FT. WORTH: Riscky's Barbeque
300 Main Street
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
817-877-3306
Open M-Thur 11-10, F-Sat 11-12am, Sun 11-9
www.risckys.com/bbq.asp
Sundance Square is the last on the list of many Ft. Worth neighborhoods where I would start a search for authentic Texas 'cue, but that's what Riscky's advertises, so I stopped in when I found Bailey's up the street was closed. I ordered a two meat plate that was staggerinly large, and equally pricey at $14.50. The ribs were average at best with little crust and that flavor that only comes from being stored in steamer wrapped in plastic. The brisket was better with a good crust and smoke line. The smoke flavor was better than average, but the slices were dry with no fat. The sides were nothing better than average, and the best item might have been the smoked bologna appetizer that was sprinkled with "Riscky Dust". WHo knows what that is, but they may want to try it on the rest of the meat to kick up the flavor.
Rating **
You apparently don't know it, but there are multiple Riscky locations. The one downtown or the one in the Stockyards is where I go for RIBS. They can be the biggest, beefiest ribs you've ever seen, although timing is obviously hard to predict. I've also been disappointed in the size of them at times, but rarely ever in the taste. Try the fried corn appetizers, they're very good, too.
ReplyDeleteI'm well aware that there are multiple locations, and I've tried the Stockyards location a while back with better results. Maybe I should go back. Are you talking beef or pork ribs?
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, the one that's a little bit North of the Stockyards is the original. It looks like a grocery store, and still partially is. That one does the smoking for most of the rest of them, and food from there tastes considerably better than the rest.
ReplyDeleteyeah, you gotta try the original riscky's on azle avenue on the northside of fort worth. we went with low expectations, and frankly the brisket was astounding. spectacular bark, smoke and flavor, and it was juicy and moist.
ReplyDeleteHello, I'm here to bring light to your concerns by explaining how Riscky's works. First of all, I will be talking about the management. The managers are paid minimum wage which sounds really bad, but based off the revenue the establishment makes, the managers obtain a hefty bonus. This seems like a good strategy right? The managers get rewarded on how well they do, but that's where things get a little iffy. It's all based on how much the make in total of all the expenses and income, which leads managers to buy cheaper foods or supplies in order to not spend so much money which benefits no one but the managers. Not only that, the workers wages affect their bonus, which encourages managers to pay their workers even less to fill their own wallets! I'm gonna give you a little sample. As a foodrunner, you make $7.00 plus tip share which will bounce itself up to about $8.00 on a busy weekend. Sounds pretty good but on the managers part, they only have to pay 7 an hour because tip share comes out of the servers tips and that dosen't affect the company! Sound fair?
ReplyDeleteNext, I will talk about the hostesses. They are paid $7.50 and that's it. They stand around and do nothing except seat you. Pretty understandable pay wage. Now we get into the dark side of Riscky's.. the cooks. Almost everyday the cooks get bombarded by tourists, receive no breaks and are not allowed to eat food. And you know what the starting wage for the cooks are? $7.25.. exactly minimum wage for a tourist trap located in the center of downtown and main street where the arts festival occurs. After 3 months, they are bumped up to hostess wage which is $7.50. The reason no one says anything is because ALL OF THE COOK ARE IMMIGRANTS! There were 11 cooks and only 3 (including me) could read or even speak english! The hire cheap immigrants and force them to sign their souls away (in one of the forms, there is a part in which it says they can be fired for no reason and they can not do anything about it. The reason they put that there is so illiterate immigrants can get taken advantage of. Its sick to think that a restaurant founded by an immigrant would even think of doing that! Some cooks realize they are being screwed over and rebel but ultimately get fired and replaced by another struggling immigrant just trying to find a job. Eventually, everyone realizes it and you end up getting bad food or horrible service because of the horrible conditions the cooks live in. And one last thing. Because the owners are so cheap, any expired food is used regardless of how bad it is. I know this from experience. In the month of August 2012, if you ate the fries there there is a likely chance you got a little sick the next day. The truth behind it is that he managers forced us to sell 2 month expired fries!!! Half of the fries were black and unusable but the managers just told us to take out the ones that looked bad. It doesn't end there! The chicken fried steak was 3 months expired! They were absolutely disgusting and had a horrible smell to it, but as you guessed.. we were forced to serve it. There was also an incident in which there was mold growing on most of the bread but we were told to throw the ones with visible mold growing on it away. This is the truth behind this horrible establishment about Riscky's. And to leave you with something to really ponder about, I will tell you the true extent of the cheap greedy managers that run Riscky's! A friend of mine that still works at Riscky's was recently denied a raise in their hourly wage because of his facial expressions...... They told him they would give him a raise in a month and a half, he's been working there for 4 months and still nothing but a lame excuse to not pay their employees! Seriously! FACIAL EXPRESSIONS!!! Do not go to this Riscky's if you know whats good for you.