The Ashton Hotel is one of Fort Worth’s swankiest boutique lodgings for staycationers and travelers wanting to avoid the chains. Just adjacent to the elegant lobby, the in-house restaurant looks like it might be a secret jewel hidden in the part of downtown between the Convention Center and Sundance Square proper. Indeed, Six 10 Grille’s dining room is a lovely combo of urban and comfy chic, with several dark leather banquettes. The street-level eatery provides a great view of Main Street from almost any angle in the room.
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Six 10 Grille
610 Main St, FW. 817-332-0100. 6:30am-noon Sun, 6:30am-1:30pm Mon-Sat. Sat-Sun breakfast only. All major credit cards accepted.
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Although there used to be dinner service, the restaurant is currently open only for breakfast, lunch, and weekend midday tea. This is not necessarily problematic from a conventioneer’s perspective, given the plethora of dining options in the area. But on a Saturday, parking for the locals was an issue: My two companions attempted to use the valet service, which was no doubt slowed by the fact that our arrival for a late breakfast coincided with early bird check-out time. If you’re planning a weekend visit, allow a few extra moments for the hotel staff to figure out what to do with your car.
Tea aficionados will likely appreciate the lengths that Six 10 goes to provide the hot beverage during a meal. Tea service came in gorgeous individual bone china teapots. The vanilla yogurt parfait appetizer was made with full-fat yogurt, rich as cream and an absolute treat if you’ve become used to the low-fat stuff. Fresh fruit and cinnamon-kissed granola elevated the yogurt into dessert for breakfast, and each bite had a slightly different flavor and texture.
The fresh, lemony Hollandaise sauce for the Eggs Benedict was good enough to spread on toast and eat by itself. The English muffins were fairly generic. It didn’t matter that the bread wasn’t homemade, as the bread base was intensely flavored by the layers of rich, citrusy sauce and egg yolk. On the other hand, the Horned Frog Burrito came enveloped in a very dry flour tortilla. The filling included an incredibly flavorful house-made chorizo, scrambled eggs, black beans, and some piquantly fresh salsa. But all of the goodness was, sadly, undone by its fairly tasteless flour wrapper. The plate was saved by the incredible breakfast potatoes –– instead of hash browns, the kitchen served cubed potatoes sautéed deliciously with onions and peppers. The end result: flavorful spuds that were crunchy outside and fluffy within.
The Stockyard Breakfast entrée included a “cowboy cut” steak and two eggs cooked to your preference. A menu item named after a Fort Worth institution sort of implies that kitchen staffers are familiar with the gradients of cooking a steak. While the over-medium eggs turned out perfectly (slightly runny, with the whites fully cooked), the medium-rare steak I ordered arrived at the table well done. The beef was fairly thin (usually a cowboy cut is thicker and larger), so more than a minute or two on the grill would have been too much. Although a little overcooked, the cut was fortunately not chewy, and the grill spice seasoning the meat was tasty.
Our server was charming but disappeared frequently throughout the meal. It was hard to tell if he had other duties at the hotel, but there were only two tables occupied when we were there. Although there’s something luxurious about sitting down to a breakfast that doesn’t come from a sack, the slow pace of the service was pleasant only because no one in our party had to be anywhere in a hurry.
[box_info]Six 10 Grille
Vanilla yogurt parfait $8
The Stockyard $16
Horned Frog Burrito $14
Eggs Benedict $15[/box_info]
