As if the Woodshed Smokehouse weren't crowded enough, it's golf tournament weekend.
"I'm not scared of the crowd -- it's what we came here for," chef Tim Love said this week, on the eve of a tournament that will bring thousands past his barbecue restaurant and patio along the Trinity Trails.
In only four months, the Woodshed already has made OpenTable's list of America's 100 favorite dining patios and Food & Wine's list of "Best BBQ: Grill Geniuses."
(OK, so not everybody wants smoked artichokes or rattlesnake sausage. If you're looking for tradition, try the pork ribs, the smoked baked potato or the beans.)
Packed almost every night and all weekend, the Woodshed will spill out along the riverbank for Colonial weekend.
A party tent in the parking lot will serve cookout hot dogs and margaritas.
Yes, there's still parking -- but it's a block north, at the corner of Collinsworth Street and Rogers Road.
Inside, the Woodshed will turn a gravel walkway into a margarita bar.
As always, the restaurant will open at 7 a.m. to serve breakfast tacos and Black Rooster Bakery pastries to morning Trinity Trail walkers or golf fans. It's a great time to stop in and look around.
The daily smoked "animal of the day" specials will be goat, lamb or pork, with an antelope special Saturday.
Even the Woodshed's cow sculpture is wearing Colonial plaid.
The Woodshed is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner at 3201 Riverfront Drive; 817-877-4545, woodshedsmokehouse.com.
This is also a farewell weekend for Love's other west Fort Worth restaurant, the Love Shack So7 burger grill near Trinity Park.
The Shack will close Monday and move to another west-side location by fall, Love said. Locations in the Stockyards and Denton remain open.
(And yes, that's a life-size Love poster in the window of Sur La Table cookware stores, promoting his new Tim Love Collection of cowboy grillware and rubs.)
With a new steakhouse across the street, Ruth's Chris Steak House has raised the ante and lowered the price.
For the first time, a prime steakhouse is serving a bar menu that competes with casual grills.
Price for a Ruth's burger: $7.
The $7-till-7 (p.m.) bar menu includes a full-size prime burger with fries, prime sliders, a New England-style lobster roll with fries or seared ahi tuna.
The menu comes with $7 drinks, including a cosmopolitan, a Manhattan, margaritas or several wines and beers.
It's a national promotion, but it comes just as The Capital Grille opened across Main Street on what has become downtown Fort Worth's "beef block."
Ruth's Chris opens each day at 4:30 p.m.; 813 Main St., 817-348-0080, www.ruthschris.com/menu/happyhour7.
Bud Kennedy's Eats Beat appears Wednesdays in Life & Arts and Fridays in DFW.com Weekend. 817-390-7538
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