Jim Murray said he can trace his love of the restaurant industry back to a childhood trip he took with his dad.

“My dad took me to Arnaud’s in New Orleans when I was 12,” Murray said. “We sat at the table in the kitchen, and I just loved the energy and the great food. I was hooked.”

Following decades of industry experience, Murray opened Prairie House Restaurant in Cross Roads in 1989, and in 2018, he opened a second location in Old Town Lewisville.

What’s special about it?

Murray said he chose to restore the circa 1886 building which formerly housed the Lewisville Feed Mill, where he previously bought hay, because he “loves old buildings.”


“This [building] was super cool,” Murray said. “I’m the only one crazy enough to actually do it. Anybody else would have bulldozed the building.”

Murray bought the building in 2016 and took two years to renovate the building including rebuilding 110 feet of walls, removing 20,000 pounds of tar off the roof, redoing the roof, putting in concrete piers and more.

Murray said he felt the undertaking would be worthwhile because the location lines up with his business model.

“The attraction of the old downtown, the classic part of it, [attracted me] because we’re a classic restaurant,” Murray said. “Our roots are Texas-based so we wanted something that was [authentically] Texan.“


What’s on the menu?

The menu features Texas fare such as barbecue, chicken fried chicken, chicken fried steaks, catfish and other seafood, steak and more.

Murray said he created the recipes for the menu items by pulling from his decades of experience in the restaurant industry as well as culinary influences he drew from his parents.

“My mom was a Texan, kind of a hillbilly. My dad had a lot of European influences in him so he was a gourmet cook, and my mom was a real country cook,” Murray said. “The cobbler is my mom's recipe. I always say, ‘If you don't like it, you better lie about it.’”


Quote of note

Karlie Casillas, general manager of Prairie House Restaurant, started working as a server at the eatery in 2018.

“We get a lot of grandparents who come in and have memories of their kids, who are now adults, riding their bikes around the mill or having conversations with Mr. Polser when this was an operating feed mill,” Casillas said. “It's rich in history and we take that very seriously. I love hearing the stories of people who come in—The stories are important to them and they are important to us.”