves, served a burger nearly as good, topping their beef with a spicy green mole.

I’ll tell you this much: Russell Kirkpatrick and Mike Micallif, two of the festival’s organizers, sure do know how to throw a party.