Food Guy: The Fort Bar & Grill opens with a $90 steak; 2 spots close downtown

Featuring a simple interior that largely resembles the former restaurant (minus the couch and décor) the new spot offers a deep-fried-forward menu of bar snacks and apps, plus a hearty lineup of smash burgers, sandwiches and salads you might expect to find at a casual neighborhood restaurant.

There are the usual fries, loaded potatoes and wings (both bone-in and boneless), plus lots of fried stuff including:

• Cauliflower
• Cheeses
• Corndogs (mini)
• Mushrooms
• Peppers
• Pickles
• Poppers
• Shrimp

What may surprise you, however, is they will serve high-end steaks that are hand-cut to order. Those include a 10-ounce filet for $45, a 20-ounce “cowboy cut� ribeye for $50 and a whopping 40-ounce “beast� called The Fort Worth Ribeye, ringing in at a lofty $90.

Steaks come with two sides, plus they can be topped with sauteed mushrooms, bleu cheese, shrimp or lobster tail for an extra $5-22.

There’s also a grilled salmon filet topped with Champagne dill cream sauce for $30, but it’s the restaurant’s lineup of smash burgers ranging from $14-19 that are expected to be big hits.

Served with a mound of house-cut fries, they come smothered with toppers like bleu cheese and bacon; bourbon bacon jam and cheese; BBQ sauce and jalapenos; mushrooms, onions and Swiss; fried eggs and more.

Although I haven’t sampled The Fort’s menu yet, I’ve received a few glowing reviews from readers on both the food and service. And I spoke with the restaurant’s chef who assured me those hand-cut steaks are the real deal.

“Oh yeah,� Jackson Traylor told me while taking a break from the kitchen on Saturday. “Every time someone orders a steak, I go back and cut it right off myself.�

I’ll probably be swayed to dive into those smash burgers first, but I definitely look forward to splurging on a nice steak and bottle of wine there in the near future.

Bar 101 & Ichiban close downtown

Bar 101 and Ichiban both closed their doors last week — at least temporarily — joining downtown ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä’s DT Prime, which has been closed for a few weeks now. The three Capitol Street restaurants are owned by David Andrews and Todd Moore, who had previously told me DT Prime was closed due to broken air conditioning.

Although there was a recent report saying Bar 101 and Ichiban were expected to reopen with Moore as the owner, the head chef and kitchen manager of those adjacent businesses, Evan Wilson, has already left to take a job at Fazio’s Italian Restaurant in ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä.

That same report claimed that DT Prime was expected to reopen under new ownership, but that has not been confirmed by reliable sources.

I did confidentially speak to other local restaurants owners who have expressed interest in the DT space, but they said no agreement has been reached with the landlord due to significant improvements needed as part of the deal.

I’ve asked Moore and Andrews to keep me updated on these developments, but haven’t heard back from them yet. Stay tuned for continued updates on these three high-profile restaurants, which are all still dark at the moment.