Ownership change at a Fort Worth cafe: The ‘mayor of Magnolia’ retires after 55 years
Chef Louis Lambert’s deal to buy the Paris Coffee Shop is final and he will take over March 15 from 55-year owner Mike Smith, both said.
Smith, heralded for pies, will retire that week from the 95-year-old plate lunch cafe, 704 W. Magnolia Ave.
Managers and staff will run the Paris and bake the pies through summer, Lambert said. Then, the restaurant will be remodeled to bring back more of the 1960s look of its original location one block east at 614 W. Magnolia Ave., Lambert said.
When the Paris reopens, it will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and add beer and wine offerings, he said.
The Paris will follow Lambert’s immediate venture, the reopening within weeks of Roy Pope Grocery, 2300 Merrick St.
Lambert, co-founder of Dutch’s Hamburgers and several Austin restaurants and coffee shops, is teamed up with investors Rodger Chieffalo, Mark Harris and Chris Reale.
Lambert compared the restaurant to 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 Stores supermarket (now Albertsons/Tom Thumb).
The restaurant is named for founder Vic Paris, but Smith’s family has owned it for 88 years, moving to the supermarket location in 1975.
Smith, jokingly nicknamed the “mayor of Magnolia Avenue,” 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. The chicken-fried steak has been heralded in Jane and Michael Stern’s “Roadfood” series.
This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
