Stylish Southern tea rooms; Mardi Gras; a visit to Fort Worth

PHOTO: THE ASHBROOK HOTEL

The Ashbrook Hotel’s tucked-away bourbon bar.

Once home to bourbon pioneer E.H. Taylor Jr., the historic mansion known as “Queen of the Corner” in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, has been transformed into the stylish Ashbrook Hotel. With fourteen rooms, an artful restaurant with Southern-leaning fare, and a hidden bourbon bar, this nineteenth-century landmark is the perfect place to linger over a well-crafted cocktail.

Fort Worth, Texas. I last visited Fort Worth over a decade ago as managing editor of American Cowboy magazine. I’m kicking myself for not getting back sooner than a recent January visit, because Cowtown has seriously upped its game. Located about thirty miles from downtown Dallas and on track to crack the top ten of America’s most populous cities, Fort Worth retains a sense of authenticity and down-home hospitality even as it grows. Highlights include:

The Stockyards. Once a terminus of the West’s great cattle trails, the Fort Worth Stockyards is a bustling entertainment district with twice-daily longhorn cattle drives along Exchange Avenue and a lively mix of restaurants, bars, and shops. Visitors might recognize the location from shows like 1883 and Landman. The Hotel Drover (look for the giant neon cowboy out front) anchors a recent renovation of a historic stretch known as Mule Alley.
Lonesome Dove. Chef Tim Love opened Lonesome Dove Western Bistro, known for its exotic game and wood-fired meats, twenty-five years ago this year. It helped kickstart a culinary renaissance that continues to ripple throughout Fort Worth. Love today operates more than a dozen restaurants and venues throughout the city, including Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall and the White Elephant Saloon, which stakes a claim as Texas’s oldest honky-tonk and remains a great spot for Shiner and two-steppin’.
Cultural District. It’s possible to see a representational survey of art, from antiquity through contemporary, with one visit to Fort Worth’s Cultural District, which includes the Kimbell Art Museum, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (where a meal at the on-site Cafe Modern is far above your typical sandwich-and-chips museum fare).