[Photos: Malcolm Mayhew]
Late-night Dallas favorite Velvet Taco debuts a second Fort Worth location tonight, and our correspondent for all things Cowtown Malcolm Mayhew is pretty pumped about it. Here, he shares with us five reasons why:
It's Fort Worth's turn to have ahi tuna, duck bacon and fried paneer tacos at all hours of the night. Today at 5 p.m., Fork It Over Restaurants (the folks also responsible for Whiskey Cake and Mexican Sugar) opens its second location of Velvet Taco right in the heart of Fort Worth's trendy West 7th district. Good news, this is, for many reasons. Five immediately come to mind:
1) Late-night hours. As with the Dallas location, VTFW will stay up way past the bedtime of most other restaurants — until midnight Sunday-Wednesday, 3 a.m. Thursday and 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
2) More room for hungry taco fans. The inside of the Fort Worth store is nearly twice as big as the Dallas location - able to seat 50 people inside (16 outside), compared to Dallas' 35 inside (40 outside). So, Dallas can seat more outside... Oh, by the way, it's 16 degrees outside right now. Stay warm on that nice big patio, Dallas.
3) Fresh corn tortillas. So many taco shops in Fort Worth cut corners on tortillas and just use what Sysco offers. Velvet Taco makes their corn tortillas on-site, resulting in tortillas that are consistently tender and pliable. We wish they did the same for the flour tortillas, but at least they're local, coming from La Mexicana Tortilla Factory in Dallas.
4) Three words: back door chicken. Let's say you want an entire rotisserie chicken for dinner, plus six corn tortillas, a side of Korean barbecue sauce, sides of Mexican-style roasted corn and pico, and you have exactly $20 cash. Follow the "back door chicken" sign to the walk-up window and exchange your $20 for all of the above. Now let's say you only have $10. Go on a Monday — it's half-price back door chicken night.
5) The tacos. Even if VT didn't stay up late, or promote eco-friendliness by using biodegradable products and recycling bins instead of trash cans, or sell Maine Root soft drinks, or put fresh fruit and sorbets in their margaritas and sangrias, we'd still be in. See, we just love their tacos, especially the following: the one with calamari, red chili aioli and kimchee; the one with fried paneer and tomato chutney; the one with battered cod and curry mayo; the one with raw tuna and seaweed salad; the one with duck bacon, avocado and chicken; and the other ones that we've tried, too, which is um, basically all of them.
Velvet Taco FW will offer dinner hours only to begin with; lunch hours will be added later this week or early next. Then, hours will be as follows: 9 a.m-midnight Sunday; 11 a.m.-midnight Monday-Wednesday; 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-4 a.m. Friday; and 9 a.m.-4 a.m. Saturday.
— Malcolm Mayhew
· Velvet Taco Fort Worth [Official]
· More Velvet Taco coverage on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]
