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Before TV food shows and spiked-hair foodies arrived on the scene, the late Frank X. Tolbert made Texas chili famous.
After 35 years, TV has discovered the glory of Tolbert's Texas Chili Parlor in Grapevine and the state's definitive "bowl of red."
The Travel Channel show Food Paradise features Tolbert's this weekend among foods that are "too hot to handle."
The star is Tolbert's 5-Alarm sauce.
But Kathleen Tolbert Ryan, daughter of the late founder, says she recommends trying her father's original recipe first.
"The 5-Alarm isn't for everybody," she said.
Just don't add anything weird. Like ketchup.
Tolbert, a Texas historian, Terlingua cookoff founder and columnist for the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News, was known to pick arguments over the purity of chili recipes.
(Tolbert's serves chili with beans. It's labeled "North of the Border.")
Food Paradise retells Tolbert's story and also introduces longtime chef Miguel Cordero, who has helped expand the menu to include fajitas, grilled chicken and fish.
Besides the hot chili and chili-queso burritos, the show also singles out Tolbert's junk-food original, the donkey tails (beef-and-cheese sausage wraps, lightly fried).
The Tolbert's episode is repeated twice Sunday night and again at 5 p.m. Christmas Day.
Tolbert's was also named one of America's best chili restaurants this year by Bon Appétit.
It's open daily for lunch and dinner at 423 S. Main St., Grapevine; 817-421-4888, www.tolbertsrestaurant.com.
Fort Worth isn't the original home of chili con carne. That's San Antonio.
But this is the home of commercial chili powder, first marketed in 1870 by Pendery's.
Other local favorites for chili con carne are El Rancho Grande, 1400 N. Main St.; M&O Station Grill, 200 Carroll St.; Pulido's, 2900 Pulido St., and the main Riscky's Deli, 2314 Azle Ave.
Aventino's Italian is coming back.
The 20-year west Fort Worth favorite will reopen by mid-January at 5800 Lovell Ave., three blocks from its old location in what is now Ray's Prime.
After an ill-advised upscale turn, the Paez family will return to its familiar menu of pastas and Italian dishes. The menu is at www.aventinos.com.
Bud Kennedy's Eats Beat appears Wednesdays in Life & Arts and Fridays in DFW.com Weekend. 817-390-7538
Twitter: @eatsbeat
