{"id":382557,"date":"2026-07-22T16:11:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382557\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:11:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T16:11:56","slug":"how-heim-barbecue-founders-discovered-their-next-chapter-with-one-trick-pony-pizza-tavern-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382557\/","title":{"rendered":"How Heim Barbecue Founders Discovered Their Next Chapter With One Trick Pony Pizza Tavern in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Success in the restaurant industry can take many forms, from national acclaim to long lines out the door. But after spending more than a decade helping build Heim Barbecue from a food trailer into a multi-location restaurant chain, Travis Heim is enjoying the more manageable pace of running One Trick Pony, the neighborhood pizzeria<\/a> on Fort Worth\u2019s South Main Street that he co-owns with his wife, Emma.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of this for us was finding the next chapter,\u201d he tells PaperCity Fort Worth. \u201cWe are having a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OneTravis Heim: \u201cWe have the aesthetic of a sports bar.\u201d (Photo by One Trick Pony)<\/p>\n

Throughout the polished yet unpretentious space are family photographs, books collected over years of studying the craft of pizza-making, and other personal mementos that reflect the couple\u2019s journey. There are also references to sports throughout, but this isn\u2019t a sports bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the aesthetic of a sports bar,\u201d but without all the screens, he says. \u201cThe other night we had 80 covers, and half of them I\u2019d say were on dates. We\u2019ve had birthdays and anniversaries celebrated here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis credits South Main Street\u2019s momentum, his team, and growing interest in Chicago tavern-style pizza for One Trick Pony\u2019s immediate popularity. The restaurant joins an increasingly impressive collection of nearby pizza-makers, including Southside Cellar, Felina, and Brooklyn\u2019s<\/a> \u2014 all within roughly a block of one another. If Fort Worth is in the midst of a pizza renaissance, the Heims and the Near Southside are helping shape it.<\/p>\n

\"OneTravis and Emma Heim (left) are bringing Chicago tavern-style pizza to Fort Worth via One Trick Pony. (Photo by One Trick Pony)
\nBringing Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza to Fort Worth<\/p>\n

Travis said he began experimenting with pizzas while running Heim Barbecue<\/a>, but it wasn\u2019t until he took a two-year break from running multiple restaurants that he and Emma began traveling to the top-rated pizzerias in the country while entertaining the possibility of bringing some of their findings back to Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

The Heims announced they had parted ways<\/a> with their barbecue restaurants two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past few years, I\u2019ve learned a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were able to travel a little bit, and we would take trips to New York and Chicago. The whole point was to try different pizza spots and see things we liked. That\u2019s when we thought, \u2018We could make this happen.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Their pizza pilgrimage took them from Los Angeles to New York and Chicago, where they visited acclaimed pizzerias such as Folks Pizzeria in California, Lucali and L\u2019Industrie in New York City, and Zarella in Chicago, studying everything from dough and fermentation to service and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\"OneTravis Heim credits South Main\u2019s momentum, his team, and growing interest in Chicago tavern-style pizza for One Trick Pony\u2019s immediate popularity. (Photo by One Trick Pony)<\/p>\n

The Heims eventually settled on New England and Chicago tavern-style pizzas.<\/p>\n

\u201cTavern style is pretty old school, and started in the 40s and 50s,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has a very thin crust that is super crispy, which you cut into squares. The original idea was to have something to snack on that everyone at the bar could kind of share. When we tried it for the first time, we were blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew England style,\u201d he adds, is more of an amalgam of foldable pizzas from that region than a strict New York-style pie.<\/p>\n

The restaurant touts itself as a pizza and martini bar, with both receiving equal billing. Mixologist Tia Downey \u2014 whom you can usually find behind the bar at Bowie House \u2014 crafted the cocktail menu, and we are still thinking about the Pepperoncini Tini we enjoyed a few weeks ago<\/a>. The combination of rum, pepperoncino, and apple lends a bright, gentle acidity that is atypical of most martinis.<\/p>\n

\"OneBurgers are another popular order at One Trick Pony. (Photo by One Trick Pony)
\nDelivering an Unexpected Experience<\/p>\n

Transitioning from the art of barbecue to the science of baking has been a challenge, Travis Heim admits. He\u2019s taking copious notes about the minutiae of how temperature, fermentation time, flour, humidity, and countless other variables shape the texture and flavor of each day\u2019s dough. While he\u2019s still refining that part of the business, he believes a memorable restaurant experience extends well beyond the pizza itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk to our staff a lot about providing the unexpected for our customers,\u201d he says. \u201cThey may know they are coming for pizza, but we are going to deliver great martinis. We\u2019re doing homemade pasta, desserts \u2014 everything. We are also focused on good execution of the food and great service. Emma is the glue and the brains behind this all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Travis is still frequently and unsurprisingly asked when he\u2019s going to top a pizza with Texas barbecue, he\u2019s focused on managing One Trick Pony and furthering his knowledge of bread fermentation and East Coast and Chicago-style pies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of what we accomplished with barbecue,\u201d he says. \u201cWe started the food truck when I was around 25, but this is the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, he didn\u2019t explicitly rule out the possibility of bacon burnt ends pizza toppings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Success in the restaurant industry can take many forms, from national acclaim to long lines out the door.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-382557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}