Fort Worth Weekly // March 18-24, 2026

With Ubbi Dubbi, Shaq’s Bass All-Stars, and regular events at Insomnia, Fort Worth is more than cool with EDM. BY

STEVE STEWARD

METROPOLIS

The city’s recent purchase of additional Tandy Hills land should help protect the nature area from continued misuse. BY MARK HENRICKS

EATS & DRINKS

Nonnas and local Italian joints are what’s on for Easter. BY KENA SOSA AND JENNIFER BOVEE

SCREEN

A mix of science and pathos, Project Hail Mary delivers. BY KRISTIAN LIN

With their new EP Alive, The Plum Boys bring urgency to the dance party. BY ANTHONY MARIANI AND JUAN R. GOVEA

MARCH

EVENT DETAILS

8 a.m. - 11 a.m. Citywide Cleanup & Scrap Tire Collection

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Earth Party & Trashion Fashion Show

REGISTER TODAY!

The first 3,000 volunteers to register receive a free T-shirt.

Join the 41st Annual Cowtown Great American Cleanup and help beautify Fort Worth. Register as an individual or group, choose a cleanup hub or your own public area — supplies provided.

Join us for food, music, activities, and more to celebrate your impact.

A creative showcase of designs made from recycled materials — prizes awarded.

Recycle old or used tires for free and help keep Fort Worth clean.

Visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/cowtowncleanup for more information. ¿Hablas español? ¡Información disponible en español en el sitio web!

INSIDE

Rock Launcher

STAFF BOX

Editor-in-Chief: Anthony Mariani

Art Director: Ryan Burger

Special Projects Manager: Jennifer Bovee

Calendar Editor: Elaine Wilder

Film Editor: Kristian Lin

Music Editors: Patrick Higgins, Steve Steward

Proofreader: Emmy Smith

Editorial Board: Anthony Mariani, Emmy Smith, Steve Steward, Elaine Wilder

Steve Steward Fine and Tandy (Hills)

Head and heart inform the captivating Project Hail Mary. By Kristian Lin ‘Alive,’

The city purchased additional land to protect the nature area from four-wheelers, dumpers … and developers. By Mark Henricks

Contributors: E.R. Bills, Jennifer Bovee, Jason Brimmer, Jess Delarosa, Buck D. Elliott, Danny Gallagher, Juan R. Govea, Mark Henricks, Patrick Higgins, Kristian Lin, Cody Neatherly, Rush Olson, Emmy Smith, Kena Sosa, Steve Steward, Teri Webster, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue, Elaine Wilder, Cole Williams

Owner / Publisher: Lee Newquist

Director of Operations: Bob Niehoff

Director of Sales: Michael Newquist

Director of Marketing: Jennifer Bovee

Account Manager: Julie Strehl

Sr. Account Executive: Stacey Hammons

Account Executives: Tony Diaz, Wendy Maier, Sarah Niehoff, Biz Thames, Wyatt Newquist

Brand Ambassador: Clint Newquist

COPYRIGHT

She Cried

The

By Anthony Mariani and Juan R. Govea

Growing Tandy Hills

With

the city’s recent purchase of additional land, the nature area

may finally

get

the protections it needs.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MARK HENRICKS

Tandy Hills, a 160-acre parcel of public land famed for downtown views and fields of wildflowers, just grew by 16 acres thanks to a $2.75 million purchase by the city. The deal may someday provide space for more parking and even a visitors’ center, but for now the biggest impact may be to frustrate dumpers, campers — and developers.

The main purpose of the transaction from the city’s standpoint was to protect the area’s ecological integrity by keeping it from getting paved over, said Allison Docker, City of Fort Worth Green Space Champion.

“Development would have added impervious surfaces, increased stormwater runoff, and potentially caused pollution and erosion within the park,” Docker said.

METROPOLIS

That might or might not have happened if the city had not stepped up with $750,000 from the Open Space Program provided by a 2022 bond and $2 million from park fees. Plans for commercial development were in the works, said David Hinson, executive vice president at Younger Partners, the Dallas real estate firm that brokered the deal, but developers had hit some sizable snags.

“We had intended for it to be multifamily or high-density residential of some kind,” Hinson said, “but it was cost-prohibitive based on providing access, and there’s a lot of topo

on it, too. There would be a lot of grading and retaining walls and things of that nature.”

Currently, the property that includes three addresses on Ben Avenue and one on East Freeway houses only a scattering of tents occupied by people with nowhere else to stay.

A crumbling street and a parking lot for a long-defunct restaurant provide wheeled access for people looking to dump unwanted furniture and other trash.

Don Young, an environmental activist who lives across from the park’s main entrance at 3400

View Street, has long been a champion of the facility through the citizen group Friends of Tandy Hills. Young applauds the city’s purchase and says volunteers plan to start improving the property by uprooting the many non-native trees, bushes, and other vegetation growing on it.

“We’re looking forward to restoring it and getting out the invasive species,” Young said, gesturing at a hedge of privet marring the original prairie landscape.

The new addition will also serve as a buffer to block tents, motorcycles, four-wheelers, dumpers, and other undesirables from the area reserved for nature and hiking. For now, at least, it won’t do much for the main irritation — besides foreign plants — getting Young’s goat. That is photography.

On any sunny spring weekend, Young said you can find a hundred cars parked along View Street, many driven there by photographers seeking splashy fields of flowers and dramatic downtown views as backgrounds for images. There are so many shutterbugs that they trample the flowers while jockeying for superior angles.

“These photographers come in here with families with 10 kids, and they run out in the meadow and ruin it,” Young said.

He also points to well-worn trails where dirt bikes and four-wheeled off-road vehicles have rutted the hilly land, which is supposed to be reserved for foot traffic.

For now, the various non-vegetative invaders may notice little change. The new city property is technically not accessible to the public, although eventually 11 acres or so will be part of the park. The paved sections along Ben Avenue

continued on page 5

personnel would be on-site to staff it and police the various undesirable activities.

