Sweet Tea Cafe, Smithville, Texas - Where everyone has a seat at the table
- takinthebackroads
- Feb 17
- 4 min read
“We wanted to make sure that everyone had a seat at the table; [not] just the ones that could afford it. We wanted everyone to know that they had a place.” Jessica and Randy Walker, owners of Sweet Tea Cafe in Smithville, Texas, explained to me as we sat at the corner table visiting.
When I walked in, the cafe was alive with chatter, clanking silverware, and deep belly laughs, like it was a joyous occasion - it was just a regular Saturday afternoon at the cafe. One corner had a play area for kids, and the other hosted a relaxing sitting area where you could chill and enjoy a drink from the bar, or wait for your table to open up.
This cozy little cafe, nestled in Downtown Smithville, opened in October 2024, with a warm reception from the community, and surrounding areas.
Jessica grew up in the Smithville area. Her dad owned a small engine repair shop in town that often acted as her daycare. As a young adult, she went to culinary school in Austin and worked in a few restaurants. Her husband Randy was from Houston, and he worked off-shore as a maintenance supervisor. Having small children, Jessica left the restaurant industry to work in property management, but she and Randy decided that his working a month on and a month off just wasn’t sustainable anymore.
One morning, while sitting downtown eating breakfast, they saw a for-lease sign on the building across the street, and they decided to open a cafe. Within three months, they had gutted and remodeled the building and were open for business, serving scratch-made classics.
Jessica described growing up in this community and seeing how some customers of her dad’s shop weren’t able to pay. “They would always bring something though; they would bring us food, meat from a cow they’d butchered or vegetables from their garden.” So when she and Randy started designing their menu, they wanted to make sure there was something for everyone on the menu. They added items that were specifically hearty meals, at a lower price point. “We wanted to make sure that everyone had a seat at the table; [not] just the ones that could afford it. We wanted everyone to know that they had a place.”
While tasting the food, I noticed a distinct difference between it and that of many other places. With a chuckle, Jessica explained that it was because she was “a crazy person.” Everything is scratch-made. Every seasoning blend, bread, and even the mayo is made in-house. Everything is fried in beef tallow because that’s how they do it at home. And they’re not going to serve you something they wouldn’t cook for their kids.
Sweet Tea Cafe, Smithville, Texas - Where everyone has a seat at the table
The food is simple, yet beautifully presented like sitting down at some southern Grandma’s kitchen table for lunch.
The spinach salad came out first. A bed of fresh, bright green spinach topped with plump
blueberries, sweet strawberries, and crisp red onions, then sprinkled with crumbled goat cheese. It was all drizzled with a house-crafted vinaigrette with the perfect balance of sweet and tangy. Nestled on top of all that were four massive grilled shrimp; seasoned perfectly, with just a hint of spice to compliment the flavors of the salad.
The rainbow trout was pan-seared in olive oil and butter until flakey in the middle, with a golden brown crisp along the outer edge. The trout was seasoned light enough that the flavor of the delicate fish was the star and not an overpowering seasoning blend. It was served with a side of fluffy garlic mashed potatoes and crisp-tender broccolini.
A ⅓ pound juicy burger patty was perfectly seared on the outside, and medium on the inside, then topped with a slice of melty cheddar cheese and all the veggies. Mustard and house-crafted mayo coated on the homemade bun to round out the perfection of their homestyle burger. It was served with a pile of hot crispy hand-cut fries that truly tasted like potatoes and not grease.
Few things make me think “homestyle” more than a plate of meatloaf, and this was the best meatloaf of my life. A slow-smoked meatloaf, made with no fillers, it was moist and topped with a homemade tomato sauce that complimented the flavor of the beef. Fluffy feels like a weird way to describe meatloaf, but it was. To the side was a mound of garlic mashed potatoes and a helping of perfectly seared green beans. If I was forced to pick a favorite of the day, this would be it, but it would be a tough decision.
A few things that stood out to me about this cafe were how the natural flavors of the foods shone through. Everything was well seasoned, but only to the point of complimenting the flavors of the food, not overtaking them. The items that were fried didn’t taste or feel like grease. It was obvious how fresh the veggies and the bread were. This is a cafe that I would be happy to eat at multiple times a week, and I would feel good about the meal I just had when walking away
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117 Main St, Smithville, TX 78957
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