A Handful of 'Micro-Restaurants' Will Call Fort Worth's Waterside Development Home

Heads up, chefs: Got a unique restaurant concept swimming around in your head that needs a home? A new development coming to Fort Worth might be just the place for it.

The gigantic Waterside development — named for its location along the Trinity River — currently under construction in southwest Fort Worth will include plenty of big names like anchor tenants Whole Foods and REI, as well as established restaurants such as Zoes Kitchen and Taco Diner. But the 63-acre mixed use project is also seeking unique local tenants to fill a handful of "micro-restaurant" spaces.

DFW has more than enough 200-seat restaurants slinging steaks and calamari. What it needs is more small, micro-focused restaurants bringing something truly unique to the table — think Deep Ellum's Monkey King Noodle Co. and the standing-room-only Ten Ramen at Sylvan Thirty. The community around Waterside apparently agrees, and so urged the property developers to include local, artisan concepts alongside the big-box stores, chain restaurants, hotels, residential, and offices that will make up the mixed-use project, which is slated to open its restaurant and retail in Spring 2016.

A press release explains: "To provide local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to lease space they might not otherwise be able to invest in, Trademark will offer smaller spaces, lower startup costs, shorter term leases, free outdoor seating and generous tenant improvement packages, as well as other benefits." There will be three or four restaurant spaces ranging from 600 to 1,000 square feet each and they'll be located in an area called The Grove that will also include public art and a community pavilion.

"Whether you’re an entrepreneurial minded chef looking to open your own business, or an established restauranteur with a new concept idea, we encourage you to reach out and tell us about it," the press release quotes Terry Montesi, CEO of Waterside developer Trademark Property Co. as saying. Interested parties should reach out to Daniel Goldware at dgoldware@trademarkproperty.com.