“The main thing we need is somebody on the property all the time,” he said.

may be used to provide more parking, and it’s possible the city will build a long-sought visitors’ center on the site of the former restaurant. Young likes the idea of the visitors’ center, in part because it would mean parks department

All this and more will be explored in depth later this year when the city renews its partnership agreement with the Friends of Tandy Hills. Park planners will also examine and revise the 2008 master plan for the area, a process that will provide for community engagement.

Unrelated, ongoing improvements planned include additional trails and signage on the Broadcast Hill parcel adjoining Tandy Hills to the east. The big Tandy Hill news, however, is this current acquisition, which fulfills a longtime vision for expanding the facility.

The latest purchase also exhausts the funding remaining from the city’s 2022 bond program. Further down the road, the parks department proposes that the next bond election

provide another $25 million for purchasing open space.

But even if that money for more parkland comes through, this latest deal probably represents the endgame as far as adding to Tandy Hills’ scope.

“We’ve been asking the city for many years to buy this land,” Young said. “Now I think we’ve gotten all the land that can be gotten.” l

FEATURE

Let the Beat Hit ’Em

With Ubbi Dubbi, Shaq’s Bass All-Stars, and regular events at Insomnia, Fort Worth is more than cool with EDM.

BY STEVE STEWARD

As my car slid into a parking space in front of Insomnia, I made a mental note about the crunch of debris beneath my tires, how I felt the sound through the floorboard and brake pedal as much as I heard it. Killing the engine, I sat there for a minute, paying attention to the ambient noise around me. Mostly, it was the susurrous din of nighttime traffic from nearby I-35, enlivened with cumbia pumping out of a pickup truck on 28th Street, the accordion and vocals dopplering east and fading into the night. Dogs barked from somewhere north of me, and a trap beat sizzled in and out of earshot from an even larger pickup on 28th, this one headed west. Beneath it all, pulsing softly through the nightclub’s ’70s-era, prefabricated rock-façade’d walls was bass.

This was around 8 p.m. on a Thursday recently, and I went there for Open Decks, a weekly event in which local DJs get a free drink if they sign up and perform a 30-minute set. Open Decks is presented by AFTERDubz, a collaboration

“Like, the way we danced in the last 15 years has changed. The way we dress has changed. The music is completely different … but the thing about EDM, [as] I felt when I got into it, it was a place for anybody at all times.”

between two separate EDM event production teams, AFTRLIFE Entertainment and Wubba Dub Dubz — in terms of an event flyer, their names are at the top of the font and promotional hierarchy. Both call Insomnia home base. I opened the club’s door. Dubstep thudded around me like an invisible avalanche.

Stefanie Jeffress, who started Wubba Dub Dubz with business partner Bobby Gonzales in April 2024, had invited me to check out the space and meet her crew. She was tending bar, exuding that sort of supervisory energy you get from multitasking during most of your waking hours.

Jeffress got into the North Texas rave scene right out of high school, after she graduated in the early 2010s. Pretty quickly, she transitioned from going to raves to throwing them. On Saturday, she and her crew at Insomnia will host the afterparty for Shaq’s Bass All-Stars Festival from Panther Island Pavilion, and it will be Wubba Dub Dubz’ biggest event yet. As big a deal as that is, it’s just one piece of her quest to build Fort Worth’s EDM scene into something huge, one night at a time.

Jeffress introduced me to her business partners after we had moved from the club’s dark, cavernous main room to a green room, which was actually illuminated by black lights. Barstools crowded the middle like metal mushrooms. The walls muffled the music.

We sat around the barstools’ periphery and went over bios. Bobby Gonzales is an elder millennial, entrepreneur, and former rapper (known as Bobo the Great) who got into raves in the late 2000s. He fell out of the scene in 2012 to get his life in order, then back into it when Jeffress, a friend from the end of his time in the scene, asked him to help her produce a party. Tracy Hazelton, a cybersecurity expert by day and DJ by night, got into the scene as a DJ in 2012 and currently dee-jays as one half of EVRAFTR. He founded a production company and record label called

Sat

395 Purcey St, Fort Worth. $104.95-256.19. ShaqsBassAllStars.com.

up and perform a 30-minute set.

AFTRLIFE Entertainment during the COVID lockdown, when he would livestream single-person dance parties with club speakers and a green screen at his house.

AFTRLIFE boasts a roster of North Texas DJs — Gray Wolf, Dark Bunny, Reydex, and Indigo, among others — and it puts on and promotes other EDM events. Finally, there was Nick Perlmutter, Wubba Dub Dubz resident DJ, who performs and produces as Bluff Baby. A fixture on the scene since 2015, Bluff Baby also produces numerous artists when he isn’t on tour. All four of them are music fans, obviously, and Jeffress was quick to point out that when it comes to events at Insomnia, they aren’t just booking EDM parties. The club had hosted a punk show on January 7 with Noogy, Samuel Caldwell’s Revenge, From Parts Unknown, and the Weigh Down, and she said they are down to book pretty much anything. They have a disc-golf putting tournament every other Thursday and had a crawfish boil/mud wrestling event on March 14. Gonzales noted that their first event was a WWE afterparty, and they all seem to be minor metalheads. Still, EDM is what makes their hearts beat the hardest.

I’m a casual observer, so to me, I associate EDM with Ubbi Dubbi, the annual festival at Panther Island Pavilion that last May drew more than 50,000 people there and emanated subsonic frequencies as far away as Westworth Village. But I went to see Marc Rebillet at Wild Acre in 2022 and Shaq’s Bass All-Stars at Panther Island in 2024, and at both, the energy and the spectacle at these shows continued on page 7

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:

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are immense and intense. Hearing Rebillet make dance music out of his own banter and Shaq bellow, “Let me see your mosh pit!” as pyrotechnics exploded in time to a headsplitting, glitchy sonic assault are two experiences I’ll never forget. They were as fun and cathartic as they were gonzo and absurd, so I can only imagine how that music feels for people who’ve made it a huge part of their life.

