The Fort Worth community is rallying behind a beloved owner of Belenty’s Love restaurant, raising money for him after a life-changing accident.
According to the GoFundMe page, Belenty’s co-owner Marcus Hicks was in a motorcycle accident July 19. Hicks was thrown over the handlebars of his bike and is now experiencing severe brain trauma, a fractured skull and a broken nose. After five days in the ICU, he was discharged, but was then readmitted less than 24 hours later due to a seizure.
“Since then, recovery has been slow, the seizures remain unpredictable, and Marcus is also coping with memory loss and many ongoing medical needs,” wrote family friend Allison Chambers, who organized the GoFundMe.
Hicks’ restaurant, Belenty’s Love, originally opened in Granbury in 2018 serving vegan tacos and other Tex-Mex dishes made from mushrooms, peppers and plant-based cheese. Eats Beat reporter Bud Kennedy said, “You’d almost never know the tacos al pastor aren’t pork.”
The current Belenty’s location, in Fort Worth’s Blue Bonnet Circle, has been open for six years now. Last year, the Hicks family bought a food truck to expand their footprint, and has frequented Saginaw’s Switchyard Food Truck Park and other Fort Worth suburbs. Unfortunately, since the accident, the family has had to put the food truck up for sale.
The GoFundMe page was made with an $11,000 goal to help the Hicks family with medical bills, therapy, follow-up care, daily living expenses and with keeping their restaurant afloat. As of Aug. 17, folks have raised more than half of the GoFundMe’s goal.
Hicks’ wife Belen Hernandez continues to run their restaurant, with their children helping out while their father recovers.
“[I am] asking the community to come together for a family that has given so much love, kindness, and comfort to others,” Chambers wrote in the GoFundMe. “Any support, whether through a donation or by sharing this fundraiser, will help lighten the burden and remind Marcus and his family that they are not facing this alone.”
Belenty’s Love in Fort Worth is open Monday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sundays. Customers can order in-store or online ahead of time for pickup or delivery on DoorDash.
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Ella Gonzales is a service journalism reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She is part of a team of local journalists who answer reader questions and write about life in North Texas. Ella mainly writes about local restaurants and where to find good deals around town.