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| 12/15/2008 11:58:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Hutto's delicious little secret
Café makes Texas Monthly list of best
KATHRYN EAKENS
Leader Staff
Everyone in Hutto knows the Texan Café is the place to go if you're craving authentic Texas home cooking.
And now that the writers at Texas Monthly know about the cozy little café in Hippo town, the rest of the state will too.
The Texan Café was recently featured in the magazine's December issue as one of the 40 best small town cafés in the state - an article editor Jake Silverstein called the largest and most exhaustive food service story Texas Monthly has ever written.
"For this story we had 39 people who were involved with sampling food all over the state," Silverstein said. "We traveled 24,000 miles; we ate at 350 different cafes; and all told we gained a cumulative 60 pounds. And what we found was this café was one of the 40 best in the state."
The Texan Café was founded in 1996 by Bud and Deb Wheeler, and - after a decade of building a reputation on its home cooking and wide selection of pies - the couple sold the restaurant to Roger Joughin and Ron Yaudes in 2006.
"I kept hoping they would choose us, of course, but I was just totally amazed when I read the final article - how many restaurants they checked out and that we were one of the 40 they actually chose," Joughin said. "There are so many good little restaurants out there and that we were chosen above so many others is just wonderful."
Joughin was brought up on a farm in Michigan, raising livestock and plowing fields. And though he spent a number of years managing corporately owned restaurants and following pre-set menus, Joughin was always looking for ideas he could use once he owned his own "down home" café.
"We have our own little twists and turns on some of the food and I brought in some of my grandmother's recipes I liked as a kid," Joughin said. "Everybody is so used to the chains where everything is exactly the same.
"Every week or so I see where people are almost afraid to come in here and eat because we're not a chain. They're just a little leery because they don't know what they're getting. It's been so gratifying to see them get totally relaxed after they start to eat and realize, 'Wow, they actually serve really good food here.'"
"The point of this piece was really to find the places that are still doing things home-cooked, old-fashioned food the way it ought to be and there are fewer and fewer of those places unfortunately as time goes on so we really want to notice and recognize a place that is still doing that," Silverstein said.
The café's twists and turns have given the Texan what the magazine calls "an inventive way with classic fare."
"Don't be perplexed by fried pickles. They're lightly battered and surprisingly delicious," the Texas Monthly article says. "Homemade onion rings have a spicy cornmeal crust, and the T's in the BLT are fried and green. Sides are fresh and tasty, especially the palate-cleansing cucumber salad and the Grumpy Potatoes, which left us anything but."
And the pies - oh the pies.
The café's desserts are so popular the Texan hosts a Pie Happy Hour from 3 to 5 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday where customers can get a slice of pie and a nonalcoholic beverage for $3.74.
During other hours a slice of pie costs $3.75.
"Baked on the premises every morning, the pies are unfussy yet creative," reads the article. "There were sixteen the day we visited, including a peanut butter variety that makes Reese's seem like kid stuff. Don't miss the Pie Happy Hour, an institution that we imagine has caused a marked decline in late-afternoon productivity in the Hutto metro area."
Joughin said he changes almost every day when it comes to his favorite item on the menu.
"I eat the burgers way too much; we have awesome burgers," he said. "I like the catfish. I like the ham. The Cobb salad is awesome too. I eat pretty much everything on the menu."
And Joughin admitted - though who could really blame him - he eats pie almost every day.
"Quite often at the end of the night when everyone else is gone, I just look down there to see what's left there as an orphan and it's like, 'Might as well clean that plate out and take it home with me.'"
The Texan Café is located at 207 East St. in historic downtown Hutto. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday and is closed on Monday. For more information call 846-2885 or visit the Texan's Web site at texancafe.net.
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