We talked about where the scene is currently and where they hope to take it.

“So, promoters that we’re all friends with, we kind of work with each other,” Jeffress said. “Ubbi Dubbi [in April] is kind of our Super Bowl, and there’s Shaq’s [Bass All-Stars] on [Saturday]. There’s the big Sublime show coming in May. We’re gonna do ‘afters’ for those.”

“Shaq is bringing T-PAIN,” Bluff Baby said. “That’s huge for EDM. That’s top tier to see somebody that’s that great of a producer in this genre … because I feel like our music is forever evolving faster than mainstream music. … There’s so many people that are hungry to make more.”

Yet there are obstacles, one of which is lack of awareness.

“I feel like it’s kind of a matter of waking up the people that are here,” Hazelton said, “finding the EDM community and linking them to this space, these afterparties.”

Bluff Baby agreed. “There are people from Dallas who are willing to come out here.”

“We want the people who are showing up every time at Open Decks to highlight them and give them the opportunity to be on the bigger stage, with a bigger headliner who usually they would never to play with.”

to right), AFTERDubz’s Tracy Hazelton, Stefanie Jeffress, Bobby Gonzales, and DJ Bluff Baby are creating a scene one dance party at a time.

But there’s competition. “There’s always, like, five other EDM shows going on [in Dallas], you know what I’m saying?” he continued. “Venues in Dallas have radius clauses on some of their local artists, and that sucks, but all the big dogs want to come out here and play.”

And while it seems like the audience for this music skews heavily toward late-teens/early twentysomethings, Jeffress said that the lifestyle can get kind of expensive — even if you don’t buy a lot of scene-specific clothes, tickets aren’t cheap for anything these days — and so the age range tends to be 25-35, which was a lot different than when she first got into the scene. Still, when I returned on March 6 to check out their weekly Funky Town Fridays, when two Dallas-based DJ crews — Pleasure Unit and Miasma — were doing a show,

the crowd seemed to be mostly in that younger cohort. Jeffress has noticed shifts from when she first got into EDM.

“Like, the way we danced in the last 15 years has changed,” she said. “The way we dress has changed. The music is completely different … but

Ubbi Dubbi: Into the Abyss Fri-Sat, Apr 24-25, w/Alesso, BUNT., Cloonee, Kx5, Loud Luxury, Tape B, TroyBoi, Zedd, Ganja White Night, Jade Cicada, Kai Wachi, Of the Trees, San Holo at Panther Island Pavilion. $79.88-419.96. UbbiDubbiFestival.com.

the thing about EDM, [as] I felt when I got into it, it was a place for anybody at all times. But you would also find that people that were broken went to EDM, like they found EDM music because of the community, because everybody had issues.”

The idea that the EDM community is a place for everyone to come together is central to both AFTRLIFE’s and Wubba Dub Dubz’ ethos, but there are other promoters. Sometimes the scene can seem kind of clique-y.

“It used to not be,” Bluff Baby said. “There’s politics. It can be very much like high school. … We have to build this image of trust … and we don’t get involved in drama.”

continued on page 9

Getting people to come to a thing has been a challenge ever since hosting things has existed, and afterparties for huge EDM concerts at Panther Island Pavilion are most certainly things. Of Wubba Dub Dubz’ “afters,” Gonzales said they usually go until 4 a.m. For the post-Shaq party Saturday, “I think like we probably might start at, like, 10 [p.m.]. We’re gonna start early because there’s a lot of people who don’t go to the festival that are artists and other people who want to do sets. … It’s a hard game in Fort Worth, getting ready for the people who are leaving Shaq’s fest and giving them a chance to perform while we have everything set up for the in-house team. But Panther Island shows end at midnight, and we’ll already have the ‘water on’ ahead of everybody else.”

Wubba Dub Dubz also sees the value of opening their doors to unsung artists. Open Decks is kind of a pipeline to bigger gigs. Gonzales put it like this: “We want the people who are showing up every time at Open Decks to highlight them and give them the opportunity to be on the bigger stage, with a bigger headliner who usually they would never to play with.”

Jeffress also emphasized their commitment to safety. “In the past, finding venues, we’ve had problems. … I’m very, very much the maternal figure in all of this, and there were always problems doing shows at dive bars, like with the patrons there. … They have fights all the time.”

There’s also the issue of illegal drugs.

“All of our bartenders are Narcan trained,” she said. “You know, we have a fentanyl epidemic in our country right now, and it’s … I mean, there are young kids that don’t know how to do things the right way or don’t know people, don’t know where they’re getting their drugs, and it’s something I’ve dealt with, and it’s something that I was very, very big on in the beginning, that I was going to make sure I’m a bartender as well. Yeah, that kind of goes into what I was telling you of us trying to be more — I wouldn’t say ‘upscale’ — but more mainstream.

… We don’t want to be the underground.

“I’ve been to very unsafe places,” she continued, “and I don’t want people to feel that way when they come here.”

“We’re throwing parties,” Gonzales said. “I’m not condoning drug activity. We’re not saying, ‘Hey, come here. You can get fucked up.’ But we know we can’t stop people. We know we can’t stop you. So, the only thing we can do is provide the safest place that we can with all factors that we can think of already ran through to where we’re prepared for them.”

BREAK AT HOME

The scene centered on Insomnia is still growing, but seeing a dozen young people out at 10 p.m. on a Friday night to bob along to electronic dance music at a club was encouraging. Fort Worth needs more of this, because what Wubba Dub Dubz and Insomnia offer is a safe haven, an in-person place to escape all the bullshit and just fucking dance. We all need community. EDM, whether mainstream or underground, is about self-expression in a safe space, where the music and vibe are what matter most, the beating heart of an uplifting community, the kind of energy you can feel as loud as it in your ears. l

Trinity Metro has a ride for every Spring Break! Stay local with On-Demand or beat airport tra c with TEXRail. Learn more at RIDETRINITYMETRO.org.

