Meet the Fort Worth food festival’s winning burger: It has kimchi and Thai chili sauce

Bud Kennedy
·2 min read

Fort Worth has burger grills more historic than 40-year-old Tommy’s Hamburger Grill.

And more crowded.

And more trendy.

And with more famous chefs.

But Tommy’s newer Burgers + Brews location in west Fort Worth has something neither Kincaid’s, Fred’s, JD’s, Rodeo Goat, Jon’s nor Dutch’s has.

The judges’ award for “Best Burger” at the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival.

Tommy’s three locations are known for a wide-ranging menu of chicken, catfish, sandwiches and salads along with beef, turkey or veggie burgers.

The Thai Tommy burger with Gouda, kimchi and housemade Thai chili sauce won the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival judging.
The Thai Tommy burger with Gouda, kimchi and housemade Thai chili sauce won the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival judging.

It won over 11 other entries with its new “Thai Tommy” burger.

That’s now the 12th burger on the menu. So far, it’s served only at the larger Tommy’s Burgers + Brews, 1736 Mall Circle off Alta Mere Drive.

(The 12 choices can really be made 60 ways. Any burger can be made with beef, turkey, veggie, Impossible Burger or grilled chicken. Tommy’s green chile-goat cheese turkey burger might be the city’s best.)

The Thai Tommy burger starts with a half-pound of Nolan Ryan beef and adds Gouda and Tommy’s house-made Thai chili sauce.

Craft beers and wine are on tap at Tommy’s Burgers & Brews in west Fort Worth
Craft beers and wine are on tap at Tommy’s Burgers & Brews in west Fort Worth

At first, second-generation owner Kelly Smith and her staff tried making it with napa cabbage.

But then they had a better idea: kimchi.

The result is a burger with enough snap to be different.

Tommy’s Ridgmar location is the newest of the three locations. It also has the largest beer selection.

A “Blue Angel” burger with bacon and blue cheese at the Tommy’s north of Ridgmar Mall.
A “Blue Angel” burger with bacon and blue cheese at the Tommy’s north of Ridgmar Mall.

The others are a 20-year-old location at 5228 Camp Bowie Blvd. near Interstate 30 and 2455 Forest Park Blvd. near the Fort Worth Zoo and TCU.

Tommy Smith opened the original Tommy’s in 1983. Back then, it was a gas station grill in Tommy’s Mini-Mart on Loop 820 at 7028 Navajo Trail, now home to Navajo Burger.

In 1987, it was ranked one of the Star-Telegram’s “Ten Best” in Tarrant County.

“This place has a burger not easily forgotten,” the story began.

It praised the “trailer burger,” with barbecue sauce, pickles and onions, and mentioned the “fighter plane ambiance” from the nearby air base runway.

Veggie burger salad at Tommy’s Burgers & Brews in west Fort Worth
Veggie burger salad at Tommy’s Burgers & Brews in west Fort Worth

Now, choices continue the theme with a “Blue Angel” blue-cheese bacon burger and a “B-52” double meat.

(Tip: Any of the burgers is available as a bunless salad. The green-chile-goat-cheese turkey burger works well.)

There’s also a chicken-salad sandwich, chicken-fried steak, fried catfish and occasional specials such as hamburger steak.

All Tommy’s locations are open for lunch and dinner seven days a week; tommyshamburgergrill.net.

Tommy’s Hamburgers is the town burger cafe in the 2019 movie “The Last Whistle.”
Tommy’s Hamburgers is the town burger cafe in the 2019 movie “The Last Whistle.”