Your new favorite Fort Worth restaurant is Italian gem 61 Osteria
Restaurant partners Adam Jones (above, in blue) and chef Blaine Staniford have found their groove with pasta at 61 Osteria.
Their newest venture, an Italian-focused restaurant that anchors the First on 7th building, constructed in 1961, is lovely. The space sparkles with beams of sunshine that flood the room through broad windows. A triptych of white butterflies, painted in acrylic relief, draw your attention to the far end of the dining room then upward to a sky of golden chains that dangle and shimmer like reeds in an inverted Venetian marsh.
The tight, focused menu plays to Staniford’s strengths: seafoods and wood-grilled meats, nods to regional Italian classics like cured hams and pestos, homemade focaccia and plenty of pastas, all worth considering.
Your server will tell you to order the serpente, a long spiral of ruffled, ricotta-filled pasta annointed with Meyer lemon buerre blanc and strewn with sauteed hen of the woods mushrooms. He’s right, and you should.
Add a plate of prosciutto and melon and a glass of Champagne, and you have brunch. Opt for grilled pork belly glazed with black olive caramel, maybe a bottle of Barbaresco (the thoughtfully curated wine list offers several good ones), and there’s dinner.
Service is gracious and professional, just as you’d expect at an Adam Jones restaurant.
61 Osteria is the best new dinner bet in Fort Worth. Even on a weekday.
61 Osteria, 500 W. 7th, Fort Worth, 817-953-3271.