Tommy’s Hamburger Grill on Camp Bowie Set for Long-Awaited Reopening
by Stephen Montoya
“We’re uber, uber excited,” Kelly Smith said as she surveyed the progress at her eatery. “I just want to see our customers come back in and see their reaction.”
Kelly Smith, owner and operator of Tommy’s Hamburger Grill, is all smiles as she looks over the newly refurbished space inside her restaurant on Camp Bowie Boulevard. Over a year ago, a fire wrecked the kitchen and part of the entryway, where the bar that greeted customers through the front doors once stood. Now, instead of smoke and debris, the more than 2,500-square-foot restaurant is home to exposed industrial beams, a redesigned dining room, expanded bar seating, and a few surprise menu items to boot.
The reopening of Tommy’s Hamburger Grill at 5228 Camp Bowie Boulevard is expected in mid-June, bringing one of Fort Worth’s long-term neighborhood burger joints back to the Westside after more than a year of reconstruction and renovation. The Camp Bowie store joins Tommy’s other locations on Forest Park Boulevard and near another near the Ridgmar Mall, but for many regulars, this location has long felt like home.
“We’re uber, uber excited,” Smith said as she surveyed the progress at her eatery. “I just want to see our customers come back in and see their reaction.”
That connection between Tommy’s and Fort Worth stretches back more than four decades. Smith’s parents opened the original Tommy’s in 1983 out of a Texaco station in Lake Worth, where hungry Lockheed workers began stopping in for burgers cooked on a small pancake grill.
“Everybody smelled them,” Smith said. “And then we had to put in a commercial kitchen, because that’s what everybody wanted.”
Tommy’s opened its Camp Bowie Boulevard location in 2002 and quickly became part of the rhythm of the corridor, serving generations of regulars who returned for burgers, catfish, homemade chips, and the restaurant’s famously addictive ranch dressing.
The fire on May 9, 2025, interrupted the restaurant’s 23-year run on the historic bricks. Smith said the blaze started in the kitchen before spreading into the front of the restaurant, leaving smoke damage throughout the building.
“You couldn’t walk in here without that smell,” she said.
Still, the forced rebuild gave Tommy’s an opportunity to rethink the space without losing the personality customers enjoy about the space. The drop ceilings are gone now, replaced by exposed industrial beams and a more open layout. A new bar area anchors the front room, which Smith hopes will become a gathering place for sports fans and craft beer drinkers alike.
Tommy’s plans to feature 16 beer taps, including local Fort Worth favorites alongside Texas staples like Shiner.
“We like to support local,” Smith said.
The remodel also preserved a piece of the restaurant’s history. A mural of the Fort Worth skyline on the east wall, dating back to 2002, survived the fire despite heavy smoke damage and has since been cleaned and reframed.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve done here,” Smith said. “And I’m so grateful we could save that ol’ mural.”
Along with the redesign comes some updated menu items that lean into Tommy’s more unexpected favorites. A permanent addition to the refreshed menu is the kimchi burger that won the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival burger competition in 2023. The burger combines fresh kimchi, Gouda cheese, and a Thai chili sauce that became so popular as a special that Tommy’s decided to add it to the menu permanently.
The restaurant has also introduced a new patty melt made with Nolan Ryan Beef, smoked Gouda, grilled onions, pickles, and spicy mayonnaise served on Texas toast.
Still, Smith insists some of Tommy’s biggest crowd-pleasers remain the dishes customers least expect from a burger restaurant.
The catfish strips — based on an old family recipe — remain a staple, while the homemade ranch continues to inspire near-universal loyalty among regulars.
“When we ask if people want ranch, it’s kind of a joke,” Smith said. “Everybody wants ranch with everything.”
That loyalty carried Tommy’s through the long months following the fire. Customers continued calling the restaurant’s other locations to ask when the Camp Bowie locale would reopen, while many long-term kitchen and wait staff were prepared to return once the doors reopened.
“We love the other Tommy’s(locations), but we want to get back home,” Smith said of what customers kept telling her.
For Smith, the reopening also represents another chapter in the ongoing evolution of Camp Bowie Boulevard, where she says restaurant owners and local businesses have increasingly supported one another rather than competed.
“From Kincaid’s over, we all support each other here,” she said. “And that’s the benefit of opening and running a business in this section of Fort Worth.”