Tastytown Cafe is just a blip on a map of Corsicana, Texas. Owner, John Paul Plemons describes it as, an “820 square foot empire, complete with two booths, a drive-through with no speaker, and the best burgers around.” John Paul and his wife, Lora, have been open for less than 2 years, but they’ve already won multiple awards, including Best Burger 2-year in a row.
They haven’t always been in the burger business though. John Paul was a truck driver and owned an oil field trucking business, but in 2020 things started to go downhill. “It took a couple of years” for the business to go completely under, he told me as he described watching his business tank.
He’s also a cattle rancher, and so is his long-time best friend James. One afternoon, James was telling John Paul that he had too much round steak on hand; John Paul said they should just make some steak fingers.
So that’s how it all began. The steak fingers were so good that James told John Paul he should open a food trailer. One thing led to another and John Paul bought one thinking that he and Lora could open it occasionally on weekends, but he parked it on his land and forgot about it. In 2022, he was working for another trucking company when they shut down. He went straight home, to the trailer and started working on it.
John Paul and Lora took the food trailer for its maiden voyage to a small town, expecting that it would be a nice, easy introduction to the food service business, but they soon found out there was nothing easy about food service.
Their processes were too slow, there were too many customers and not enough help. Their daughter, 10 years old at the time, took control of the situation, keeping them out of hot water. She took orders, manned the cash register, and kept all the old farmers who were waiting for burgers, happy. They described it as a disaster, but I figure it must not have been too bad, they stuck with it.
They learned everything the hard way, with no restaurant experience, but they stuck with it. They learned the best place to park the trailer, to try to keep it cool. They learned about inventory control, and it didn’t take them long to learn that they needed some help. First, they hired someone to come in and clean the trailer in the evenings. “It was just too much to work all day, and then get up early and deep clean the trailer the next morning,” before prepping for the day, Lora told me.
In April of 2023, the food trailer got too hot and they had to make a change. They were looking for a small cafe, they had a long list of desires but nothing fit the bill. Then unexpectedly, they found their new home. The little, VERY little, Chinese food restaurant across the street was up for sale all 820 square feet of it.
After deep cleaning, installing a new walk-in cooler, upgrading the AC, and many more rehab projects, they were up and running with their first brick-and-mortar location.
John Paul supplies all of the beef for the restaurant, and any events the food trailer does. When you order a burger at Tastytown Cafe, it comes from one cow, and they know from start to finish what that cow went through; from how it was fed to how it was processed. All of it is dry-aged, and hormone and antibiotic-free. No mystery meat here.
My tasting started with the cheeseburger. A 7-ounce grilled-to-perfection patty, on a toasted, buttery bun, made to your specifications. Mine had mustard, mayo, American cheese, and all the veggies. The patty was well seasoned, with a robust meaty flavor, and a well-balanced fat content. They’re happy to customize any of their burgers, so go crazy and add all the things you love to a burger.
The next to come out was a Swiss and mushroom burger with mayo, grilled onions, and thickly sliced bacon added to the top. This was a richer, heartier burger.
If you’re looking for something a little lighter this year, the salads were fresh, crisp, and
loaded with veggies; lettuce, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, onion, and carrots. Then they stack on either crispy or grilled chicken and bacon. You can choose your dressing but believe me, you want the jalapeno ranch. Ok, so maybe it’s not a whole lot lighter, but at least there’s no bun. Oh wait, there are croutons on it. Oh well, it’s worth it!
When you order the chicken tender basket, they’re hand-battered with a light, well-seasoned batter, and fried to golden perfection. They were juicy and tender on the inside and crispy on the outside.
It comes with a side of Tastytown sauce, a creamy, zesty sauce, that John Paul created and is made in-house daily. This stuff was good on everything, so make sure you get extra!
I got the opportunity to taste one of the newest menu items, the chicken peperjack BLT and it was incredible. A juicy chicken breast resting on grilled Texas toast, covered in a layer of melty pepper jack cheese, multiple slices of applewood smoked bacon, lettuce, and tomato. This was a massive sandwich and you’d better bring your appetite if you order it.
I was so excited when I heard that they had a fried bologna sandwich. But this is not the fried bologna from your childhood. This was a half-inch thick slab of bologna, grilled and served on buttery Texas toast, with mustard, lettuce, and tomato.
Fries, onion rings, and tots are all available for order on the side; they come out hot, and crispy-crunchy. Dip them in the jalapeno ranch or Tastytown sauce for flavor perfection.
I love loaded fries, of basically any sort, but these brisket-loaded fries were out of this world. Hot crinkle-cut fries loaded with brisket smoked by John Paul daily, then they add chopped bacon, grilled onions, grilled fresh jalapenos, jalapeno ranch, and hatch pepper queso.
The dish that stood out as my favorite was the ranch popper. A warm, grilled bun, topped
with a 7-ounce patty, gooey pepper jack cheese, fresh grilled jalapenos, bacon, and drizzled with jalapeno ranch. Then if that wasn’t enough, they stack a couple of crispy onion rings on top. It was messy, dripping sauce and juice, and every bite was a not-to-spicy bite of heaven. The grilled fresh jalapenos are what made the difference for me; I loved the bright pop of fresh flavor it brought to the burger. Hands down, one of the best burgers of my life.
When you’re looking for one of the best burgers of your life, you need to take the backroads over to Tastytown Cafe in Corsicana, Texas. Tell John Paul, Lora, and the crew that I said howdy, and make sure you show up hungry. You’ll be glad you did!
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111 Northwood Blvd, Corsicana, TX 75110
