Just Winging It: Get Down N’ Dirty at Dirty Bones

Here’s your chance to find out what makes Dirty Bones the hottest spot to indulge in wings, live sports, and late-night shenanigans:

General Manager: Landon Stanford

Opened: March 17, 2021

Location: 3028 Crockett St, Fort Worth

What place did this use to be before Dirty Bones?

It used to be called Stir, which is an upscale American Food & Bar concept. Milkshake Concepts owns a bunch of these types of restaurants collectively, including Stir, Fedora, and they’re opening another called Harper. They also have a fast-casual line- Serious Pizza and Skyrocket Burger. Here at Dirty Bones, it’s the first of its kind, and hopefully, we can make that work.

What happened here with Stir that brought Dirty Bones into play?

I was also the General Manager of Stir. It’s a Dallas-based company, and it’s at the top in alcohol sales in Texas. At Fort Worth, it’s just a different vibe here.

And so when COVID hit, it really affected us- it affected our business, and so we decided we’d try to flip this into something that’s more this-type-of Fort Worth to relate a little bit better. More of a Sports Bar, cheaper price points, a lot of younger people are around here, we’re thinking it’s a better fit.

Of course, it’s a sports bar, but what is your specialty, and what is the primary concept here? 

The primary concept is to be the ultimate sports-watching place. We have 50 TVs, we have fresh, amazing wings. We’re known for our large format drinks, we do beer and mimosa towers. We’re kind of that – when you look at all of our booths – you’re very much meant to be here for a hot minute, comfortably watching a 3-hour game, hanging out with your friends.

For food, I’m guessing the wings are the favorite?

The wings are the favorite here, but also, our burgers – we have a very similar version to our fast-casual burger place called Sky Rocket, it’s like SmashBurger, it’s a phenomenal burger here as well. But yeah, our chicken wings are kind of our thing.

*tap-tap* 

(Landon taps his credit card on the table with an emphasis as he tells me this. It was an almost knock-on-wood type of tap. And after trying their ‘Hot Truffle’ sauced-up boneless wings, I gotta say the wings are kind of my thing too. I mean, wow – I’ll tap to that! *tap-tap*)

Do you think you guys stand out from your typical sports bar?

Yes! I mean I believe that. For one, when you walk into the building, you’ll see that we are very unique, kind of retro. It’s eye-catching. It’s very different from walking into Buffalo Wild Wings or a place like that with the clutter everywhere and the run-of-the-mill “hey there’s some TVs to distract you while you eat.” We like to keep a close eye on style, what’s trending, and we love the vintage sport look, retro everything, from the wallpaper design to the color scheme. We still love big TVs, and every square inch of the place is essentially decked out with HD visuals for the ultimate game-watching experience. We just have more to offer than the other guys.

What are your hours?

We’re open every single day from 11 AM – midnight, Sunday – Thursday, and 11 AM – 2 AM, Friday – Saturday.

Is that why there’s a DJ booth?

Yeah, so we have a live DJ every Friday and Saturday night.

What’s the crowd like here?

It’s a little bit of a mix. Dinner rush, it’s mixed. More late-night, it’s a younger crowd. We show every UFC fight, every Boxing match, no cover charge here. We pack this place out for those.

After that, it transitions on to our late-night mode. The DJ comes on and we turn this place into a party. We sell more alcohol at that time, bottle service, we have beer towers on every table. So it’s a pretty cool little spot. 

Bottle service- that’s not a usual sports bar place thing is it?

It’s not. And that’s our concept, for ‘Milkshakes’, that’s kind of what they’re known for. There are 5 dayparts to their restaurant concepts. There’s brunch, lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late-night. Late-night is something they believe is the most profitable time to get that last little bit from the night to 2 am.

What does Dirty Bones use Dyezz Surveillance & Access systems for?

They do our security and surveillance all over the building, cover our essential security needs, really give us some peace of mind to sleep at night, and we’re able to keep these things out here safely when we’d otherwise be worried about it. The business owners have used them for years and they’re really fantastic and super responsive. They’re also great when it comes to anything you might need from them and are all about customer service with us, so I’d recommend them to any other restaurant owners.

What’s on your playlist?

Our DJ playlist is the top stuff on the charts, what you would probably hear on the popular radio stations. It’s a cross between Top 40 stuff and old-school remix hip-hop that leans towards more trendy that you’d hear everywhere. I’d call them the bangers. You hear it and you’d say “yeah I know this song” and we get the place going together.

What’s on your personal playlist?

Ah man, really anything classic rock and then some 90’s stuff up to the early 2000s.

Anything else you’d like people to know about Dirty Bones?

I like to think our service here is what we pride ourselves on in going above and beyond. You go to a lot of sports bars and still get that fast-casual service. We don’t have that here as much, we try to take a customized approach by providing a unique service level, bringing great energy to your group’s table while providing you with whatever you need – whether it’s another drink, another item, while still letting you party as much as possible.