BREAK AWAY

NIGHT & DAY

Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall. No, I’m asking.

With a temperature range of 30 degrees this past Monday to 92 predicted by Friday, I’m not sure what you’ll wear to this week’s top events, but whatever it is, I bet you’ll look fabulous.

Speaking of what to wear, Sunday is your last chance to catch Dressed for the Drawing Room: Fashion in Jane Austen’s World at the Arlington Museum of Art (1200 Ballpark Way, 817-275-4600). Showcasing costumes and jewelry from the film adaptations of Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Emma (2020), the show highlights the 19th-century fashion and heritage of these iconic woman-forward literary works. The museum is open 10am-5pm Tue-Sat and 1pm5pm Sun. Admission is $25 per person or free with a museum membership, starting at $75 at ArlingtonMuseum.org/membership.

When Mandy Hand released the EP Mandyland back in November on all streaming platforms, she was in the process of assembling a backing band with a March onstage debut in mind. That time is now. She and her full band will celebrate the release of her new record at The Post

(2736 W 6th St, Fort Worth, 817-945-8890) at 9pm. Sarah Savage opens at 8pm, then Daniel Markham follows at 10pm. For more, visit FWWeekly.com and check out “Welcome to ‘Mandyland,’ ” (Nov 10, 2025). Tickets are $12.38 at Tixr.com.

The Sixth Annual Fort Worth African American Roots Music Festival returns to Southside Preservation Hall (1519 Lipscomb St, Fort Worth, 817-926-2800), spotlighting the blues, gospel, and folk traditions that shaped American music. Among this year’s performers is Grammy winner Justin Robinson, whose music with collaborator Rhiannon Giddens is featured in Ryan Coogler’s 2025 Oscar-winning film Sinners . Presented by the local nonprofit Decolonizing the Music Room, the event runs from noon to 10pm Sat, but first, be sure to check out the free pre-fest community dance on Friday. Tickets are $50 at Prekindle.com.

In addition to touring and making more than 40 appearances on late-night TV throughout her career, comedian Kathleen Madigan has released six stand-up specials, including her most recent, 2023’s Hunting Bigfoot , on Amazon Prime. She will perform at Will Rogers Auditorium (3401 W Lancaster Av, 817-392-7469) at the Fort Worth stop of her Day Drinking Tour. Tickets start at $50 on Ticketmaster.com.

As an extension of this weekend’s Black roots music festival (see: Saturday), the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell St, 817-738-9215) presents German Soul , a live documentary experience of film, live music, and narration that explores the origins of Southern food and Black identity. Driven by a lifelong sensitive stomach and a nagging family mystery, Grammy-winning musician and ethnobotanist Justin Robinson embarks on a personal quest to trace the origins of his family recipes. From the Carolinas to West Africa and Europe, Justin seeks the true genealogy of his family recipes, transforming the history of food into a path for reconnection with his ancestors and his body. Tickets are $10 at TicketTailor.com.

continued on page 13 Lucas

MARCH

28

8 a.m. - 11 a.m. Citywide Cleanup

11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Earth Party

REGISTER TODAY!

The first 3,000 volunteers to register receive a free T-shirt.

28 DE MARZO

¡REGÍSTRATE HOY!

Los primeros 3,000 voluntarios en registrarse recibirán una camiseta gratis.

Join the 41st Annual Cowtown Great American Cleanup and help beautify Fort Worth. Register as an individual or group, choose a cleanup hub or your own public area — supplies provided.

Join us for food, music, activities, and more to celebrate your impact.

A creative showcase of designs made from recycled materials — prizes awarded.

Recycle old or used tires for free and help keep Fort Worth clean.

Únase a la 41.ª Limpieza Anual Cowtown Great American Cleanup y ayude a embellecer Fort Worth. Regístrese como individuo o grupo, elija un punto de limpieza o un área pública de su preferencia — se proporcionarán materiales de limpieza.

Acompáñenos para disfrutar comida, música, actividades y más para celebrar su impacto.

Una muestra creativa de diseños elaborados con materiales reciclados — se otorgarán premios.

Recicle llantas sin costo y ayude a mantener Fort Worth limpio.

The final words will be written and the last ad spaces reserved for our annual Zest issue today. This glossy-covered, magazine-styled publication serves as the go-to for eats, drinks, and shopping for same this spring. From a piece on the tariff trickle-down in the Metropolis section and a review of a new barbecue cookbook in Books to food on film in Screen and so much more, take a culinary journey with us across all of our sections in the cover-to-cover special edition. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is threefold: 1.) If you have an editorial idea or a culinary event to share with our readers, speak up by Friday; 2.) if you are a business owner who would like to reserve space, contact us now thru Monday; and 3.) if you love eats and drinks, pick up a copy of Zest 2026 on newsstands on Wed, Mar 25. Book space and send ideas by emailing Marketing@FWWeekly. com. — Jennifer Bovee

Today also marks the first Mondays Don’t Suck car show of the 2026 season at Alliance Skatepark (1002 Lone Star Pkwy, Gate 1, Grand Prairie, 972-262-4479) 6pm-10pm. Admission is $5 per car/driver, plus $1 per passenger, and the fee to enter a car into the show is $10.

Great Scott! Based on the classic movie of the same name, Back to the Future: The Musical opens at Bass Performance Hall (525 Commerce St, Fort Worth, 817-212-4280) and runs now thru Sun, Mar 29. The production features original music by multi-Grammy winners Alan Silvestri ( Avengers: Endgame ) and Glen Ballard (Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror”), plus hit songs from the movie, including “The Power of Love,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Earth Angel,” and “Back in Time.” For more information about the show and tickets starting at $56.50, visit Basshall.com/backtothefuture.

Don’t forget to help us celebrate the luminaries of the local music scene at the Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards at Ridglea Theater (6025 Camp Bowie Blvd, Fort Worth, 817-738-9500). Tonight, we will announce and celebrate our 2025 winners and induct some new awesome people into our Hall of Fame. There is no cost to attend. For updates on the timeline and special performances, RSVP on our Facebook event page at Facebook.com/FortWorthWeekly/events.

