Heading to the AAC tournament? Here’s where to eat and what to do in Fort Worth
In a season that has spanned from the joy of a Top 25 ranking to the current tension of life on the bubble, Wichita State University men’s basketball fans can take a spring break getaway to watch in-person as the team controls its destiny. Victory at the American Athletic Conference Men’s Basketball Championships March 12-15 in Fort Worth means an automatic bid to this year’s NCAA Tournament field of 64.
This is the closest the conference tournament has been to Kansas since WSU moved from the Missouri Valley Conference to the AAC in 2017. For Shocker fans living in the Wichita area, Fort Worth is a 360-mile drive straight down Interstate 35 or a one-hour direct commercial flight to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. This is the first of at least three straight AAC men’s basketball tournaments to be played at the 14,000-seat Dickies Arena, which opened in late 2019.
I was in Fort Worth in December and explored the area surrounding Dickies Arena. Here’s my scouting report on what to see and do before and after games there.
The lineup
Within walking distance you can find places to eat, drink and shop; a cluster of museums; and the 110-acre Fort Worth Botanic Garden. The arena is in the Cultural District, which also encompasses a five-block neighborhood of restaurants, bars, retailers and services called the West 7th area.
Dining strategy
Directly across the street from Dickies Arena is Taco Heads, which has two small indoor seating areas with a patio in the middle. They plan to offer drink specials and a festive atmosphere for basketball fans. Started as a food trailer taqueria behind a bar in West 7th, they earned a cult following – known as taco heads – that led to opening this first brick and mortar restaurant in 2016. Their menu of tacos, based on multi-generational family recipes, includes breakfast tacos served all day.
For more options, you’ll want to head to a few blocks over to the West 7th area. My new favorite travel habit is to look for a food hall in any city I’m visiting. Most have one, and they typically include independent, chef-driven eateries. I like that not everyone in the group has to decide on the same type of food yet we can still sit together in common seating areas.
Kansans will be happy to know that I had some of the best barbecue I’ve had in Texas inside Food Hall at Crockett Row. A sign above the menu promised, “Kansas City style bringing you a Texas size smile.”
I liked the sauce at Not Just Q, but chef David Hawthorne served up ribs that had been smoked perfectly and I didn’t want to cover up that delicious flavor. The business is so-named because they are proud of their scratch made sides and other menu items like nachos and tacos.
The rest of my group enjoyed Abe Fromans Pizza (“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” fans should recognize this character from the movie), a poke bowl, and we shared dessert from Gigi’s Cupcakes.
MVP: Most valuable properties
Museums are the stars of the Cultural District. Walk outside Dickies Arena and you’re within a block of the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the Cattle Raisers Museum and the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Another half-mile and you’ve got a trio of art museums loved for their collections and architecture: the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Kimbell Art Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Here’s a quick look at each I visited:
▪ The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world dedicated to honoring women of the West, and from around the world, who have displayed extraordinary courage and pioneer spirit in their trailblazing efforts. They just finished a remodel of the second floor, where the main gallery shows the “It’s Never Just a Horse” exhibit. I was surprised at how many pop culture references I found, from a saddle from “Game of Thrones” to a costume worn by Wonder Woman in the 2017 movie and guitars signed by country singers.
Don’t miss the series of short movies on the first floor when you first come in, and take time for the interactive digital stations. Design a pair of boots or test your bronc riding skills. Admission is $6-$12 and includes the “Laura Wilson: Looking West” temporary photography exhibit by an incoming Hall of Famer.
▪ While the collection at the Kimbell Art Museum is just 350 works, it packs a punch both aesthetically and historically. Michelangelo’s first known painting, “The Torment of Saint Anthony,” is on display among European masterpieces, Egyptian and classical antiquities and the art of Asia, Africa and the ancient Americas.
The Kimbell is in two buildings that are considered as important as the art inside: The 1972 building is by Louis Kahn and in 2013 the Renzo Piano-designed Pavilion opened.
The museum is free however, some special exhibits have a fee. “Flesh and Blood” through June 14 has nearly 40 Italian Renaissance and Baroque masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, Italy. To see this section of the museum, a ticket ( $14-$18) is required. They offer half-price tickets 10 a.m.–5 p.m. on Tuesdays and 5–8 p.m. on Fridays. Check their website for other discount offers.
▪ Admission is free at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, which is built around an extensive collection of works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell. But there’s more than paintings of the American Old West here. When I visited there was a special exhibit on Kansas native Gordon Parks, but it’s been replaced with “The Perilous Texas Adventures of Mark Dion” through May 17. It’s a large-scale site-specific exhibition created by Dion’s recent retracing of 19th-century Texas explorers.
▪ Most of the works in the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth collection is from 1945 to present. You’ll see paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs and prints. All major, international movements are represented, with an emphasis on pop and minimalism
Admission ranges from $10-$16 and is free for ages 18 and younger. Get in free on Fridays, when it’s open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and for half price on Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. They have three special exhibits currently, all of which are included with regular admission: “Ruckus Rodeo,” a walk-through work of art; “Mark Bradford: End Papers;” and “FOCUS: Hrair Sarkissian.”
Overtime approach
If you have time to venture farther away from the arena, I’d suggest either the Stockyards National Historic District, just 5 miles north of the arena and known for its twice-daily cattle drive at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., or the Fort Worth Zoo, 2 miles south of the arena.
The zoo is routinely in the top five of any list of the country’s best zoos voted on by travelers, and it lived up to that billing. You could easily spend a half a day here, but I sped through in less than two hours. Across 64 acres, they have more than 7,000 animals, including 540 species. The African Savanna, opened in 2018, was one of my favorite areas because the eight giraffe were interacting with each other and visitors (lettuce feeding), and you could walk completely around their enclosure.
Another area I lingered in was the World of Primates, where officials say this is the only zoo in the nation to house all four great ape species: gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and chimpanzees. Ectotherm lovers will appreciate that the zoo has one of the largest collections of reptiles in the U.S. Note that you’ll not see elephants there; the zoo is near completion on a new Asian Falls exhibit and the herd is out of sight until the space is ready.
Admission ranges from $12-$16 and parking is $5 per vehicle. If you’re a Sedgwick County Zoo member, you can usually get half-off admission to the Fort Worth Zoo through the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) reciprocal program. There are some stipulations, so if you plan to use this, call ahead for details.
Game time
All-session and single-session ticket packages for the conference tournament are available. Visit www.TheAmerican.org/MBB for links to buy tickets through Ticketmaster and for the latest information about the tournament.
All 12 AAC teams will compete, beginning with four first-round games on Thursday, March 12. Two quarterfinal doubleheaders are played Friday, March 13, then a semifinal doubleheader Saturday, March 14. The championship is set for 2:15 p.m. Sunday, March 15, just prior to the announcement of the 2020 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament field.
If you can’t make it this year, put these upcoming AAC Men’s Basketball Championships also at Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena on your calendar: March 11-14, 2021, and March 10-13, 2022.
Helpful websites
If you’re planning a trip to Fort Worth for the AAC tournament, take a look at these websites:
Visit Fort Worth https://www.fortworth.com/
Fort Worth Cultural District https://www.fwculture.com/
Crockett Row shopping and dining http://crockettrow.com/
Dickies Arena https://dickiesarena.com/
AAC basketball news www.theamerican.org/MBB
This story was originally published March 8, 2020 at 7:00 AM.