Central Market’s Hatch Chile Festival kicks off August 5 this year, and if you’ve never planned a grocery run around a pepper before, this is the week to start.
The chain’s 31st annual celebration runs at every Central Market location in Texas, including the two DFW stores at 5750 East Lovers Lane in Dallas and 4651 West Freeway in Fort Worth. The premise hasn’t changed in three decades. Hatch chiles only grow in the Hatch Valley of southern New Mexico, a stretch of the Rio Grande where blazing days and cold nights push the peppers toward a flavor nobody has managed to replicate anywhere else. Green chile peaks in August. By September the pods start turning red and sweeter. The whole window closes with the first frost, usually by early October.
Central Market roasts the peppers on site, in drum roasters that tumble them over open flame right there in the parking lot. You buy them by the pound or the case, tell the crew mild or hot, and they roast them while you finish shopping. Buy more than feels reasonable. Freeze what you don’t use. You will regret it in February if you don’t.
This year the store is leaning harder into teaching people what to do with all that Hatch once they get it home. The Dallas Lovers Lane cooking school has built three classes around the festival. Cast Iron Cooking: Hatch Favorites runs Wednesday, August 5, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., a hands-on class in small teams, open to ages 18 and up. Hatch Surf & Turf follows on Friday, August 7, same hours, restricted to 21 and up. Happy for Hatch closes out the run on Wednesday, August 12, back to the 18-and-up format. All three are ticketed through Eventbrite, and given how quickly Central Market’s seasonal classes tend to sell, booking ahead is the move rather than hoping for a walk-in spot.
Other DFW-area Central Market locations, including Fort Worth, Preston Royal, Plano, and Southlake, run their own cooking school calendars during the festival. The classes and dates differ by store, so check your local Central Market’s cooking school page directly rather than assuming the Lovers Lane lineup applies everywhere.
For anyone who wants to taste before committing to a cart full of peppers, Central Market is also running a free event this year called Hit the Hatch Jackpot Tasting Event, a walk-through tasting session in the same spirit as the store’s past Hatch Stroll events. It’s popping up at multiple DFW locations, including Lovers Lane, Midway, and Preston Royal, and registration is free through the store’s cooking school page. Exact times vary by store, so register early and confirm the slot for whichever location is closest to you.
None of this lasts long. Hatch season in North Texas is measured in weeks, not months, and Central Market’s festival window is the most reliable marker of when it’s actually here rather than just rumored to be coming. Smell the parking lot before you read about it. That’s usually how it starts.
