Waco is “a totally different town” than it was 30 years ago, resident Matt Fatherly said. and Matt Cohen.
Matt and his wife are co-owners and general managers of The Butcher’s Cellar, the newest fine dining restaurant to open in Waco, Texas, a suburb of Woodway. Waco was once home to Baylor University and a sleepy downtown. Today, Waco is home to championship college sports, lobster sushi tacos made by a reality TV chef, and… Fixer Upper Chip and Joanna Gaines.
“There were a lot of events that happened that contributed to the Waco explosion,” Fatherly said. The city now Population 150,000 — still cozy by some standards but no longer small — and glitzy tech deals like the SpaceX rocket-engine facility in nearby McGregor and the Amazon fulfillment center in Waco have made this Central Texas region a new home for people from the suburbs.
“Waco is quirky yet humble, vibrant yet evolving — authentic yet authentic,” said Rebecca Aydelot, chief tourism counselor for the Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Magnolia [the Chip and Joanna Gaines empire] It may be attractive, but visitors stay for more than that.”
Fatherly and his wife, Tiffany, co-own The Butcher’s Cellar and The Findery, home decor stores in downtown Waco, just a few blocks from Gaine’s Magnolia Market. For years, when they wanted a steak dinner, the Fatherlys would drive north on Interstate 35 to Dallas. Town Hearth in the Dallas Design District is one of their favorites; Matt Fatherly said there’s nothing comparable in Waco.
“I wish I could have done better.”
He’s a quiet, humble man who spent much of his career running an insurance company before a severe stroke. Tiffany said it was time to “start over and slow down.” Matt loved to cook and Tiffany loved to entertain, so he persuaded his wife to open a destination restaurant on Waco’s west side that would attract locals, football weekend tourists and road trippers who would otherwise be zipping around non-stop on I-35.
But will people stop? Weekend visitors from Dallas need a place to stay, and Waco is working on that. In November 2023, Waco’s first family, the Gaineses, opened Hotel 1928, an atmospheric place with a Roaring Twenties vibe in a historic building. Even newer is Hotel Herringbone, a 21-room boutique hotel that opened in March 2024. The monochromatic bathrooms, with bold colors like aviation blue, jade, coral and violet, look more like a magazine cover than real life, but that’s the new Waco.
The two hotels are home to restaurants that exude cosmopolitan style and Texas warmth, including coastal Mediterranean restaurant Red Herring, Bertie’s on the hotel’s rooftop, new bar Maria Mezcaleria and The Butcher’s Cellar.
The Terry Black’s Barbecue family has their eye on Waco as well, with their growing barbecue empire opening in the Baylor area in April 2024. Opal’s Oysters, a fine-dining seafood restaurant named after the owner’s grandmother, is scheduled to open in late summer or early fall of 2024.
Co-owner Christina Black, who attended Baylor University, said she has been interested in opening a restaurant in Waco since at least 2020, after Terry Black’s Barbecue expanded successfully from Austin to Dallas. Opal’s will be the Black family’s first non-barbecue restaurant.
“When we were looking for a property in Waco, we found a space that was bigger than we were looking for for Terry Black’s Barbecue, so we started talking to local people. [and asked] “‘What does Waco need?'” she said.
Black believes the answer is to purposefully set up a seafood restaurant in Waco, a “big little town,” that could succeed in a larger city.
Butcher’s Cellar will be the newest restaurant in the Waco area, opening on Friday, May 17, 2024. This is the first restaurant for the Fatherly family, who have purchased adjacent land near their store on U.S. Highway 84 and plan to open a home-style restaurant, with plans to open a third eatery in the future.
They’ve been in business in Waco for years, but this investment will take them away from their home decor and insurance businesses and into the new world of hospitality. They’re more than eight miles from downtown Waco, which some might have said was a long way years ago, but Waco just isn’t the same city it used to be.
“Our goal is to expand the Central Texas culinary experience,” Matt said.
2 TV chefs
Television made Waco famous: People who had never heard of the town 100 miles south of Dallas likely saw it on the evening news in 1993, when the FBI launched a 51-day siege against the Branch Davidians, a religious group.
Waco’s reputation improved in 2011 when Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy and Texas returned to the spotlight in a way that is familiar to us all: football. But after Griffin left, a series of sexual assault allegations emerged against other Baylor football players in 2015 and 2016, once again tarnishing the school’s, and with it the town’s, reputation.
But Waco continues to thrive thanks to Chip and Joanna Gaines, the beloved couple who debuted on HGTV in 2013 showing off their low-cost home renovations.
After they arrived, Waco became known as the affordable Central Texas town halfway between Dallas and Austin that you often see on TV, and it’s not so surprising then that the Fatherlys asked their favorite TV chef to run their restaurant next door to Waco.
Alejandro Najar and Alyssa Osinga were contestants in season 21. Hell’s Kitchenwas the character who first appeared on the television screens of Fathers in 2022 and 2023. Hell’s Kitchenand Najjar reminded them of his son, Kasson.
Tiffany seized the opportunity and messaged Najjar on Instagram. Did he want to open a restaurant in Waco?
There is no reply.
Eventually, he wrote back, “Text me,” and she did.
Then there was silence again.
After finally speaking over the phone, the deal was quickly made and the two chefs starring in the reality show, Najjar from Ohio and Osinga from Florida, agreed to pack their bags and hit the road. The chefs began dating after meeting on TV. Hell’s Kitchen And they told the fathers that it was a package deal.
“It was one of those rare instances where sliding into someone’s DMs actually worked,” Najjar said.
Butcher’s Cellar’s menu is a mix of male and female: The sushi section was primarily designed by Osinga, who previously worked at Nobu in Chicago, while the steaks and small plates, such as lobster tagliatelle and oxtail gnudi, are handled by Najjar, who says he keeps the restaurant in a “mom and dad” style.
He’s the executive chef, she’s the head chef, but everyone knows who’s in charge: “She’s a spicy little lady,” Tiffany says.
Osinga has had to adjust to a different pace of life in Waco: He didn’t have a car when he lived in New York City. Now he drives to work every day, often through the open plaza.
She hopes Dallas people will drive to her restaurant west of Waco and give her a chance to open in the big city.
“We hope to become a destination,” she said, “and set a standard for other restaurants in Waco.”
The Butcher’s Cellar is located at 13701 Woodway Drive in Woodway. It will open May 17, 2024.
Other restaurants and hotels mentioned in this article are Hotel 1928 at 701 Washington Street in Waco (including The Brasserie at Hotel 1928, The Cafe at Hotel 1928 and Bertie’s on the Rooftop), Hotel Herringbone at 319 South 4th Avenue in Waco (including Red Herring and Lucky Bucks (with Song Bird and Nite Lite Donuts coming soon)), Maria Mezcaleria at 724 Austin Street in Waco, and Terry Black’s BBQ at 228 South 8th Avenue in Waco. Terry Black’s will also have Opal’s Oysters, scheduled to open in late 2024.
