Fort Worth Magazine | June 23, 2025

At The Blue Room inside Fort Worth’s Crescent Hotel, dinner starts not with a menu, but with a promise. That everything you’re about to eat — every pinch of salt, every splash of olive oil, every sliver of duck or corn-flavored cream — comes from the state of Texas. 

It’s not marketing fluff. Executive Chef Preston Paine’s new six-course tasting menu — available only on Friday and Saturday nights — is Fort Worth’s first 100 percent Texas-sourced fine dining experience. And it’s not just a showcase of seasonal ingredients. It’s a slow, thoughtful, deeply personal narrative of Texas itself — told through food. 

“The Blue Room is my way of telling stories about the land, the ingredients, and my own roots,” Paine says. “This menu is deeply personal, as it draws from memories of fishing for grouper on the Gulf and cooking vegetables from my grandmother’s garden.” 

The format is as focused as it is ambitious — six courses, $125 per person, each plate centered around a single Texas-grown ingredient — okra, corn, melons, tomatoes — elevated but never abstracted beyond recognition. The Gulf Grouper is paired with blue crab remoulade and grilled squash, all nestled beside a delicate fried potato. The Venison Carpaccio nods to al pastor with fermented pineapple and candied serrano. A Roasted Duck arrives in a lush North Texas mole alongside compressed watermelon.  

Dessert — a grilled corn flan with lavender corn milk ice cream and a whisper of smoked olive oil — ties it all together with a wink to the sweetness of summer. 

The pace is unhurried, the room quiet and warm with deep blue accents and soft lighting. Service moves with the elegance of a dinner party hosted by someone who really wants you to stay a while. Wine pairings — four to six curated pours — draw from Texas vineyards as well as Old World staples from France and Italy.  

Nearly every ingredient on the table comes from within state lines — sourced through Farm to Table in Austin. The names of the farms — Buena Tierra in Fredonia, Engel Farms in Fredericksburg, Sanchez Family Farm in Poteet — are more than footnotes. They’re collaborators in Paine’s vision. Even the flour, salt, and cooking oil are Texas-born. 

It all comes together in The Blue Room — the hushed, luxurious enclave tucked within Emilia’s at The Crescent. With tableside caviar service, vintage Champagne, and towering shellfish displays, the dining room already leaned elegant. But this new tasting menu represents a shift — from opulence to intention. 

“There’s a sense of place and connection in every dish we serve,” Paine says. “It’s Texas at its core, but reimagined through a refined and seasonal lens.”