Famous on TikTok as a gas station grill, Chef’s Corner finds new Fort Worth home
The Chef’s Corner has moved up.
From its beginnings last year in a gas station grill that became a TikTok phenomenon, the tiny cafe has moved into a big east Fort Worth restaurant with a bar, a patio and lots of homestyle Southern food.
Chef Mike Douresseaux, from Beaumont with family in central Louisiana, started with Southern favorites such as praline chicken-and-waffles or seafood gumbo.
But he wanted to do more.
So, he serves brown-sugar-maple lamb chops and a signature blackened catfish, along with turkey legs stuffed with sausage, shrimp, or crawfish and dirty rice.
Now customers from the old Chevron on Loop 820 are finding their way to 1201 Oakland Blvd., in a shopping center just north of Interstate 30.
“The gumbo, the dirty rice — these are family recipes,” said Douresseaux, a consultant who has worked for years doing menus for senior living centers, hotels and hospitals.
Chef’s Corner is his own cooking, the dishes he grew up learning along with those he’s always wanted to try.
He took over the former Turkey Den restaurant and kept that menu, adding a small barbecue selection.
“Good Southern food is very distinctive and you’ve got to get it right,” he said.
He talks at length about the work he puts into simple dishes like the yams, collard greens with smoked turkey or the peppercorn cream gravy made with pan drippings.
Aside: My grandmothers were born in 1890 in Virginia and 1892 in Georgia.
Douresseaux’s chicken-fried steak and cream gravy tastes like my family’s — not like today’s deep-fried slabs covered in pasty white glop.
The Chef’s Corner sells more lamb chops than anything else, he said, maybe because they come in that brown-sugar maple syrup.
He also serves roasted lamb shank and braised lamb loin, both with a choice of sides like the garlic mashed potatoes, cabbage, green beans or mac-and-cheese.
There’s also a choice of fried catfish or shrimp, and po’boy sandwiches at lunch.
The prices reflect the hard work. Dinners sell for $15-$30, with lunches for $10-$12. There’s an $8 kids’ menu.
The Corner moved to Oakland Boulevard in April, but Douresseaux said the online listings and social media are just starting to catch up.
Some days at the gas station, he would serve 600 lunches or more. The customers are just beginning to find the new Corner.
“We moved over here, but I haven’t had any social media yet,” he said.
“New people are coming in the door and saying, ‘We found you!’ “
Chef’s Corner is open for lunch weekdays, for brunch from 10 a.m. weekends and for dinner nights except Sundays; 682-301-1031, chefscornerftworth.com.
This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
