:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/39154796/fuzzysroanoke.0.jpg)
If you're tired of eating at chain restaurants, "break free of chains" by heading to Roanoke, writes critic-about-town Teresa Gubbins in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram today. In this quaint little town, Gubbins says, diners get "a small-town atmosphere that's completely homegrown." Gubbins profiles Roanoke restaurants that are totally unique to this super, super indie city, such as: Twisted Root, which has six (soon to be seven) different locations in North Texas, and Babe's Chicken House, which has eleven different incarnations across the Metroplex. For her story about how there are no chain restaurants in North Texas, Gubbins interviews exactly one proprietor of a non-chain restaurant (though mentions, to be fair, two others), Brix's Daniele Puleo:
Since 2009, the town has welcomed more than a dozen new restaurants, part of an $8 million makeover that has transformed Roanoke into a diner's dream, with everything from bratwurst with potato pancakes to gourmet pizza and Thai noodles. What puts it on the foodie radar is its level of authenticity."The city did not seek corporations or chains. They wanted the guy who has his own business," says Puleo, who is a native of Sicily.
Gubbins writes that Roanoke will soon be getting a Fuzzy's Taco Shop, which pretty much defines "corporations or chains," with eleven outposts of Fuzzy's in North Texas in addition to their locations in ten other states. Roanoke diners can also enjoy Yogurt Story, Gubbins says, which has six other North Texas locations. She also reminds us that Hard Eight BBQ is coming to Roanoke, which will be the fourth Hard Eight BBQ in Texas. Nope, there's really no place offering dining like Roanoke in North Texas, except for the nearly forty other places in North Texas where you can eat exactly what you can eat in Roanoke.
· Diners wanting to break free of chains are heading to Roanoke [Star-Telegram]
Just another one of national taco chain Fuzzy's eleven totally indie mom-and-pop joints in North Texas. [Photo: Tammy B./Yelp]
