A dozen years ago, Sarah Castillo landed back home in Fort Worth with $25 in her pocket. Having satisfied her post-college wanderlust, she was sure of just one thing: “I knew I needed to to start my own business.”
Today, she owns four Fort Worth restaurants and bars, employs about 100 people, and harbors a headful of dreams yet to manifest.
Everywhere she’d gone till then, Castillo banked experiences that might inform what’s next. After graduating from Paschal High School and going to the University of Texas on golf scholarship, she majored in American studies and enjoyed the Austin lifestyle. Moving to Aspen with sorority sisters, she worked at ski and golf shops where she asked wealthy clientele about their businesses. She then worked in the boutique hotel business in New York City before spending time in Spain and Majorca. Her money eventually ran out, and she returned to Fort Worth.
“I started driving my mom’s minivan, the one she’d had since I was a kid. The driver’s door didn’t work, so I had to get in the other side and crawl over to drive,” says Castillo of her humble homecoming in 2009. She got a job waiting tables as part of the opening team at Eddie V’s, and she “fell in love with the restaurant business.”
Castillo served food and drink at night and worked for the Texas Rangers during the day, helping with events and operations. With income from the two jobs, she planned to move back to Austin to find a career and life. Meanwhile, she played golf with the restaurant managers. One day, she made breakfast tacos for an early golf round, and that night she dreamed she started a food truck.
“I told my mom about the dream, and she said, ‘You can do this,’” Castillo recalls, eyeballing the trend as it gathered steam in Fort Worth. “With the development happening here on 7th Street, I knew I had to be a part of it.”
Her first Taco Heads trailer, dispensing handmade tacos and ice-cold bottles of Topo Chico, made a big hit outside of Fort Worth bars. In time, she added two trucks, and Taco Heads became a fixture at outdoor events. Her green salsa became such a hit, she began bottling it for sale, too. A brick-and-mortar finally happened.
“We signed on our space on Montgomery Street, wanting it for a commissary kitchen — but we decided to turn the property into a restaurant and cantina,” Castillo says of opening the first Taco Heads shop in 2016 on a lot facing what’s now the massive Dickies Arena.
She brought on partner Glen Keely, who opened the popular downtown bar Thompson’s Bookstore in 2017 — “Glen is so bar-savvy, and we needed that!” — and they recruited chef Christian Lehrmann. The trio christened their company Neon Light District, after the neon lights that distinguished the Taco Heads food truck, and soon the team began cranking out bigger, bolder plans.
After opening a Dallas Taco Heads on Henderson Avenue in 2017, NLD found a Near Southside property in Fort Worth in 2018 for an upscale Mexican restaurant and bar called Tinie’s Mexican Cuisine. Named for Castillo’s mom Christina — her nickname is Tinie, pronounced “Theeny” — the restaurant occupies a two-story, century-old building that harbored myriad structural issues. After nearly two years of work, Tinie’s opened with a dynamic menu of achiote roasted pork, bone-in strip steak with chimichurri, aguachile de camaron, and sensational meat empanadas, along with a sophisticated cocktail menu served from a rooftop bar — one week prior to the March 2020 pandemic shutdown.
Tinie’s eventually rebounded, but COVID-19 shuttered Taco Heads in Dallas. The NLD team turned its focus to the Fort Worth Stockyards. With style infusion from their 97W designers and a host of other talent, Sidesaddle Saloon opened in March 2021 after nearly two years of work. A fashionable bar bearing a smart cowgirl theme, Sidesaddle occupies a space in Mule Alley, a renovated 108-year-old complex of horse and mule barns deep within the Stockyards National Historic District.
Named for historically famous women of the West, cocktails like the Prairie Rose Henderson (bourbon-spiked Texas tea, raspberry and rose water) and Wilma Mankiller (vodka, dry Curacao, hibiscus syrup and lime) prove both elegant and tasty. Better yet, they make good pairings with sharable plates like country ham with pimento cheese, pickled veggies and toasted sourdough; smoked brisket flatbread; bison tartare; and duck confit tacos.
“The food is all Christian — it’s so good but uncomplicated,” Castillo says of her chef-partner’s cuisine. “And Glen’s cocktails are perfect.”
The group barely took a breath before expanding Taco Heads: In early August, Castillo unveiled the second Fort Worth location in the Stockyards. Moving into a rehabbed century-old building right on the weathered red brick North Main Street, Taco Heads v.2 offers an expanded menu — the chicken enchilada taco shouldn’t be missed, nor should the spicy shrimp ceviche — and a significantly expanded bar. Margaritas are on tap, and there’s a “Big Effing Rita,” measuring 24 ounces, too. Neon-lighted interiors offer plentiful seating, and there’s good hang space outdoors, too. A walk-up window is a bonus; the Stockyards district allows guests to move about on sidewalks with adult beverages in hand.
Meanwhile, the original Montgomery Street Taco Heads is getting a facelift. Big crowds coming for major concerts at Dickies don’t have another eating-drinking spot within easy walking distance, and Castillo learned her little taco-margarita joint wasn’t ready for prime time when the George Strait crowd descended nearly two years ago.
“There were two-hour waits to get in, and drink orders were taking 20 minutes,” Castillo remembers with a grimace, vowing that the Michael Buble and Blake Shelton audiences coming this month will be much happier. “I want people to come to Taco Heads for a great evening, especially if they’re spending hundreds of dollars on a ticket.”
The improved Taco Heads offers an expanded pedestrian entrance, an indoor-outdoor patio that’s easily cooled and heated, more and larger restrooms — and the expanded menu recently introduced at the Stockyards shop. People happening by as she prepares to reopen in a week or so may find Castillo replanting cactus or getting dirty with other chores.
“People know I’m a hard worker, and it’s not unusual to find me in the dish pit, if that’s where I’m needed,” Castillo says, grinning her megawatt smile. “There’s no ego with me. If something’s not working, I have no problem asking for advice — that’s what’s so great about Fort Worth, everyone’s willing to help each other.”
Observers heap praise on Castillo, as well, noting that her vision takes on more polish with maturity.
“Sarah’s built this empire pretty quickly, and it has to do with the same tenacity that got her started — she’s ambitious and has a fearless sense of optimism that it’s going to work and everyone’s going to love it,” says Megan Henderson, communications and events director for the Near Southside. She also notes that Castillo always put local creators to work on her restaurant designs and construction.
“Her energy is contagious,” she adds. “When you’re around her, you feel like you’re part of her dream and success.”
Eat with Sarah
Find Castillo’s restaurants and bars in four Fort Worth locations.
Taco Heads, 1812 Montgomery St., 817-615-9899, tacoheads.com.
Taco Heads Stockyards, 2349 N. Main St., 817-420-6299, tacoheads.com.
Sidesaddle Saloon, 122 E. Exchange Ave., Suite 240, 817-862-7952, sidesaddle-saloon.com.
Tinie’s Mexican Cuisine, 113 S. Main St., 682-255-5425, tiniesfw.com.
