If you crave fresh, home-cooked food like grandma used to make, consider taking a road trip to Hico and pulling up a seat at OmaLeen’s.
OmaLeen’s serves a fusion of farm-to-table Cajun and New American cuisine in Texas’ Hill Country, about 100 miles from Dallas.
The popular dining establishment is the vision of Austin and Shannon Odom and is named after their grandmothers, Oma and Willene. The restaurant held its grand opening in December and has seen steady traffic since.
“If our grandma’s names are on it, then we better be doing good,” Shannon told CBS News Texas.
A restaurant of this caliber is rare for a small town with just over 1,300 people. However, even in Hico, pronounced “High-ko,” the restaurant is often packed, drawing patrons from as far as Dallas and Houston.
“The brunch was excellent and the margaritas are phenomenal! As a native Texan, it really means something when I say that OmaLeens may have the best margaritas in TX.. no joke. Go try one (or two) and tell me I’m wrong!” wrote reviewer Heston Williams in February.
Shannon says the restaurant continues to get “busier and busier.” While you can drop in and take your chances grabbing a table for brunch, dinners are available only by reservation.
Like your grandma’s cooking, the meals are made from scratch. Ingredients are sourced locally, providing hungry visitors with fresh cuts of meats and vegetables from farms in the area.
While the Odoms have no formal training in the culinary arts, they have a rich history of cooking, passed down from their families.
“My mom always pushed me to be creative with the food we had at home. She’d tell me to come up with ‘concoctions’, and so that’s what I would do. A couple of potatoes, some shredded cheese, ground beef and some eggs could turn into a delicious casserole, one hearty enough to feed our family of 5,” wrote Shannon on Facebook on March 6.
“So now, my whole job is centered around creating ‘concoctions’. I just get to play with a lot of fun ingredients,” she posted.