Ate Days of Culinary Contests: Seasonal Themes, Ice Cream, and (No) Screams

Several culinary-oriented contests and events are afoot — including one of ours — with fun, seasonal themes. From the Weekly’s annual Best Of season to the State Fair and Halloween, there are many ways to celebrate with food and booze. Let’s start with yours truly.

Best Of 2025: The Ballot Is Open

Now thru Fri, Sep 12, make your voice heard by participating in our online-only write-in ballot to determine the Readers’ Choice winners in the five sections: Getting & Spending, People & Places, Arts & Culture, Good Grub, and On the Town. Plus, help us decide which local bands will make the cut for our upcoming Music Awards by also making choices in the Music Awards Nominations section.

The food categories in the Good Grub section include Bakery, Barbecue, Breakfast, Brunch, Burger, Burrito, Cajun Food, Catfish, Chef, Chicken-Fried Steak, Chinese Food, Coffeeshop, Deli Sandwiches, Empanadas, Food Truck, Fried Chicken, Hot Dog, Italian Food, Japanese Food, Korean Food, Mediterranean Food, Mexican Food, Pizza, Plant-Based Dish, Queso, Ramen, Restaurant, New Restaurant, Salsa, Seafood, Soul Food, Steak, Street Tacos, Sushi, Tamales, Tex-Mex Food, Thai Food, Vietnamese Food, Waitstaff, and Wings, Plus, every section, including this one, has a Wildcard category in case we forgot something.

Booze categories under On the Town include Bar-Bar, Bartender, Beer Selection, Brewery, Place to See Comedy, Craft Cocktail, Place to Dance, Distillery, Dog-Friendly Patio, Drag Show, Happy Hour, Hotel Bar, Karaoke Night, Late-Night Food, LBGTQIA+ Bar, Margarita, Martini, Mixologist, Patio, Restaurant Bar, Sports Bar, Place to Drink Wine, and Wildcard.

Go to FWWeekly.com and search for Steal This Art, and you’ll find an article that outlines every category and includes art that businesses can save to help them promote the vote (and the rules for doing so). The ballot itself is at FWWeekly.com/Best-Of-2025-Ballot.

All’s Fair in Love & Fried Food

Since 2005, the State Fair of Texas has been hosting its Big Tex Choice Awards in the months prior to the event to showcase the season’s best new food creations. Everything from fried beer to fried peaches and cream has joined the exclusive club of fried food creations. This year, the fair has added an award for drinks, so the three categories are Savory, Sweet, and Sippers.

Among the finalists that includes Crab & Mozzarella Arancini, Deep Fried Deli Tacos, the Vietnamese Crunch Dog, and Wagyu Bacon Cheeseburger Deviled Egg Sliders, the Brisket & Brew Stuffed Pretzels by Glen and Sherri Kusak caught my eye. Slow-smoked brisket is blended with a bold, velvety beer cheese made from sharp cheddar and a hearty brew. Then, it’s all wrapped up in soft, chewy pretzel dough, hand-rolled, sprinkled with sea salt, and baked until crispy on the outside and gooey in the middle. They are served with your choice of spicy mustard or tangy barbecue sauce.

Candy Lemon Sour Face, the Chill & Thrill Delight, Dubai Chocolate Cheesecake, Rousso’s Dubai Chocolate Funnel Cake Fries, and Tex’s Toast a la Mode are the five finalists in the Sweet category. They had me at “funnel cake,” plus I’ve been wanting to try Dubai Chocolate. Rousso’s Dubai Chocolate Funnel Cake Fries are made by frying funnel cake strips until golden brown, then drizzling them with warm Belgian chocolate, topping them with pistachio cream, and adding delicate pieces of knafeh pastry. Yum!

In the inaugural Sippers category, finalists include the Coconut Quadruple, a Cookie Chaos Milkshake, Hot Honeycomb Lemonade Shake Up, Nevins Dirty Red Bull Tex-Arita, and the Poppin’ Boba Rita. Honestly, anything with “’Rita” on the end sounds refreshing. But the Coconut Quadruple, made by Binh Tran and My Volooks, is the perfect dessert drink for me. A whole, young coconut is served with an ice-cold, freshly made coconut slushy topped with soft-serve coconut ice cream and a sprinkling of coconut flakes. I’m in!

Eats Meets Arts

Stage West Theatre (821 W Vickery Blvd, Fort Worth, 817-784-9378) is presenting a Pulitzer Prize-winning play this month and next. From Fri, Aug 28, thru Sun, Sep 14, James Ijames’ Fat Ham retells Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a queer, Black twist, when a young man in a Southern family is visited by the ghost of his father at a backyard barbecue and is asked to seek revenge. Tickets are $38 at StageWest.org/Fat-Ham.

When you see Fat Ham, you’ll also want to make a reservation for pre-performance dining in the Lobby Cafe. If you’re attending Thu-Sat, you can get into the spirit with a barbecue chopped brisket sandwich and potato leek soup — slow-cooked chopped beef brisket served on a Brioche bun with loaded potato salad and homemade baked beans. To see the full menu, visit StageWest.org/cafe. Reservations are recommended. Email BoxOffice@StageWest.org or call the theater. Arrival time for dinner is 6-6:30pm. The performance begins at 7:30pm. Arrive for Saturday lunch or Sunday brunch between 12:30pm and 1pm with the matinee beginning at 2pm.

