Fort Worth’s beloved Fred’s Texas Cafe has a new home, but everything you love about the original remains intact

A Fort Worth classic has packed up literally everything and moved it all to a new location.

Fred’s Texas Cafe (7101 Camp Bowie West), widely known for its burgers and excellent chicken fried steaks, has been a staple at its original Currie Street location in Fort Worth since the 1970s. Covid and a variety of business opportunities led Fred’s owners to decamp to a larger location on Camp Bowie West. The new spot has opened, and it’s crammed full of much of the style, memorabilia, rustic decor and swagger of the original location, right down to the gold booths and concrete floors.

Fans of the original Fred’s will feel right at home. The core menu remains in place. Ceiling fans, stained concrete floors, and dark woods lend a rustic feel to the space. A beer-and-cocktail bar runs down the middle, straddling a dining room on one side and an indoor-outdoor patio on the other.

The music is twangy Country, the onion rings are as large and wide as wristbands, and the burgers are just the way you want them, the best one slathered in chipotle brown butter griddled onions and Swiss. The CFS is excellent here, wrapped in crunchy sourdough batter, fried crisp, then slid onto a dinner plate or stacked w lettuce tomatoes and Mayo inside a sandwich bun.

The new Fred’s can accommodate more than 300 people; the old location sat just 50. Now on a busy night, the new Fred’s turns out nearly a thousand burgers, Fred’s co-owner Quincy Wallace told me. And its those burgers, ice-cold beer and flawless chicken fried steaks that bring in the crowds.

Oh, and a bit of fun trivia: The building was originally built to house Fort Worth’s first Steak & Ale restaurant (that’s also where Fort Worth celebrity food and travel writer June Naylor was employed in her first paid job– as a waitress.) And the name Fred? That was the original owners’ dog’s name at the time the owners filed city paperwork to open the restaurant.