Born: Nov. 11, 1971, in Denton
June 5, 2000: The Star-Telegram reports on the upcoming opening of a new restaurant, Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, in the Fort Worth Stockyards. "Our menu will be a melding of foods -- Southwestern, Latin, French, Asian -- from everybody who built the Old West, who came over," says Love, who had been project manager at Reata's Bank One Tower location, which was closed after a tornado struck it a couple of months earlier. Love's wife, Emilie, leaves her position at Del Frisco's to help Love run Lonesome Dove.
July 2002: Love publishes a cookbook, Tim Love on the Lonesome Dove Trail.
October 2002: Love acquires White Elephant Saloon in the Stockyards, with the intent of developing an "entertainment complex." Love's goal of bringing in younger crowds and musical artists to the Stockyards doesn't sit well with all of the Stockyards establishment.
August 2003: Love becomes the first Fort Worth chef to cook at the prestigious James Beard House in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, and displays his flair for showmanship by staging a "cattle drive" with stops in food markets in several cities along the way. The drive attracts the attention of NBC's Today show, as well as local newscasts in several cities.
2004: Love begins a partnership with Spoons Across America, helping schoolchildren learn about healthy eating habits.
October 2004: Love holds another trail drive, this time to Los Angeles. It's filmed for the Food Network, which earns a James Beard Award nomination for the special.
January 2005: Love debuts his Love Style collection of pots and pans, sold at Stripling & Cox and other department stores owned by Fort Worth-based Dunlap Co.
May 2006: Love opens Duce (pronounced "deuce"), a Camp Bowie Boulevard restaurant with a more "urban" sensibility than Lonesome Dove, featuring tapas-style dishes, as well as larger plates.
September 2006: Love opens Lonesome Dove Western Bistro's New York location. Although New York critics praise some of the food, they take potshots at the restaurant's urban-saloon decor and at Love's fondness for spice rubs and emphasis on game. Love closes the restaurant within six months.
March 2007: Love opens the first of his Love Shack hamburger restaurants in the Stockyards.
May 2007: Love appears on Food Network's Iron Chef America, defeating Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto in a chile-pepper battle. It's close, but the creativity of Love's dishes gives him the edge.
April 2008: Love sells Duce to Chicago-area chef Efrain Benitez for an undisclosed amount. Benitez runs it under the Duce name for a little more than a year, then changes the name to Fuego in August 2009.
June 2009: Love appears on Bravo's Top Chef Masters, a spinoff of Top Chef featuring well-known chefs battling against one another. Among the challenges: cooking a dessert for a group of Girl Scouts, and cooking in a college dorm room using hot plates and microwaves. In the first season's tournament-style format, Love doesn't make it past the first round.
July 2009: Love opens second location of Love Shack in Fort Worth's So7 development near Trinity Park.
September 2009: Love does the first of his occasional guest-judging gigs on Top Chef.
Se ptember 2010: Love, whose twin daughters were born prematurely, hosts Burgers 4 Babies at Love Shack So7. The event, featuring celebrity chefs from across the country, raises money for research and care for infants in neonatal intensive-care units, including at Fort Worth's Cook Children's Medical Center.
April 2011: A third Love Shack opens in Love's native Denton.
May 2011: The Star-Telegram reports about the construction of Love's new Trinity River-adjacent restaurant, which Love says will be a "global taqueria." Months later, the paper reports that Trinity River Vision Authority, without open bidding, signed a 10-year lease with Love and spent $970,000 onsite. Other restaurateurs say they would've liked a shot at the deal, and the use of tax money leads some people to call for a boycott of the restaurant.
February 2012: After several delays, the Woodshed Smokehouse opens to strong business.
April 27-29, 2012: Love joins other celebrity chefs (including Morimoto and Top Chef: Texas winner and runner-up Paul Qui and Sarah Gruenberg) for the first annual Austin Food and Wine Festival. www.austinfoodandwinefestival.com