Spoiler alert: Our film guy wasn’t a big fan of the Freakier Friday sequel that just came out, but he did enjoy the nostalgic part when Anna (Lindsay Lohan) reunites with her ex-bandmates (Christina Vidal, Mitchell, and Haley Hudson) and performs songs from the first movie. (Read more of his thoughts at FWWeekly.com in Film Shorts.) If you don’t care and you’re seeing it anyway, make it a theme night and go to any PF Chang’s in North Texas — including their newest location in Alliance Town Center (2949 Amador Dr, Fort Worth, 817-484-5025) — for PF Chang’s Freakier Friday contest. One lucky grand prize winner will have a Freakier Year and will receive a Disney Freakier Friday Prize Pack that includes a year of dinner specials and movie tickets, valued at $2,600 and $2,080, respectively. Ten other people will win a runner-up prize of a $150 gift card to PF Chang’s and two movie tickets. Dine-in customers can enter by scanning a QR code on the menu, then ordering a Freakier Friday Color-Changing Refresher by Tue, Sep 2.

Goodbye, Screams — Hello, Scarborough’s Hollow

Located on the grounds of Scarborough Renaissance Festival (I-35 at FM 66, Waxahachie, 972-938-3247), Screams Halloween Park has been open during Halloween for the past 28 years. It was announced last winter that the 2024 season was its last. This fall, it’s set to reopen with a new concept called Scarborough’s Hollow: A Fall Fantasy Festival.

It’s open 2pm-10pm Saturdays from Oct 11 to Nov 15 (plus Halloween night 5pm-midnight) for “an unforgettable interactive journey through the enchanted Scarborough’s Hollow transformed by three fairy sisters and filled with magic, mischief, and autumn wonder.” There will still be at least one haunted house to check out, but there will also be artisan shoppes, a fun house, live entertainment, a petting zoo, and promises of seasonal fun with a touch of spooky delight.

If beer is your autumn indulgence, add on a $39 tasting experience ticket for Brews of the Hollow Tasting led by Scarborough’s own certified cicerone, Seamus Norwood. He’ll guide you through how to truly taste beer, share how it’s crafted, pair it with light bites, and weave in fascinating (and sometimes cheeky) stories from beer’s rich past. Seamus brings his signature mix of humor and expertise to the pavilion near Taboo Tavern at 4pm and 7pm every Saturday, plus 7pm and 9pm on Halloween night. Each guest will enjoy a tasting flight and take home a commemorative souvenir glass.

The usual ren fair foods will be available for purchase, but there will also be an interactive s’mores station. For those 21 and older, Scarborough’s Hollow has six pubs and taverns throughout the grounds, serving beer, wine, and the ever-popular mead varieties, Breaking Brew and Nidhoggr. Also look for weekly specials and seasonal drinks at the Headless Horseman, Jack O’ Lantern, Hogshead, Dragon’s Lair, Red Lion, and Taboo Tavern (a full-service bar).

Tickets start at $17 for adults and $6 for kids. For tickets and times, activity reservations, and add-ons, visit SRFestival.com/hollow.

Sweets as a Team Sport

Division Brewing (506 E Main St, Arlington, 682-259-7011) is celebrating the back-to-school season with an old-fashioned Ice Cream Social from 1pm to 4pm Sat, Aug 23. Contestants will vie for the title of Best Hand-Cranked Ice Cream, and everyone gets to sample and vote for free. All educators will receive discounts on food and drinks. If you’d like to compete, email Wade@DivisionBrewing.com for details.

Meanwhile, Krispy Kreme is celebrating the start of school with a limited-time Harry Potter promotion. Participating Krispy Kreme shops across the country are offering new donuts that bring the houses of Hogwarts to life through four delicious flavors: the Gryffindor (an unglazed shell donut filled with cookie butter-flavored cream, dipped in red icing and Biscoff cookie crumble, topped with golden icing drizzles); the Slytherin (an Original Glazed donut topped with chocolate and green buttercream-flavored swirls, chocolate cookie sugar blend); the Hufflepuff (an unglazed shell donut filled with brown butter toffee-flavored custard, dipped in golden yellow icing, topped with black chocolate drizzle and cookie crunch); and the Ravenclaw (an Original Glazed donut dipped in blueberry-flavored icing, topped with sprinkles). Each donut is adorned with the appropriate house crest.

Still unsure which house you belong to? No worries. Let the Sorting Hat donut decide. Each is a donut filled with a mystery-colored Kreme representing one of the four Hogwarts Houses, then dipped in chocolate-flavored icing, sprinkled with shimmering gold stars and gold sugar, and topped with the Sorting Hat piece. Take a bite to see which house you’re in.

On Sat, Aug 23, Krispy Kreme is hosting a special Houses of Hogwarts Day. Participating shops nationwide will give any fan who reps their favorite house one free Original Glazed donut, no purchase necessary, while supplies last.

Then, beginning Mon, Sep 1, Krispy Kreme will give fans a chance to win a trip to either Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Orlando Resort to experience The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. For more information, visit KrispyKreme.com/promos/harry-potter/giveaway.