{"id":392443,"date":"2026-07-30T19:52:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392443\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T19:52:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:52:16","slug":"new-italian-saloon-opens-near-dickies-arena-in-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392443\/","title":{"rendered":"New Italian saloon opens near Dickies Arena in Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT WORTH<\/p>\n

What if a Texas cattle drive town had an Italian restaurant?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find out this fall when La Pistola Kitchen + Saloon<\/a> opens in a former taco restaurant on Montgomery Street across from Dickies Arena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

La Pistola is a new project in the former Taco Heads at 1812 Montgomery St.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s from restaurateur Jeffrey Yarbrough<\/a> and \u201cwine boss\u201d Camille McDonald<\/a>, part of the original team that made the Teddy Wong\u2019s upscale Chinese restaurants a success.<\/p>\n

La Pistola is Italian. But it\u2019s western, like the old \u201cspaghetti western\u201d<\/a> movies shot in Spain and Italy to save money.<\/p>\n

In other words, it\u2019s the kind of Italian restaurant a Beth Dutton<\/a> would love.<\/p>\n

Yarbrough described it as a \u201ccowboy-looking\u201d restaurant with a midprice menu of entrees and pastas, specialty Italian sandwiches at lunch and a bar with a carefully curated wine and cocktail list.<\/p>\n

Both Yarbrough and McDonald said they wanted to do a 1970s retro western theme and became fascinated with the idea of the renegade moviemakers filming westerns in the Italian countryside with no permits, and doing western town scenes in Rome.<\/p>\n

\"Eli Eli Wallach, left, and Clint Eastwood starred in the 1966 spaghetti western movie \u201cThe Good, The Bad and The Ugly.\u201d Courtesy of United Artists <\/p>\n

The name \u201cLa Pistola\u201d means \u201cthe gun\u201d<\/a> in Italian as well as Spanish, and fits the spirit of the outlaw moviemakers as well as most of the plots.<\/p>\n

The dinner menu will include a Texas wagyu steak, Iberico pork from Texas and chicken along with rotating pasta dishes, Yarbrough said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSay I didn\u2019t want to get dressed up and I didn\u2019t want to spend $150,\u201d he said, saying La Pistola won\u2019t be like West Seventh Street fine-dining restaurants: \u201cIt\u2019ll be lower than the super-high stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The The proposed sign for La Pistola Kitchen + Saloon, a western-style Italian restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas Courtesy of La Pistola <\/p>\n

The midday menu of sandwiches with Italian deli meats and cheeses will appeal to the lunchy Cultural District crowd, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in the world wants a great sandwich,\u201d he said, dropping the name of Fort Worth\u2019s favorite classic sub shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can always go to Galligaskin\u2019s<\/a>, and that\u2019s great, but this will be a next-level sandwich,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Stunt Stunt actor Ricardo Cruz performs during a show for tourists at Fort Bravo\/Texas Hollywood on Aug. 20, 2015, in Almeria, Spain. Fort Bravo\/Texas Hollywood, built in the 1960s in Almeria, Spain, is a western style set for films, which is also used for tourist tours. Originally used by film director Sergio Leone for \u201cA Fistful of Dollars,\u201d \u201cFor a Few Dollars More\u201d and \u201cThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly,\u201d which led to the spaghetti western genre, today it is still used to shoot many different types of films. Juan Naharro Gimenez Getty Images <\/p>\n

The makeover of the Taco Heads building \u2014 actually two old houses connected by a patio \u2014 is as impressive as the Teddy Wong\u2019s conversion from a 7-Eleven. Yarbrough and McDonald are no longer involved in Teddy Wong\u2019s, which recently opened<\/a> a second location in Weatherford.<\/p>\n

The former patio has been enclosed to make a new dining room with windows facing the Cultural District. The bar is remodeled.<\/p>\n

Crews found the 80-plus-year-old lumber from the original homes, Yarbrough said.<\/p>\n

The two buildings first appeared in Star-Telegram archives as rent houses in the early 1940s. They were converted in the 1970s and had been home to a pet-grooming service, antique shop, thrift shop and small Tex-Mex restaurant before they were connected in 2016 for the opening of Taco Heads.<\/p>\n

The La Pistola website lists a September opening.<\/p>\n

\"English English musician Ringo Starr, left, then the drummer with The Beatles, with actor Mal Evans on the set of the spaghetti western \u201cBlindman.\u201d filmed in Almeria, Spain, July 14, 1971. Jack Kay Daily Express\/Getty Images \"A A general view of the film set at Fort Bravo\/Texas Hollywood on Aug. 20, 2015, in Almeria, Spain. Fort Bravo\/Texas Hollywood, built in the 1960s in Almeria, Spain, is a western-style set for films which is also used for tourist tours. Originally used by film director Sergio Leone for \u201cA Fistful of Dollars,\u201d \u201cFor a Few Dollars More\u201d and \u201cThe Good, the Bad and the Ugly,\u201d which lead to the \u201cspaghetti western\u201d genre, today it is still used to shoot many different types of films. Juan Naharro Gimenez Getty Images <\/p>\n

This story was originally published July 30, 2026 at 4:39 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy\u2019s Eats Beat<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Bud Kennedy is celebrating his 40th year writing about restaurants in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He has written the \u201cEats Beat\u201d dining column in print since 1985 and online since 1992 \u2014 that\u2019s more than 3,000 columns about Texas cafes, barbecue, burgers and where to eat.
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH What if a Texas cattle drive town had an Italian restaurant? We\u2019ll find out this fall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-392443","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\/392443","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=392443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}