Chef, grocery partners near deal to buy 95-year-old Paris Coffee Shop in Fort Worth
Chef Louis Lambert and the investors remodeling Roy Pope Grocery have a tentative deal to buy the 95-year-old Paris Coffee Shop, Lambert said Monday.
Mike Smith, the Paris’ owner and main pie baker for 55 years, said that a deal is close, but “they’re not done yet.”
“They’re interested,” he said. “We’ll see.”
Lambert, founder of several Austin restaurants and a co-founder of Dutch’s Hamburgers, said he expects his team with investors Rodger Chieffalo, Mark Harris and Chris Reale to complete the deal.
“We want to embrace the Paris Coffee Shop because of its great history, its great location and what it means to Fort Worth,” Lambert said.
If his group buys the Paris, they will operate it until midyear and then remodel the dining room and kitchen, Lambert said.
Tentative plans call for breakfast, lunch and dinner service daily along with a full bar.
Lambert compared his plans for the restaurant to those for Joann’s Fine Foods on South Congress Avenue in Austin, adjacent to a relative’s Austin Motel.
“We’ll still have meatloaf and chicken-fried steak,” he said.
The Paris, 704 W. Magnolia Ave., is located in what was originally built in 1941 as a Safeway grocery across Hemphill Street from the original Paris location. The restaurant is named for founder Vic Paris, but Smith’s family has owned it for 88 years.
Smith and the restaurant’s meringue pies have been featured on the Food Network’s Ace of Cakes and listed among the nation’s best in USA Today, and the chicken-fried steak has been heralded in Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood series.
In May, Lambert and investors bought Roy Pope Grocery, 2300 Merrick St., a neighborhood meat market, grocer and bistro. It’s being remodeled and will reopen as soon as January, Lambert said.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 3:03 PM.
