SAN ANGELO, TX — The Cork & Pig will soon open its seventh location in Abilene this month. The restaurant concept is chef-driven Americana food with the specialty pizzas cooked in a wood-fired oven. There are currently 5 other locations, in Las Colinas, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, and Southlake. The original Metroplex Cork & Pig that was on 7th Street in downtown Fort Worth was closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Once Abilene opens, there will be six locations.
Co-founder Filipe Armenta of San Angelo, who is busy opening a dozen additional restaurants around the Metroplex, each with different themes and concepts, said the 7th St. location was becoming more a bar than a restaurant and the location was losing its appeal. He said the shutdowns in 2020 offered him an opportunity to close it down.
“Locations change. Areas change. And for our brand and for what we did it just didn’t fit any longer,” Armenta said.
Armenta said his mother, Maria, with whom he toiled in the family-owned Armenta’s Cafe in San Angelo, was who gave him the inspiration to become a professional chef. After trying out a semester at Angelo State University in 2000, he found a job offer he couldn’t refuse with the Hillstone Restaurant Group in Los Angeles. After earning a culinary degree and obtaining 10 years experience in Beverly Hills and the Southland, Armenta moved back home to San Angelo with a little cash and big dreams to open The Grill, 5769 Sherwood Way.
He put every penny he owned into The Grill and by the time he opened, he had overspent his budget by $250,000.
“I cooked every plate and hand-delivered every one of them for the first two years,” Armenta said of the early days of The Grill that opened in 2010.
Armenta still owns the restaurant today. Early success at The Grill attracted the attention of his best friend John Nestor with whom Armenta worked at Hillstone. Nestor was between culinary schools, one in Paris and the other in Italy, and agreed to come to San Angelo temporarily to help Armenta and his then-wife Virginia Dalbeck, who he also met at Hillstone (more about her), with The Grill. Long story short, Nestor cut short his schoolwork in Italy and moved to San Angelo to partner with the Armentas to open the first Cork & Pig Tavern, today located at 1407 Knickerbocker.
Sometime during all of this, the Armentas divorced and Filipe moved to a small apartment in Fort Worth. Dalbeck stayed with the partnership in San Angelo while Filipe said he was spoiled by Los Angeles and wanted to expand his culinary ideas in a big city. He opened a restaurant called the Tavern in Stonegate Crossing in southwest Fort Worth. A slew of restaurants followed for Filipe, including The Press Cafe, The Pacific Table, and Maria’s Mexican Kitchen, a tribute to his mom who originally inspired him.
The original trio, Armenta, Dalbeck, and Nestor, joined forces with another partner, Ed Buenaventura, to open the Cork & Pig Tavern in Odessa. The partnership also opened a sister restaurant called the Red Oak Kitchen in Odessa.
Armenta is keen on the characteristics of differing clientele at the various locations, scattered from the middle of the Metroplex in Las Colinas to Odessa. He said Odessa is the highest-grossing restaurant in the Cork & Pig family not only because of the number of patrons. Almost all patrons in Odessa order more appetizers, drinks and more main courses there, he said.
"They like to eat. It’s a meat and potatoes kind of town," he said.
Perhaps Abilene offers the same opportunity?
The Abilene Cork & Pig tavern is scheduled to open sometime this month in Allen Ridge, in the 2400 block of North Judge Ely Blvd. They’ve been hiring since Nov. 21. The partners promise to announce the exact date on their Facebook page. “Staffing is the biggest challenge in the restaurant business today,” Armenta, now 44, said.
Armenta lives in the Metroplex. He is married again and has four children ages 9, 6, 2, and 6 months. In his spare time, he collects cars.
Filipe is welcome anytime to come on our show, the LIVE! Daily TV News and tell his story if he dares.
About the cover photo: Rapid success and growth in San Angelo is illustrated by the original location of the Cork & Pig pictured above. A former gas station at 2201 Knickerbocker Rd. was also back in the late 2000s the location for a stand-alone and hip coffee shop named Texas Coffee. After the former Johnny Carino's Italian restaurant -- a franchise location -- was closed several doors down, the Cork & Pig partners seized the opportunity and moved down the street. Meanwhile, the former location was demolished. A Firestone store -- new building and all-- was built on the former location. This is the demolition of what was the original Cork & Pig Tavern prior to building that Firestone in a photo that was in our archive. We didn't want to give away the name of the restaurant on the socials (-;
Below is a 50-minute-long interview with Filipe Armenta on the FORTitude Fort Worth Podcast recorded in August 2022 where we gathered his story.
Restaurateur & Chef Felipe Armenta FORTitude FW Podcast Ft Worth
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