Hey Dallas, it's time to drive to Waco for dinner
The Butcher's Cellar is the newest of several restaurants weekend roadtrippers from Dallas-Fort Worth should consider.

Waco is a "completely different city" from 30 years ago, say residents Matt Fatheree and Matt Koen.

The Matts are the co-owner and general manager, respectively, of The Butcher's Cellar, the newest upscale restaurant to open in the Waco suburb of Woodway, Texas. The Waco of yesteryear had Baylor University and a quiet downtown. The Waco of today has championship college athletics, lobster sushi tacos made by reality TV chefs, and spruced up, shiplapped homes thanks to Fixer Upper couple Chip and Joanna Gaines.

"A lot of things have happened that helped Waco explode," Fatheree said. The city is now nearing 150,000 still a homey place by some standards, but no longer small. Flashy tech deals like SpaceX's rocket engine facility in nearby McGregor and an Amazon fulfillment center in Waco have made this central Texas area a new home for out-of-towners.

"Waco is eccentric yet humble, revitalized yet evolving. It is nothing if not authentic," said Rebecca Aydelotte, lead tourism counselor for the Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau. "Magnolia [the Chip and Joanna Gaines empire] may beckon, but visitors stay for much more.".

Fatheree and his wife, Tiffany, co-own The Butcher's Cellar and a home decor store called The Findery in downtown Waco, just a few blocks from the Gaines' Magnolia Market. For years, the Fatherees would drive north on Interstate 35 to Dallas whenever they wanted a steak dinner. Town Hearth in the Dallas Design District is one of their favorites. Nothing in Waco could come close, Matt Fatheree said. "I wished we could do it better." He's a quiet, humble guy who spent most of his career running an insurance company before he had a massive stroke. Tiffany said it was their moment "to start over and slow down." Matt loves to cook and Tiffany loves to host, and he convinced his wife to open a destination restaurant on the west side of Waco, one intended to attract locals, football weekend visitors and roadtrippers who might have otherwise zoomed down I-35 without stopping.

But will people stop? Weekenders from Dallas will need a place to stay, and Waco is working on that, too. In November 2023, Waco's first family, the Gaineses, opened Hotel 1928. It's a moody spot in a historic building with a Roaring Twenties feel. Newer still is Hotel Herringbone, a 21-room boutique hotel that opened in March 2024. Its monochromatic bathrooms in bold colors like aviation blue, jade, coral and violet look more like a magazine spread than real life, but that's the new Waco.

With both of these hotels come restaurants oozing with cosmopolitan style and Texas warmth. That's true of coastal-Mediterranean restaurant Red Herring, rooftop hotel spot Bertie's, new bar Maria Mezcaleria and The Butcher's Cellar. Even the Terry Black's Barbecue family has taken notice of Waco, and their growing barbecue empire opened in Baylor territory in April 2024. Opal's Oysters, a higher-end seafood restaurant named after the owners' grandmother, is expected to open in late summer or early fall 2024. Co-owner Christina Black went to Baylor University and said she has been interested in opening a restaurant in Waco since at least 2020, after Terry Black's Barbecue successfully expanded from Austin to Dallas. Opal's will be the Black family's first restaurant that isn't barbecue. "When we were looking for property in Waco, what we were finding was a space that was bigger than what we wanted for Terry Black's Barbecue. So we talked to local people [and asked] 'What does Waco need?'" she said.

Black believes the answer is a seafood restaurant that could work in a bigger city but is purposefully placed in the "big small town" of Waco.

The Butcher's Cellar will be the newest restaurant in the Waco area, and it opens Friday, May 17, 2024. It's the Fatherees' first restaurant. Near its location on U.S. Route 84, the Fatheree family purchased adjacent lots to open a home-cooking restaurant and potentially a third eatery someday.

They've been Waco businessowners for years, but this investment shifts them away from their bread and butter home decor and insurance and into a new world of hospitality. They're more than 8 miles from downtown Waco. That's a long way, some might have said years ago, but Waco isn't the same town, anyhow.

"That's our goal, to grow the culinary experience in central Texas," Matt said.

2 TV chefs

TV made Waco famous. Those who had never heard of the town 100 miles south of Dallas probably learned about it on the evening news in 1993, when the FBI launched a 51-day siege on religious group the Branch Davidians.

A better view of Waco came in 2011, when Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy and brought attention back to Texas in a way we're more comfortable: for football. But after Griffin left, a string of sexual assault allegations made against other football players at Baylor in 2015 and 2016 again tainted the reputation of the school and by association, the town.

But lovable couple Chip and Joanna Gaines, who arrived on TV in 2013 with their low-cost home design fix-ups on HGTV, has kept Waco thriving.

After their arrival, Waco became known as the affordable central Texas town somewhere between Dallas and Austin that you'd seen on TV. And it isn't all that surprising that the Fatherees asked their favorite TV chefs to run their Wacoadjacent restaurant.

Alejandro Najar and Alyssa Osinga, both Season 21 contestants on Hell's Kitchen, were first characters on the Fatherees' TV screens in 2022 and 2023. The Fatherees watched Hell's Kitchen, and Najar reminded them of their son, Cason.

Tiffany took a chance and Instagram-messaged Najar. Did he want to open a restaurant in Waco?

No answer.

Eventually, he responded, "text me." And she did.

Then more silence.

Once they finally talked by phone, a deal was made fairly quickly, and the two reality TV chefs Najar from Ohio, Osinga from Florida agreed to pack their bags. The chefs started dating after they met on Hell's Kitchen and told the Fatherees they were a package deal.

"It was one of those rare occasions where sliding into someone's DMs actually worked," Najar said.

Their menu at The Butcher's Cellar is a his-and-hers montage: The sushi section is mostly created by Osinga, who worked at Nobu in Chicago. Najar takes credit for the steaks and some of the small plates like lobster tagliatelle and oxtail gnudi. He said he has more of a "mom and pop" style in restaurants.

He's the executive chef and she's the chef de cuisine. But everybody knows who keeps the wheels on the tracks: "She's a spicy little spitfire," Tiffany said.

Osinga said the change of pace in Waco has been an adjustment. When she lived in New York City, she didn't have a car. Now, she drives to work every day, often past wide open spaces.

She hopes people from Dallas will drive to their west-of-Waco restaurant, to give it a big-city chance.

"We're hoping we can become a destination point," she said. "And we want to set standards for other Waco restaurants."

The Butcher's Cellar is at 13701 Woodway Drive, Woodway. It opens May 17, 2024.

loanbear said:

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william said:

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... and sitting quietly, unmentioned yet again:

The ATM.



- KKM

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What is that?

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"Sir, this is an Arby's"