Beloved Fort Worth-area restaurant Vance Godbey’s closing doors

Vance Godbey’s, a North Texas staple of homestyle meals served buffet-style for nearly 60 years, is closing its doors for good.

The ranch-style family restaurant northwest of Fort Worth in Lakeside will serve its last Sunday dinner to the public Oct. 11, owner Carol Godbey, daughter of the founder, confirmed Tuesday in a phone interview. But the company, which for many years has been open to the public only on Sundays, will remain open year-round as a catering business, keeping its fleet of trucks.

The building at 8601 Jacksboro Highway in Lakeside, near the shores of Lake Worth in northwest Tarrant County, will be available for private parties, she said.

The restaurant opened in 1956 and quickly became known as a go-to place for down-home cooking. The buffets often included barbecued brisket, filet mignon, turkey, chicken, ham and fried chicken or chicken-fried steak.

Even during a special occasion such as Christmas or Easter, the price was reasonable, patrons remembered. A holiday buffet in the mid-2000s still cost roughly $17 per person, less than half what restaurants in a more urban part of the Fort Worth area might charge.

Debbie Robertson of Graham recalls how when she was growing up in the 1960s, she and her parents, Ray and Doris Herring, would make regular trips to the restaurant.

“I can remember after my church my mother would say, ‘Let’s go to Vance Godbey’s,’ and we’d drive up there and eat,” Robertson said. “By the time we got back it was time to go to church again.”

It was nothing to make the 160-mile, round-trip drive, she said, noting that her family also celebrated birthdays and anniversaries at Vance Godbey’s.

“I can’t believe it’s closing,” Robertson said.

Community philanthrophy

Founder Vance Godbey, who had previously owned barbecue restaurants in and around Fort Worth, opened the ranch house restaurant in 1956, according to the eatery’s website. Family members and friends questioned the decision to locate in such a remote area, but at the grand opening on Easter Sunday that year, the crowd was so huge the place ran out of food.

Vance Godbey was also known as a community philanthropist with a giving spirit that lasted more than a half-century. He was known to raise money for firefighters’ families and for charities all over town. He reportedly served 350,000 pounds of barbecued pork to folks at the Presbyterian Night Shelter and other nonprofit organizations.

The restaurant also raised $25,000 for widows of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Vance Godbey sold the business to daughter Carol before his death in 2003 at age 83, After the patriarch’s death, family members kept the restaurant open Sundays.

Similar food was available at chain cafeterias such as Furr’s, Luby’s or Golden Corral. But residents said they preferred the quality, local flair and country atmosphere of Vance Godbey’s.

It was always worth the drive.

The original restaurant structure, which had 5,000 square feet of space, was destroyed in a 1962 fire. But Godbey and his employees cleaned up the mess and rebuilt it, expanding the building’s footprint to 12,000 square feet. They reopened in 30 days.

Carol Godbey said she plans to continue philanthropic work with the business, and hopes to expand the catering.

“This is not the end of Vance Godbey’s,” she said. “We’re going to continue the legacy.”

Carol Godbey said she is a breast cancer survivor who wants to spend more time volunteering for cancer awareness. She also wants to travel a bit.

“I decided my gift to myself for my 60th birthday is to spend more time enjoying life,” she said.

But even after the ranch-style restaurant closes to the public, it will stay in her memories. The Godbey family lived in the building, so many of her childhood memories are within those walls.

“I rode my tricycle through the dining room,” she said.

Staff writer Lee Williams contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Beloved Fort Worth-area restaurant Vance Godbey’s closing doors."