By Elaine Wilder

EATS & drinks

Mangia!

Let’s do Italian for dinner and a movie. And Easter.

BY KENA SOSA AND JENNIFER BOVEE

You know the drill. Bottle of red. Bottle of white. We’ll meet you anytime you want in our Italian restaurant. Or we could order some great pies from perennial Best Of winners like Mama’s Pizza (1813 W Berry St, 817-9233541) or Hysen’s Nizza Pizza (401 University Dr, 817-877-3900) in Fort Worth or Napoli’s Italian Kitchen & Market (309 S Main St, 817-310-0385) in Grapevine and just do #DinnerandaMovie at home.

You can always enjoy fancy Italian for Pasqua (Easter Sunday), but we’ll get to that later. Now, about that movie …

Reel Food: Nonnas

Directed by Stephen Chbosky ( The Perks of Being a Wallflower ) and written by Liz Maccie ( Siren , Foxglove ), Nonnas is a warm homecooked meal. Starring Vince Vaughn, Linda Cardellini, Lorraine Bracco, Susan Sarandon, and an array of other familiar faces, this Netflix movie does not just deliver. It serves as an emotional journey on a plate.

Inspired by the true story of Joe Scaravella, a New York native who, upon losing his mother,

grieves in an unexpected way: reliving his fondest memories through the food Maria cooked, a tradition passed down from his Italian grandmother.

With the help of friend Bruno (Joe Manganiello) and Stella (Drea de Matteo), Joe (Vaughn) renovates a shell of a venue and creates Enoteca Maria.

Not exactly hot stuff in the kitchen, Joe convinces his mother’s old friend Roberta to cook for him. And this leads to his assembling

a cast of four very different nonnas, including Gia (Susan Sarandon), Teresa (Talia Shire), and Antonella (Brenda Vaccaro).

A novel concept without a solid business plan, the restaurant’s opening is stale. The grandmothers spend time bonding and sharing more of their stories, giving depth to their roles and revealing that they had lives, loves, and stories to tell beyond doing for others in the kitchen. This restaurant is symbolic of the fact that these women still matter in this world beyond their youth. They still have purpose. There is always hope.

continued on page 17

Eats & Drinks

Then there’s Olivia (Cardellini), who was once stood up by Scaravella and who shows up for him as he brings this homage to his mother to life. Maybe there is redemption for dessert.

Nonnas is a full serving of the idea that family, tradition, love, food, and people do matter. Our value does not expire. Watching this film is like trying out a recipe. You know that based on the ingredients of a stellar cast, it will be well-acted. You also know that based on the plot, this is a feel-good story of unexpected success.

“Based on a true story” means that it has a happy ending, and if that is your glass of vino, you will be very pleased. You may also enjoy the shot of nostalgia that comes from hearing Billy Joe’s iconic “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” near the end. The ingredients here do not always taste innovative, but they hit the spot. And learning a few Italian curse words adds some spice. —

Kena Sosa

Ate Days of Pasqua

Now, let’s talk about some fancy dining for Easter weekend. As many Italians identify as Catholic, it’s no surprise that this holiday is super-important. Family feasts often include Colomba bread, lamb, and other traditional foods. Like many others without a nonna of my own at home, I’m looking to make reservations rather than a mess in my kitchen, so I sought out a few choices for Sun, Apr 5.

Located in the Crescent Hotel, Emilia’s Fort Worth (3300 Camp Bowie Blvd, 817-6611855) draws inspiration from Italy as well as France, Greece, Morocco, and Spain while using Texas-sourced ingredients. Easter brunch will be buffet-style and include live music. Featured foods are a carving station with beef tenderloin, honey-baked ham, and roasted rack of lamb; carrot-cake pancakes; a Cobb salad station; peaches and cream French toast; and more. As of press time, tables were still available for the 2pm seating at EmiliasFortWorth.com.

Margie’s Italian Gardens (9805 Camp Bowie West, Fort Worth, 817-244-4301) is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and to that,

I say, “Good for them!” So, you’ll need to visit during the rest of Settimana Santa (Holy Week) instead of Pasqua . Margie’s is open 4pm-9pm

Tue-Thu and 4pm-10pm Fri-Sat. When one of our critics reviewed the place

Italian Restaurant,” Jun 25, 2025), she really enjoyed one dish in particular. “Margie’s perfectly cooked chicken parm has to be the best in the county.”

The peach bellini, complete with thinly sliced peaches at the bottom of the icy glass, was also a hit.

In Waterside, Piattello Italian Kitchen (5924 Convair Dr, Ste 412, Fort Worth, 817-3490484) is offering its full brunch menu, including brunch entrees, pizza, pasta, and salads, plus a special Easter charcuterie board with prosciutto, soppressata, and house-made ricotta. Seatings are available every 15 minutes from 10:30am to 1:45pm at PiattelloItaliankitchen.com.

And should you find yourself on the East Coast, be sure and visit Enoteca Maria (27

Hyatt St, Staten Island, New York, 718-4472777), the real restaurant that inspired Nonnas Grandmothers from around the world are part of a roster of rotating chefs, each preparing the traditional meals from their native cuisines. As the nonnas rotate, so does the menu. The April calendar isn’t live yet with the list of nonnas who will be visiting, but normally seating times are 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, and 7:30pm, with an Italian menu and a Japanese menu at 12:30pm. The Nonna of the Day begins her shift at 2:30pm. Reservations are recommended at NonnasoftheWorld.org.

