Hats off to a veggie place
DINNING REVIEW
Picture by Tony Record. Elizabeth Fort, Joseph Hedary, Kelly Parker, Melissa Kirkendall serve up terrific pita bread at Mad Hatter’s
BY Beverly Bundy
Paper: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Title: Hats off to a veggie place
Date: February 5, 1993
Mad Hatter’s
Type of food: Middle Eastern vegetarian
Address: 1514 W. Magnolia Ave., 335-6349, Fort Worth
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-4 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Details: Inexpensive to moderate. Cash plus VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club and Discover accepted. No liquor served but patrons are welcome to bring their own. Live music Friday and Saturday night.
The most frequent call to the restaurant reviewing desk at the Star-Telegram is from diners looking for vegetarian restaurants in Tarrant County. (That’s a change from five years ago, when callers were looking for spots that featured after-dinner dancing.) Unfortunately, until recently, we’ve had to tell folks that “Cowtown” also applies to our eating habits. While restaurants are featuring more meatless options, none has made the cosmic change-over.Now there’s a purer dining-out option for vegetarians, and the food is spunky to boot.
Joseph Hedary, who opened Byblos’ Lebanese on the North Side, now has set up kitchen at Mad Hatter’s in the hospital district. The spot is a long brick-and-plaster walled room with mismatched tables and chairs, a carpeted stage for live music on one end and a brick, tile-topped counter on the other end. Fans of Hedary’s pita will also be glad to know a brick oven was installed for bread and pizza baking.
Salads were a favorite of ours at Byblos, and they’re just as good here. Hedary has a swell touch with dressings – the greens are seasoned but not drenched with the stuff. Especially good is the fattoosh ($3.95), a combination of romaine, cucumber, tomato and onion combined with toasted pita croutons. Another winner is the Lebanese salad ($3.50), tomato, lettuce and cucumber tossed with garlic and olive oil. We didn’t try it on this visit, but the cedar salad ($4.50) we loved at Byblos is here, too, as is a tofu Caesar ($3.95), and an avocado antipasto salad ($3.95) of avocados, garbanzo beans and tabbouleh.
The special ($4.95) on our visit was a plate of six crispy falafels and two winning grape leaves stuffed with brown rice, garbanzo beans and tomatoes. The special also comes with a choice of a salad, hummus, tabbouleh or soup.
Our other choice was a “smart” pizza ($4.95). The whole-wheat crust holds a load of three toppings from a list of 14 options and is spiced with zaatar – an oregano-like spice mixture that supposedly stimulates brain endorphins
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