Thursday, September 3, 2009

Love Shack

Did you hear that Chef Tim Love, of Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters fame, has opened a new love shack? (Note to self, make sure to capitalize the name of the restaurant)

In honor of this blog, Chef Love opened a restaurant with a giant wall on the outside, filled with holes. Thank you Chef Love. Can I use a picture of your wall as my new blog photo? I will take your silence as an affirmative answer. I will take your refusal as a sign that you are being coy.

For those of you who have been living in a Chili's, Chef Love opened the original Love Shack in the stockyards, to great acclaim, and provided our lovely tourists with freshly made, high quality burgers, fries, onion rings. hot dogs and milkshakes at an affordable price, right next to the White Elephant saloon. I have not been to this location but only because parking in the stockyards confuses intelligent people and...well, you've read this stuff.... But I have been to the new location on Matisse.

Where and what is Matisse you ask? It's an artist and a street just south of 7th Street in the SO7 development. That's the first development you'll come to on the south side of 7th, just west of the river on the west side of downtown. The restaurant is behind what will hopefully be my new blog photo and consists mostly of outdoor seating.

I have been a big advocate of outdoor seating at restaurants here in the Fort. Chef Love obviously heard my pleas. The inside seating is open to the outdoors and the outdoors is outdoors. But don't fret, there are umbrellas to keep you in the shade and we're entering fall so it should be very comfortable. The outdoor patio includes a stage, the bar-safe version of horseshoes (bean bag toss) and lots of tables. There is also half of a bar. The other half is inside.

On the inside you can order your food, find a few tables, and possibly meet Chef Love. Which is exactly what I did. I ordered my food. And met the Chef himself. For those of you who watched Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef, I have a major announcement: Tim Love does not always wear a cowboy hat and take shots of Tuaca. At least he wasn't doing these things when I met him. He was, however, confused as to why he had a male groupie.

I have been to the Shack of Love a couple times for milkshakes and can report that they are good. But don't go on vanilla day because its a waste of time. The flavored ice creams, however, are delicious (vanilla is not a flavor - its a level of bland). Each day they have a new homemade flavor so call before you go.

I have also been for lunch. When I went, I had the Love Burger with cheese and fries. I also tried my lunch-mate's onion rings. First of all, I have to tell you my view on burgers. I'm not a big fan of the notion that there is a "best burger". I think different burgers should be judged on their own characteristics and sometimes, burgers cannot be compared with other burgers. The Love Burger, for example, is one of those burgers because of the uncomfortably named, Love Sauce.

If you like a burger that is slightly crispy at the edges but juicy in the middle, with a unique sauce, you'll like this burger. If you don't, you wont. The burgers are all cooked the same way and everybody I was with was satisfied with the preparedness. Everybody was also pleased with the Love Sauce. I will admit that I liked it though I'm normally a mustard and ketchup type of person. So, the burger was a success.

I also ordered the fries with my combo. The fries are completely different from what you would expect. For some reason I thought the original shack had hand cut crinkly fries. The SO7 location has thin fries. But not like you'd think. They aren't potato strings. They are as wide as a traditional fry, but flat. Paradigm shift. I now understand that fries can be enjoyed in 2D. The big plus side to these fries is that the entire bite is crispy. Good stuff. Thanks to a generous lunch-mate, I also got to try the onion rings. They are the super stringy, pile 'o fried onion stuff. They were delicious, but if you like the traditional onion ring, you'll be disappointed. Luckily I'm not as close minded as you so I enjoyed them.

For eight bucks, I got a Love Burger, fries and a lemonade. That's not a bad deal considering that I also got to meet a celebrity and stole twenty dollars in ketchup and sweet 'n low (hahaha, just sort of kidding).

The Love Shack is open late and has great prices for really nicely done food. The location and atmosphere are also great for casual gatherings. If you go at lunch, be prepared for a line. Also be prepared to convince your coworkers that they have to stay.

If you've been, let everybody know what you thought. Please also voice your support to Chef Love regarding my use of a photo of his wall for the main photo on this blog.

I think the SO7 location is at 817 Matisse. The stockyard location is at 110 East Exchange in the stockyards.

Love Shack So7 on Urbanspoon

13 comments:

cd0103 said...

I love this place! Dirty Love burgers, deviled eggs, and the world's best margarita-- cucumber, jalepeno margarita!
Yummy.

K. Huggins said...

Great review!!!!!

Kristen said...

I enjoyed it as well but I thought the milkshakes were colder in the Stockyards... both times I went to the new location they were barely cold. Love the new 2D fries too!
Excellent review.

Sean said...

The old Love Shack DID have crinkle cut fries, but he changed to the 2D about a year ago (I think). As good as the new fries are, I liked the crinkle cut ones better.

As for the burger. You short-changed yourself a little by just going for the Love Burger. If you had made it Dirty, you would have gotten bacon and a fried quail egg on top (that makes it even better).

FortWorthHoleInTheWall said...

I was afraid of the Dirty Love. But if it includes bacon, then it must be good.

Kristen, I had a similar experience and I think its because that giant tub of ice cream sits out instead of stuck in a freezer.

A cucumber-jalepeno margarita? Sounds interesting. Are there any other good, unusual margaritas there?

Thanks for reading

bourgon said...

Thought the original was massively overrated and overpriced, but I'm a convert at this one. Burgers are fantastic, and the onion rings are great. BTW, they're called "shoestring onion rings" (yes, I see the irony). Get the Double Love.

Fort Worthology said...

Might I also add that the vegetarian-friendly mushroom burger is also very, very good.

FortWorthHoleInTheWall said...

I have now had the Dirty Love. I feel somehow different. The bacon was a great addition but I didn't really taste the egg. Take that baby quail embryo.

Kevin, thanks for the info about the mushroom burger. I am working on a massive vegetarian-friendly review for all of you out there who attempt to skip meat in cowtown.

Thanks for reading.

Louanne said...

I just found your blog and sooooooooo added it to my feeds list. Keep these good reviews coming. And I hope you get to use the photo ;)

Unknown said...

Yes, the vegetarian Boom Boom burger is delish. So are the nachos, which you can get with or without meat.

I also agree that vanilla is not a flavor. Ew. Why bother with all the calories and sugar of a milkshake if not chocolate is involved?

Tayler said...

I don't know where I should leave this, and I know it's not actually Fort Worth, but just for the Sake of it, you should try Toscana, which is an Italian restaurant next to the Brookshire's on Highway 377 in Benbrook. I went there with a guy friend of mine when it was open for the first week or two, and after the other two groups of people had left, the waiter dimmed the lights for us, lit our candle and proceeded to play "The Lady In Red" (I was wearing a red shirt)on the restaurants speakers, while telling us in his quite authentic Italian accent, that "this is youra song!" and singing and dancing to it. We thought we'd humor him, since he was so friendly and funny. Not to mention the food was fantastic. :)

FortWorthHoleInTheWall said...

Stephanie, you and I will help stop this abomination of "flavoring" known as vanilla. Vegetarians and Omnivores uniting as one.

Tayler, thats a funny story and I appreciate you sharing it with us. Did the guy sing well? I can't review it because of my FWHITW Charter, but it sounds like a place I'd like to go. I'm a guy but maybe they'd sing for me as well.

Thanks for reading.

Dwight said...

I have looked forward to eating at the Shack for months now since they opened. I had dinner there tonight with my wife and we were both very dissappointed. I understand it is owned by a chef. It should be embarrasing to be serving pre-formed frozen hamburger patties. It was a lackluster experience and a very poor dining.