For our readers who can count (#CheckOuttheBigBrainonBrad), that’s four restaurants, not our usual eight. For more options for Easter brunch, meet us back here in two weeks for our Easter 2026 coverage in the Wed, Apr 1, issue. Meanwhile, pick up Zest 2026 next week, exclusively featuring food, drinks, and shopping for same in a gloriously splendid, glossy-bound cover-to-cover format. Send your ideas and suggestions for this special issue to Marketing@ fwweekly.com. — Jennifer Bovee l

LIVING LOCAL ART

Join Fort Worth’s Largest Litter Cleanup

on Saturday, March 28

It’s almost time for Fort Worth’s largest annual litter cleanup! On Saturday, March 28, 2026, thousands of volunteers will join Keep Fort Worth Beautiful (KFWB) for the 41st Annual Cowtown Great American Cleanup, a citywide effort to help remove litter from neighborhoods, parks and public spaces across Fort Worth.

Individuals, families, neighbors, schools, churches and businesses are all welcome to participate. Get involved and make it meaningful — select any public area such as neighborhoods, streets, parks or school campuses, or choose from preselected hub locations across the city.

Register early and get a free T-shirt!

Registration is now open! All volunteers will receive litter cleanup supplies, including trash bags and gloves. The first 3,000 volunteers to register will receive a free event T-shirt.

To register and view cleanup locations, visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/cowtowncleanup.

Scrap Tire Collection

As part of the Cowtown Great American Cleanup, the City of Fort Worth will host a free scrap tire collection event to help reduce illegal dumping, prevent fire hazards and keep tires out of landfills.

Residents can bring unwanted tires from their homes or collect littered tires from roadways and neighborhoods. Cleanup participation is not required, and there is no limit on the number of tires accepted.

Scrap Tire Collection Site

Fort Worth City Hall

Back parking lot – Forest Park Boulevard entrance

Saturday, March 28

8 a.m. – noon

For scrap tire event details and accepted items, visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/cowtowncleanup.

Celebrate at Earth Party

Following the morning cleanup, volunteers are invited to join KFWB at Trinity Park for Earth Party, a celebration recognizing the hard work of volunteers throughout the year. Enjoy food and drinks, live music and entertainment, exhibitor promotions, and the annual Trashion Fashion Show.

Trashion Fashion Show

Show off your creativity in the Trashion Fashion Show by designing runway-ready looks made from at least 50% discarded or recycled materials. Participants will have the opportunity to showcase their designs on stage during Earth Party, with prizes awarded to selected winners. For full Trashion Fashion rules, visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/ cowtowncleanup.

For the latest promotional information about Cowtown Great American Cleanup, visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/cowtowncleanup.

MUSIC

Lively Up the Scene

The Plum Boys’ new EP keeps feel-good vibes

Alive.

BY ANTHONY MARIANI AND JUAN R. GOVEA

Whatever happened to danceable keybs-forward pop? It was quite a thing a couple of years ago before sort of dying off at the hands of the kinds of aggressive musics required for these aggressive times.

But don’t tell The Plum Boys. Frontman Fabian Aguilar, bassist Bobby Elder, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Caleb Jackson, drummer D’Andre Miskel, and multi-instrumentalist Connor Powell cut their ’80s-pop influences with moody lyricism to arrive at something like Blade Runner at da club.

The twenty- and thirtysomethings have just put out a new record that neatly encapsulates their ethos. Alive’s four tracks were recorded with Brandon Saiz (Leon Bridges backup singer Brandon Marcel, Dallas’ Sam Harvey) at his home studio in Hurst this past year.

Saiz, whom The Plum Boys knew had worked with up-and-coming Fort Worth pop singer-songwriter Averi Burk, approached them after a recent show, “and the rest is history,” Aguilar said.

Having played Tulips FTW, Lola’s, and many other North Texas venues since forming in 2020, including Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall, where the boys once opened for ’80s giants Flock of Seagulls, Aguilar and company celebrated the release of Alive at The Post a couple weeks ago and, more recently, at South by Southwest in Austin.

“It felt great,” Aguilar said. “We were glad to be a part of something so busy and exciting. Everyone walking around Austin was there to hear live music. The crowd was pretty packed out the whole night. There was a lot of foot traffic, and because everyone was there for the purpose of music, the crowd was very engaged and giving the energy back.”

After forming at the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, The Plum Boys released a single, “Lexi,” in 2021, followed by nearly 20 singles since then. The band put out its debut album, She, in 2022,

then the EP Velvet in 2024, plus four tracks in 2025. Most have accumulated 1,000-plus streams so far.

Alive’s first single, “Snorkel,” is a continuation of the sound the guys have been specializing in since Day 1, with lots of saturated instrumentation and dreamlike synths.

The lyrics are as passionate as ever. “Too much of my life,” Aguilar sings plaintively on the first single, “I’ve been lost inside my mind / Worrying about the life / That I’ve let pass me by / All the blindsided distractions / I let take up my time / Masochism is a crime / Can’t regret it this time / This time.”

One thing that separates Alive from the previous releases is its fearlessness. And urgency.

“We went this route,” Aguilar said, “because after writing a lot about love, we wanted to open our horizons with our writing and kind of force ourselves to go within and really write about things that we think about all the time and stress over: what’s going on in the world, being aware of our character as we go on this journey as musicians trying to figure out what success means, and just straight up just being confused about the world and wanting to grow. I mean, we feel this our most cohesive stuff so far, and we’re just excited to keep growing as musicians and artists and, most importantly, as people.”

Jackson added that Alive is The Plum Boys’ most personal project, but “it’s also a little fantastical and kooky along the way, answering existential questions with the good and bad as being musicians.

“What you’ll find through the EP,” he continued, “is the realities of growing up while feeling good and feeling scared. I think this EP is a favorite from our work, and it’s edgier. Maybe us Plum Boys are becoming men.”

Some of the songs are a couple of years old but still hold up more than well enough, Jackson said. “We want people to forget their worries and dance. Our generation especially is afraid to be zany and outwardly fun and free. We want to give that feeling to people with our work, too. We want people to groove and jam like nobody is watching. We are trying to bring it back.” l

SCREEN

Space Rock

The sun is nearly gone, so Ryan Gosling goes interstellar.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

It takes no genius to see the parallels between Project Hail Mary and The Martian. Both movies are based on novels by the same author (Andy Weir). Both have the same screenwriter (Drew Goddard). Both feature men who spend a lot of time talking to themselves because they’re all alone in space and it’s how they keep from going insane. Both have faith in science and human beings. However, only one of them is coming out this week. Maybe Project Hail Mary’s starry-eyed optimism is out of step with the culture, or maybe it’s what we need even more than we did in 2015. I don’t know which, but it’s more than entertaining enough to justify its ticket price and maybe even an upcharge for a premium format.

