Bob Sambol, founder of Bob’s Steak & Chop House, is opening a fancy new fine-dining restaurant in Fort Worth
The founder of Bob’s Steak and Chop House and a notable restaurant consultant will open a new white-tablecloth restaurant near TCU this fall.
Bob Sambol and a small group of business partners will open The Goat Hills Grill, a 9,500-square-foot fine-dining restaurant at Sandage Ave. and W. Berry St., within walking distance of TCU. The restaurant is slated to open in October, adjacent to a new Hyatt Hotel that’s also under construction. Ric Levit, a restaurant consultant and a partner in the venture, will supervise the construction.
Sambol says Goat Hills Grill will offer prime steaks, fresh seafood and “the East Coast Italian dishes that I grew up with, but a totally different menu and restaurant from Bob’s.”
The two-story restaurant takes its name from the former Worth Hills golf club in that location, which Dan Jenkins, the prolific sports writer who lived in Fort Worth until his death last year, affectionately nicknamed Goat Hills. The city eventually sold Worth Hills’ 106 acres to TCU, which currently uses the space as an overflow parking lot.
“Dan used to write about playing golf, drinking and hanging out with his buddies there, so he called them “The Goat Hills Gang,’” Sambol tells us. “After Dan died, his widow June and son Marty gave me a lot of his treasured memorabilia. We’re going to pay homage to Dan with a special room inside the restaurant where we’ll display it all – souvenirs, pin flags from the major golf tournaments he covered, photos with Dan and all the famous golfers he played with.”
“I’m looking for the right chef and right GM to be partners with me at this restaurant for a long time,” Sambol says. “There are two types of restaurant people: those who want a job and those who want a career. I want people who want a career and understand that this business is all about relationships.” (Want the job? Pitch him at (214) 528-9446.)
Prime steak fans shouldn’t be disappointed with the menu at Goat Hills Grill, but Sambol says the restaurant will be much more than a steakhouse.
“It’s not going to look like a Bob’s or feel like a Bob’s,” Sambol says. “Yeah, we’ll have great steaks for sure, but the menu will be completely different. It’ll be my foray into the kind of restaurants I grew up with in New York.”
Sambol opened the first Bob’s Steak and Chop House in 1993 at 4300 Lemmon Ave. in Dallas; he later sold his interest in the company but regained control of the original location last year.
We’ll share even more details about Goat Hills Grill in the March issue of 360 West Magazine.
photos: courtesy of Goat Hills Grill