Spiral Diner in Fort Worth awarded “2007 Restaurant of the Year” by VegNews magazine

by Teresa Gubbins

Recognition puts the little restaurant that could on the national map.

FORT WORTH — Spiral Diner has been chosen by the editors of VegNews Magazine as 2007 Vegetarian Restaurant of the Year -- a fairly big accomplishment, when you consider Texas' die-hard meat-eating reputation.

Here's what the magazine had to say:

Let’s see… what gives a restaurant star quality? Delish vegan food, for starters. Think homey mashed potatoes and gravy, savory meatball sandwiches, Sunday morning pancakes and fresh-baked pies. Mmmm. Add to that tall order a kitchen stocked with environmentally friendly cleaning products and post-consumer recycled paper goods, and we’re getting somewhere. Can we get a glass of organic wine to go with that BBQ Tempeh Brisket? Now we’re really talkin’. At Spiral Diner & Bakery in Fort Worth, Texas—that’s right, Cowtown, USA —hungry vegans get the whole shebang. Amy McNutt, the restaurant’s owner and operator, is committed to keeping her customers well fed with organic produce whenever possible, to keeping prices low and wages high, and to only using biodegradable take-away containers. Avid admirers—who’ve gone on the VN record referring to their favorite haunt as “the sh*t” and “the bomb diggity”— will, like the rest of us, be thrilled to learn that a second SD location, in Dallas, is in the works. This means two places in Texas to get vegan milkshakes. Yeehaw!

Eh, too bad they couldn't resist the "Yeehaw." But their tout does put a local restaurant on the national map.

Speaking of the second location, Spiral Diner's owners reassure that they hope the Oak Cliff spin-off at 1101 N. Beckley will be open by the end of the year, and are seeking applicants to work there, as well as investors with $1,000 to $10,000 (and up), which they say will provide a 10% annual return to be paid in a lump sum at the end of the term. Interested parties can e-mail sara@spiraldiner.com.

Mike Orren contributed to this story.