Like the novel, the movie begins with our man (Ryan Gosling) regaining consciousness on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Eventually, his memory returns in flashbacks that reveal that he’s Ryland Grace, a crackpot academic and middle-school science teacher. Some mysterious space microorganisms called astrophages are absorbing enough of the sun’s energy to endanger all life on Earth, so Ryland has gone on a mission approximately 12 light-years away to the star Tau Ceti to find out why it seems to be the only nearby star unaffected by the astrophages.

Ryland’s laboratory experiments with the astrophages on Earth make him the first human to contact an alien lifeform, but he makes an even bigger discovery at Tau Ceti: a faceless, fivelimbed, short-statured being from an exoplanet orbiting Sirius whose world is facing the same mass extinction as Earth. The creature’s rock-like appearance leads Ryland to name him “Rocky,” and much of the movie is these two organisms trying to figure out how to communicate and work together to save their respective worlds.

Ryland is often talking to this creature when he’s not talking to himself, but if any star can make this look easy, it’s Gosling. The co-star of Barbie is comfortable stumbling around on his spaceship and banging his head on the scientific equipment, but then he can also conjure the necessary gravitas when Ryland eulogizes the two astronauts (Ken Leung and Milana Vayntrub) who undertook the journey with him but died en route. His charm is precisely what the film needs.

Your mileage may vary regarding Weir’s sense of humor, which I liken to a physics professor joking about tachyons at open-mic night. However, one thing the filmmakers here share with him is

a willingness to drill down into the science of it all. Ryland’s expulsion from academia and his recruitment to the project both stem from his papers about the possibility of life without water, so he’s quite chagrined when he pokes an astrophage with a needle and finds it’s mostly made of water.

“It turns out I was wrong about the one original idea I’ve ever had,” he says.

Much of the movie’s 156-minute run time is all about the trial and error that goes into science, with Rocky eventually building a polyhedral cube that allows him to survive and move around aboard Ryland’s ship. Ryland then figures out how to translate Rocky’s vocalizations into English via his computer’s speech software (voiced by James Ortiz). He experiments with putting Meryl Streep’s voice onto Rocky’s words and marvels, “She really can do anything.”

The directing team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have engineered huge hits in both animation (The Lego Movie) and live action (21 Jump Street), and here they pull off the difficult task of making comedy in outer space, as Ryland first sees Rocky’s much larger ship and is alarmed to find it mirroring his own ship’s movements. The

setting creates both laughs and visual beauty that we haven’t seen in Lord and Miller’s previous films. When our protagonists reach an exoplanet of Tau Ceti’s, Ryland sees blue, green, and red swirls on the planet’s surface.

The flashbacks that take place on Earth don’t have the same pull, despite Sandra Hüller’s presence as the program director. The revelation about how Ryland came to be on this mission that’s likely to end with his death in space doesn’t have the impact that the filmmakers seem to think it does. Regardless, Ryland comes to realize that he can’t survive on his own, and I’m glad that Rocky is neither a demigod with superior knowledge nor a sidekick who’s there to be cute. Our main characters’ persistence in working together to save their civilizations is what gives Project Hail Mary its honest uplift. l

CLASSIFIEDS

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR AN AIR QUALITY STANDARD PERMIT FOR AN ANIMAL CARCASS INCINERATOR

PROPOSED AIR QUALITY REGISTRATION NUMBER 183102

APPLICATION. Next Step Services, LLC, 6450 Appian Way, Fort Worth, Texas 76135-9713 has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for an Air Quality Standard Permit, Registration Number 183102, which would authorize construction of an animal carcass incinerator. The facility is proposed to be located at 6450 Appian Way, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas 76135. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application. https://gisweb.tceq.texas.gov/LocationMapper/?marker=-97.50343,32.847202&level=13. This application was submitted to the TCEQ on February 20, 2026. The primary function of this facility is to properly dispose of animal carcasses through incineration. The executive director has determined the application was administratively complete on March 4, 2026.

PUBLIC COMMENT. Public written comments about this application may be submitted at any time during the public comment period. The public comment period begins on the first date notice is published and extends to 30 days from the publication date. Public comments may be submitted either in writing to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087, or electronically at www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record.

RESPONSE TO COMMENTS. A written response to all relevant comments will be prepared by the executive director after the comment period closes. The response, along with the executive director’s decision on the application, will be mailed to everyone who submitted public comments and requested to be added to the mailing list. The response to comments will be posted in the permit file for viewing. The executive director shall approve or deny the application not later than 30 days after the end of the public comment period, considering all comments received within the comment period, and base this decision on whether the application meets the requirements of the standard permit.

CENTRAL/REGIONAL OFFICE. The application will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ Central Office and the TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Office, located at 2309 Gravel Drive, Fort Worth, Texas 76118-6951, during the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The application, including any updates, is available electronically at the following webpage: https://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/airpermit-applications-notices.

INFORMATION. For more information about the permitting process, please call the TCEQ Public Education Program, Toll Free, at 1-800-6874040 or visit their website at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/pep. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687-4040. You can also view our website for public participation opportunities at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/participation.

Further information may also be obtained from Next Step Services, LLC, 6450 Appian Way, Fort Worth, Texas 76135-9713, or by calling Mrs. Morgan Miller in Air Quality Permitting at American Crematory Equipment Company, at (205) 715-3697.

