Trey Chapman is the Creator of Trey's Chow Down, Drink With Trey, and Trey's Chow Down T.V.. Always searching for the best chow, drink, chef's and good times for our fans and followers!
About six months ago I heard details of a new restaurant PERCH that was going to open on top of the new Frost Bank Tower in downtown Fort Worth. I thought what a wonderful idea. A brand new high-rise building with a brand new restaurant where the sky would be the limit.
My family has been in the restaurant business for over 100 years. All my life has been in the restaurant industry, and I follow a personal policy… don’t visit a new place until they’ve been operating for a month or two. I’ll go to openings, review parties, and media presentations, but I don’t review for at least a month or 60 days. Too many procedures can change when a new place opens. The staff, menu items, kitchen operations, and even the front of the house is trying to find their groove. You have to be fair and give them time so everyone and everything flows operationally perfect for a review visit.
We visited the new high-rise cafe Perchfor the first time this evening. I believe they’ve been open about eight weeks now, so you know I was ready.
The CHR Age Beef Tender Meat Balls.
When you research the word PERCH the definition from dictionary. com, the result is; a pole or rod, usually horizontal, serving as a roost for birds. any place or object, as a sill, fence, branch, or twig, for a bird, animal, or person to alight or rest upon. a high or elevated position, resting place, or the like.
My writings, blogs, travel post, ranch happenings, and delicious food posts don’t include negativity or negative connotations. I’m always upbeat and I tell jokes. I live, laugh, love, eat, drink, and travel to the best of life. However, I felt it necessary to write about a dark topic; suicide, death, my mother, and Anthony Bourdain.
This subject is close to my heart. The day I saw the news about Anthony Bourdain taking his own life, it had me thinking deeply.
Anthony Bourdain Chef, Story Teller, Traveler, TV Host
When I read Bourdain took his own life I hopefully believed it was “fake news” or a prank. I spent an hour researching the event and came to the
realization that is was true… and I just couldn’t believe it.
I have never met him, and I do not know him on a personal level. I watched his shows and loved the level of honesty about travels, cooking, people, kitchens, and political views. Throughout my research about Bourdain’s life, I found that he has stated his suicidal thoughts before, and has wrestled with demons his entire life. I felt an empty space in my heart for the way he must have felt for years.
There are a lot of parallels between Bourdain and my wonderful mom, Carol.
My mother Carol Cartwright Chapman was lively and an honest woman with a compassionate heart the size of Texas. She was so lovely that people would stop just to stare at her beauty and talk to the incredible woman with the big smile. I know folks say this all the time but it was true EVERYONE LOVED her, and if you didn’t, it’s because you never had a chance to talk with her.
Carol loved to help people, in fact, I think she wore a permanent candy striper uniform because she volunteered at the children’s hospital so often. Traveling made her so happy. She adored to tell stories, have great grand meals, loved cocktails, and enjoyed parties.
Carol Chapman: Mom, Volunteer, Travler, Socializer, Lover
I believe it is important to be transparent about these issues because someone else out there might be able to relate.
Just like Bourdain, she had demons that ate her up daily. I’m not exactly sure why, but I think she drank and did drugs for the same reasons Bourdain did the same things. He has been honest about these issues in interviews. My mother Carol would regularly say to me, “Trey, if something happens to me don’t spend all the money and take care of yourself!” I would always say, “Mom WTF are you talking about? You’re incredibly beautiful, everyone loves you, and you live a charmed life. Nothing will happen to you, ever!” She would smile and tell me, “You just never know Trey.”
Today, and every day, I say to myself, what the f@#k was I thinking? Why did I not see the signs? They were there all along every time she told me that. After her death, I found out she tried to commit suicide two times before and she wasn’t successful. She had been taken to the hospital and no one told me. You don’t think I didn’t feel like someone hit me in the head with a steel pipe?
At first, you go through the angry stage, the “Why?” stage, then the forgiving stage, then back to the “Why” stage. You end up staying at this stage. It’s something that will eat at your daily thoughts because you want to know the answer to the questions; Why did she do it? Why didn’t she ask for help? The same thoughts came up when I heard that Bourdain had committed suicide.
The answer to that question is… they don’t even know what’s wrong. I’m pretty confident that no one really knows why they do it, and especially the ones committing suicide!
I am sure people never thought Anthony Bourdain would do this. He seemed happy, he was successful, rich. He was traveling and eating around the world on an extremely successful television show and won some of the biggest awards and worldwide accolades.
Taste Addison returns with a weekend full of great food, live music and tons of family fun. It was a three-day menu of fun, May 18 – 20, the festival pairs bites from dozens of the town’s favorite eateries with great music at Addison Circle Park. The entertainment was amazing. On Friday, May 18, Whiskey Myers followed by North Texas’ very own Casey Donahew. Headlining the festival on Saturday night, May 19, was the Academy of Country Music award-winning group, Eli Young Band with opening Cory Morrow. On Sunday, May 20, we took a trip down memory lane with classic hits from great tribute bands. The food was delicious and creative Trey’s Chow Downand Drink With Trey had a fantastic time.
Mayfest-Fort Worth is a four-day festival on 33 acres in Trinity Park in Fort Worth, Texas. It was May 3-6, with music, carnival rides, games, festival food, special attraction shows, art market, dance performances, and “BEST OF THE FEST” food contest where we judged all the creative fair food. I’m always impressed with the creativity of the food dishes. This year marks the 46th anniversary of Mayfest, and Trey Chapmanwith Trey’s Chow Down was excited to be a judge again for the 2018 year.
Please enjoy our photo galley and reshare on social media for all to enjoy!
When I was a boy, I remember riding in the backseat and driving by Angelo’s BBQ in Fort Worth, Texas. You could smell BBQ two blocks up the road before even getting there. That was over forty-five years ago, back when the DFW area had only a few barbeque joints. The usual order was limited to ribs, brisket, or chopped beef. There wasn’t nearly as much selection of BBQ as we have today.
Boy… have times changed. Change is good, and delicious. The BBQ market has gone crazy with all kinds of creative dishes and innovative ideas. We have old ol’ fashion BBQ, craft BBQ and some BBQ that I’m not even sure how to classify it. Pitmasters and chefs will stop at nothing to create mouth-watering deliciousness to send our foodie senses into overdrive. Everyone is competing for the next incredible dish and smoking up Texas with the best BBQ chow downs.
The competitiveness for the best barbeque has resulted in techniques that perfectly yield insanely good flavors on the finest meats. Foodies around the world have fallen in LOVE with Texas BBQ time after time. Chefs are replicating and doing it up Texas style. The bigger the better, just like everything in Texas. The best restaurants have chef driven menus, farm fresh house prepared sauces, and create bold BBQ flavors. Trust me, I’ll show you the best of the best places to chow down on barbecue.
