Flips Patio Grill, with two locations — the original in Grapevine and a new one in north Fort Worth — is a burger joint/sports bar, though you might not know by just looking at either place from the outside. They share the same kind of façade — muddy-red bricks and muddy-brown wood — and of course a logo.
Until about a month ago, I’d never been to either, mostly because I don’t particularly like the way the places look from the outside. The logo, for one thing, is blah. It’s not bold. It’s not confident. It doesn’t say, “Hey, you! We’re here! And we know what the hell we’re doing!” It’s just, like, “Maybe we’re here? I dunno?” It’s just the word “Flips” in yellow — could there be a more ambiguous, shy color? — written in a thin, weird font. (The “F” looks like the letter “T” wearing “z” as a scarf.) Am I so ridiculous that I will eat only at restaurants that look good from the outside? Perhaps. But what I’m trying to say is that the logo — and the exterior and the name — never really said anything to me, never really told me what kind of food Flips served or what the place even looked like inside. I went to the new-ish, second location only because I live nearby and I’m always hungry.
I expected a sports bar, and indeed all 20-plus of Flips’ TVs were tuned to sports when I was there. There also are 10 billiards tables, and just about everywhere you look is a mounted animal or animal head looking back at you — two polar bears greet you at the door, and a ginormous elephant head leers over customers at one of the place’s two bars.
What I did not expect was a sports venue. The Fort Worth Flips is about as cavernous as Cowboys Stadium, divided longways by a row of wooden columns and a small set of stairs leading to a bar below and a restaurant/bar above. There’s also a patio outside that could seat about a hundred people. Seven St. Émilions could fit inside the place.
I also expected burgers – you know, as in “Flip-pin’ burgers” – and I was right. Flips offers the standards — mushroom-Swiss, blue cheese, barbecue-bacon — along with a few unique creations, namely the Suicide Jack (pepper jack cheese, cherry peppers, chopped bacon pieces, and spicy mayo) and the Scorcher (hot wing sauce, pepper jack, and your choice of ranch or blue cheese dressing).
I went for the regular cheeseburger, called the Big Cheesy, with lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickles, onions, and American cheese. The meat was thick and delivered a kick of scrumptious smokiness; the cheese was copious and melted to gooey, oozing perfection.
Among many other items on Flips’ menu are “patio sandwiches.” The Spicy One was a neat stack of turkey, honey ham, pepper jack, lettuce, tomato, cherry peppers, and horseradish-infused mayonnaise on wheat (sourdough’s another option). The sandwich wasn’t anything you couldn’t whip up at home, but the thing was superb: spicy enough to warrant the name but not enough to send you fumbling for a swig of beer after every bite. The freshness of the meat made the medley of slices sing, though the real star was the mayo: slightly horse-y, mightily zesty. On the hunt for a simple though different kind of sammy? Give the Spicy One a try.
The apps were hit and miss. The mozzarella cheesesticks were boring. The stuffed jalapeños, however, were huge and filling, and the Spin Dip, with huge chunks of spinach and artichokes, amounted to sloppy, creamy goodness.
Flips also does Fireballs. What’s a Fireball, you ask? Good question. The Cordon Bleu, one of several Fireballs, was a small, deep, oval dish of ham slices, alfredo sauce, and fried bites of chicken topped by a slab of melted cheese that was gooey enough to twirl around on your fork precisely five times. The chicken, breaded to the point of crunchiness, was fresh and – when eaten with a slice of ham and some of that gooey cheese – hearty. The dish could have fed three offensive linemen. Fiery? No. Spherical? Not really. But. Whatever. That’s Flips for ya: a little weird but better than it looks.
Flips Patio Grill
6613 Fossil Bluff Dr, FW. 817-632-0400. 11am-2am daily. All major credit cards accepted.
