Chef Point Cafe, the restaurant housed inside a Watauga Conoco station, officially closed on Saturday.
Paula Merrell and Franson Nwaeze opened Chef Point Cafe inside the gas station 20 years ago because they could not acquire a business loan for a full-sized restaurant. Nwaeze accomplished his dream in 2019 and opened a full-sized Chef Point in Colleyville.
“We accomplished the American dream!” Merrell wrote in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
One year after opening, the COVID pandemic hit, and restaurants began to struggle due to the labor shortage. The shortage has made operating restaurants “very challenging …. and it’s not getting any better,” according to Merrell.
Due to these challenges, Merrell and Nwaeze chose to shut down the Watauga location and focus on its full-sized counterpart in Colleyville.
“We want this to be a celebration and give Watauga the happy ending that she deserves,” Merrell wrote.
The celebration began on January 21 and continued until the unique eatery officially closed on January 29.
The Chef Point Cafe in Watauga certainly deserved a week-long celebration: the restaurant was a “hidden gem,” in the words of The Dallas Morning News, and was even featured twice on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, in its Funky Joints and Dynamite Desserts episodes.
It was also placed on the Food Network’s list of the “25 Most Over-The-Top Bloody Marys in America.”
Chef Point’s $39 Bloody Mary, the “Bloody Best,” was more than just a drink; topped not only with bacon, a jalapeño pepper, and a pickle spear, it boasted grilled shrimp, fried chicken, waffle fries, and a Nolan Ryan beef slider.
Merrell and Nwaeze still own the building of the Watauga location and will continue to rent it out to tenants.
The Colleyville Chef Point Cafe, located at 5220 TX-121, remains operational. The larger restaurant has a very similar menu to the original location in Watauga, so patrons can still enjoy many of the same dishes, if not at the same locale.