Notice Issuance Date: March 4, 2026

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

CONSOLIDATED NOTICE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATION AND INTENT TO OBTAIN PERMIT AND NOTICE OF APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION PROPOSED PERMIT NUMBER: 181276

APPLICATION AND PRELIMINARY DECISION. International Aerospace Coatings, Inc., 5251 California Avenue, Irvine, CA 92617-3074, has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for issuance of Proposed Air Quality Permit Number 181276, which would authorize construction of an Aircraft Maintenance and Surface Coating Facility located at 165 American Concourse, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas 76106. This application was processed in an expedited manner, as allowed by the commission’s rules in 30 Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 101, Subchapter J. AVISO DE IDIOMA ALTERNATIVO. El aviso de idioma alternativo en espanol está disponible en https://www.tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/newsourcereview/airpermits-pendingpermit-apps. This application was submitted to the TCEQ on August 25, 2025. The proposed facility will emit the following contaminants: exempt solvents, hazardous air pollutants, organic compounds and particulate matter including particulate matter with diameters of 10 microns or less and 2.5 microns or less.

The executive director has completed the technical review of the application and prepared a draft permit which, if approved, would establish the conditions under which the facility must operate. The executive director has made a preliminary decision to issue the permit because it meets all rules and regulations. The permit application, executive director’s preliminary decision, and draft permit will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ central office, the TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth regional office, and the Fort Worth Public Library-Diamond Hill/Jarvis Branch, 1300 Northeast 35th Street, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The facility’s compliance file, if any exists, is available for public review at the TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Office, 2309 Gravel Drive, Fort Worth, Texas. The application, including any updates, is available electronically at the following webpage: https://www. tceq.texas.gov/permitting/air/airpermit-applications-notices.

PUBLIC COMMENT. You may submit public comments to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The TCEQ will consider all public comments in developing a final decision on the application and the executive director will prepare a response to those comments.

PUBLIC MEETING. You may request a public meeting to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The purpose of a public meeting is to provide the opportunity to submit comments or ask questions about the application. A public meeting about the application will be held if requested by an interested person and the executive director determines that there is a significant degree of public interest in the application or if requested by a local legislator. A public meeting is not a contested case hearing.

OPPORTUNITY FOR A CONTESTED CASE HEARING. You may request a contested case hearing if you are a person who may be affected by emissions of air contaminants from the facility. If requesting a contested case hearing, you must submit the following: (1) your name (or for a group or association, an official representative), mailing address, and daytime phone number; (2) applicant’s name and permit number; (3) the statement “[I/we] request a contested case hearing”; (4) a specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the application and air emissions from the facility in a way not common to the general public; (5) the location and distance of your property relative to the facility; (6) a description of how you use the property which may be impacted by the facility; and (7) a list of all disputed issues of fact that you submit during the comment period. If the request is made by a group or an association, one or more members who have standing to request a hearing must be identified by name and physical address. The interests the group or association seeks to protect must also be identified. You may also submit your proposed adjustments to the application/ permit which would satisfy your concerns.

The deadline to submit a request for a contested case hearing is 30 days after newspaper notice is published. If a request is timely filed, the deadline for requesting a contested case hearing will be extended to 30 days after the mailing of the response to comments.

If a hearing request is timely filed, following the close of all applicable comment and request periods, the Executive Director will forward the application and any requests for contested case hearing to the Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. The Commission may only grant a request for a contested case hearing on issues the requestor submitted in their timely comments that were not subsequently withdrawn. If a hearing is granted, the subject of a hearing will be limited to disputed issues of fact or mixed questions of fact and law relating to relevant and material air quality concerns submitted during the comment period. Issues such as property values, noise, traffic safety, and zoning are outside of the Commission’s jurisdiction to address in this proceeding.

RESPONSE TO COMMENTS AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ACTION. After the deadline for public comments, the executive director will consider the comments and prepare a response to all relevant and material or significant public comments. If no timely hearing requests have been received, after preparing the response to comments, the executive director may then issue final approval of the application. The response to comments, along with the executive director’s decision on the application will be mailed to everyone who submitted public comments or is on a mailing list for this application, and will be posted electronically to the Commissioners’ Integrated Database (CID).

INFORMATION AVAILABLE ONLINE. When they become available, the executive director’s response to comments and the final decision on this application will be accessible through the Commission’s Web site at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/cid. Once you have access to the CID using the above link, enter the permit number for this application which is provided at the top of this notice. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility’s general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application. https://gisweb.tceq.texas.gov/LocationMapper/?marker=-97.36245,32.81977&level=13.

MAILING LIST. You may ask to be placed on a mailing list to obtain additional information on this application by sending a request to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below.

AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. All public comments and requests must be submitted either electronically at www14.tceq. texas.gov/epic/eComment/, or in writing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about the permitting process, please call the TCEQ Public Education Program, Toll Free, at 1-800-687-4040 or visit their website at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/pep. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687-4040. You can also view our website for public participation opportunities at www.tceq.texas.gov/goto/participation.

Further information may also be obtained from International Aerospace Coatings, Inc. at the address stated above or by calling Mr. Arijit L Pakrasi, Edge Engineering and Science,Technical Lead at (832) 772-3009.

Notice Issuance Date: March 4, 2026

BULLETIN BOARD

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Maria Munoz v Kapil Davis In the Superior Court of California, County of Ventura in the matter of Maria Munoz, petitioner, and Kapil Davis, respondent. Case number: D419311

To Kapil Davis, Respondent, you are hereby notified that a divorce action (Petition for Dissolution of marriage) has been filed against you. You have 30 calendar days after the date this publication is complete to file a response with the court and have a copy served on the petitioner. If you do not respond by the deadline, the court may proceed in your absence and grant a default judgement for divorce, potentially deciding issues such as property division and other request without your input.

For legal advice, you should call an attorney immediately.

The original documents are on file with the Court Clerk at the address below: 800 S. Victoria Avenue, Ventura, CA 93009 The name, address, and telephone number of Petitioner's Attorney:

L. Paul Zahn, Esq. 877 S. Victoria Ave., Ste 216 Ventura, CA 93003 3/3/2026

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