The State Fair of Texas has named its 2026 Big Tex Choice Awards winners, and Al Biernat’s has announced plans to plant its flag in Fort Worth. With those two developments landing in the same week, news reprts made clear that Dallas-Fort Worth’s fall food calendar is already dense with places to be and things to eat.
Big Tex Choice Awards Name Four Winners for 2026
The State Fair of Texas anchors fall for DFW food lovers in a way few events rival, and this year’s Big Tex Choice Awards finalists delivered the expected range of invention and indulgence.
Best Taste in the Savory category went to Burger Chop Tater Tacos, created by Tom Grace. The dish presents a pair of burger tacos built on a base of tater tots and cheddar cheese, reworking familiar fast-food logic into something you eat with your hands on the midway. Best Taste in the Sweet category went to Fletcher’s Chocolate Corny Dog, created by Beck Fletcher. The concept is a deliberate inversion of the fair’s most iconic item: rather than sausage encased in cornmeal batter, this version swaps in chocolate fudge, keeping the stick-and-dip format while turning the whole thing into a dessert.
The Sipper category went to Tropical Coco Fresca from Fruteria Cano, a pineapple and watermelon agua fresca layered with chamoy lava, a Tajín rim, and a scoop of coconut ice on top. It reads as a drink and a dessert simultaneously. Most Creative honors went to Berry Me in Matcha, conceived by Stephen El Gidi: a cheesecake slice on a stick dipped in Belgian white chocolate and rolled in crushed matcha cookies. The combination of textures and temperature contrasts made a strong case for the category.
Taken together, the four winners sketch a fair food moment that mixes Mexican-American flavor traditions, Japanese-influenced ingredients, and classic American comfort food into one afternoon.
How the Same Crowd That Hits the Fairgrounds Also Builds Its Sports Weekend
The editorial team at Live Sports Odds tracks the ways sports fans structure their leisure time, and the DFW fall pattern is familiar. Many of the same food lovers who spend a Saturday morning mapping out their route through the Big Tex Choice winners, planning their order of tater tot tacos and chocolate corny dogs, are the same people who later book a table at a celebratory steakhouse to cap the day. They are also, the team notes, a consistent sports-viewing audience, and the habit extends to pre-match preparation: a notable share of that readership glances at tennis betting odds before settling in to watch a match, folding the check into the same weekend-planning rhythm as dinner reservations and fairgrounds scheduling.
“These fans treat the whole fall weekend as a single itinerary. The food events and the sports viewing aren’t separate decisions — they happen together, and the planning is part of the pleasure.”
Al Biernat’s Heads to Fort Worth, and Lubellas Eyes Arlington
Al Biernat’s is planning to open a third DFW location in downtown Fort Worth, with a target of late 2027. General manager Brad Fuller named three forces pulling the steakhouse west. Fort Worth’s own growth was the first. Convention traffic was the second, the kind of business-travel dining demand that keeps a high-end steakhouse occupied on weekday evenings as well as weekends. The third was what Fuller called the “Taylor Sheridan Effect,” a reference to the cultural visibility that the television producer and writer has brought to Fort Worth through his Paramount productions, drawing an affluent audience increasingly comfortable spending in that city’s dining scene.
Separately, East Dallas bakery Lubellas Patisserie is expected to open a location in Arlington near AT&T Stadium this fall. The menu will include croissants, conchas, sandwiches, and brunch dishes, positioning it as a natural stop for the game-day crowds that flow through that corridor.
Blue Bell Brings Back Two Flavors, and a Peruvian Family Restaurant Arrives in Richardson
Blue Bell revived two limited-time flavors this season. Strawberry Cheesecake, originally introduced in 1977, returns in half-gallon cartons and combines cheesecake ice cream with strawberries, cheesecake pieces, and strawberry sundae sauce. Homemade in the Shade is the other revival: vanilla ice cream with a swirl of chocolate fudge sauce. Both flavors address a different kind of fall appetite, the kind satisfied at home after an outdoor afternoon.
Tayta Peruvian Restaurant opened in Richardson in July, offering ceviche, lomo saltado, and Chifa, which is Peru’s distinct take on Chinese cuisine. The restaurant is a family operation that started two years ago out of a shared kitchen in Fairview. Richardson is its second location, a step that reflects a deliberate build rather than an overnight arrival, and it adds a specific regional cuisine to a suburb where that gap existed.
Mar y Sol Closes on McKinney Avenue as a Sports Bar Prepares to Fill the Space
Mar y Sol Cocina Latina closed on Aug. 15 after two years on McKinney Avenue. Owner Alberto Lombardi was direct about what happened. “It was busy on weekends but struggled to attract enough diners during the week,” he said, a pattern that has ended many otherwise well-regarded restaurants in dining corridors that depend on consistent foot traffic across seven days.
The space will not stay vacant. Victory Tap, a sports bar, is expected to open there by October. It will be the second Victory Tap in North Texas, following the first location that opened in Plano earlier this year. The concept is a direct response to the weeknight dynamic that doomed its predecessor: a sports bar generates traffic around broadcast schedules rather than dining occasions, which means Monday Night Football and mid-week tennis matches drive covers that a Latin kitchen was not capturing.
With Victory Tap’s October target and the State Fair gates opening on schedule, DFW’s fall food-and-sports calendar is not hypothetical. It is already booked.
