![\"Roy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/FTW_05-AMMReaderChoicegifts.jpeg\" "\\"Roy")
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Roy Pope Grocery in Fort Worth was a finalist of this year\u2019s Star-Telegram Readers Choice poll for best places to shop local for Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n
Amanda McCoy<\/p>\n
amccoy@star-telegram.com<\/p>\n
Fort Worth has approved plans to turn an 83-year-old neighborhood grocery store and deli into a restaurant and bar, despite concerns from residents about parking.<\/p>\n
Roy Pope Grocery, at 2300 Merrick St., closed in May<\/a> to be remodeled into a restaurant and bar with the same name.<\/p>\n The grocery store, which opened in 1943, closed in 2020 and reopened a year later as a gourmet market, deli, and coffee and wine bar.<\/p>\n New owner Westland Hospitality Group, known for JD\u2019s Hamburgers and the revitalization of multiple Fort Worth restaurants, also owns several other establishments in town including Curly\u2019s Frozen Custard and West Side Cafe.<\/p>\n On Sept. 9, the Fort Worth Zoning Commission recommended the denial of a request<\/a> from owner RPFW Properties LLC for a zoning change to open a restaurant inside the historic building.<\/p>\n The request was denied because the site did not have enough parking spaces \u2014 72 were required by the new zoning, and 34 were proposed.<\/p>\n Since the commission meeting, the owner has added 50 parking spots, about a block south of the grocery store building, according to a presentation given during the Fort Worth City Council meeting on Sept. 29.<\/p>\n The additional parking spots \u2014 which would be shared \u2014 would include valet, employee, and customer parking between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.<\/p>\n Managing partner Bourke Harvey said at Tuesday\u2019s City Council meeting that claims made by residents that the restaurant and bar would be a boisterous neighbor were untrue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to have a neighborhood feel, not a crazy loud bar with ruckus,\u201d Harvey told council members.<\/p>\n The additional parking spaces, residents who spoke at the meeting said, were not enough to squash concerns that cars would overflow into nearby neighborhoods.<\/p>\n \u201cI am all for new restaurants, helping out the community, having Roy Pope develop into something great, but not at the expense of the West Byers Neighborhood Association,\u201d said resident Candace Fyfe. \u201cHaving our neighborhood littered with cars because there\u2019s not sufficient parking is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n City Council member Macy Hill, who represents District 7 \u2014 which includes the site of the grocery store \u2014 spoke before the request was approved unanimously except for District 11 council member Jeanette Martinez, who was absent.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t find anything egregious about what the owner operator wants to do, and there\u2019s a lot of personal animosity and misinformation that\u2019s been passed around the neighborhoods,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThis is not a mixed-use or a high-density request.\u201d<\/p>\n