Glenn Gaidousek always wanted to own and operate a restaurant, and, for the past six years, the U.S. Army Desert Storm veteran has done just that at Compadres Texas Cafe in Oak Ridge North.
Although the Tex-Mex and Southern comfort food restaurant was previously operated for two years by other owners, Gaidousek bought Compadres Texas Cafe in 2011 and carried on with the original concept.
“We just came in and tweaked it,” Gaidousek said. “[We] got with the cooks and taught them not to be scared to make it good, to season everything and make it home cooking. It’s paid off.”
Some of the most popular menu items are chicken-fried steak, chicken-fried chicken, enchiladas, burgers and omelets. Over the last few years, Gaidousek has added four Texas burger options and four Southwest platters to the menu.
“What’s good about us is you can come in here and get something completely different five or six days a week,” Gaidousek said. “Our menu is pretty broad.”
Compadres Texas Cafe also offers salads and sandwiches on its menu, Gaidousek said. The cafe offers various jars of jam, hot sauce and barbecue sauce for guests to purchase and take home. Additionally, although the restaurant does not have a license to sell liquor, guests are welcome to bring their own alcoholic beverages, he said.
One of Gaidousek’s strategies is to run monthlong specials so customers have a chance to try the dish more than once, he said.
“I try to run a special for a month; that way people get used to it, and they know if they come back in two weeks, it’s still going to be there,” he said.
Homemade desserts are featured each week on the restaurant’s Facebook page—which has gained a large following—and range from bread or banana pudding to apple or cherry pie.
Compadres Texas Cafe serves breakfast all day, and the restaurant is especially busy on weekends, Gaidousek said.
“We have a packed house on weekends,” he said. “During the week, we have periods where we could grow more—especially at lunch and dinner—but weekends are pretty full.”
As Montgomery County continues to grow, Compadres Texas Cafe continues to see more customers, Gaidousek said. He hopes to add a second Compadres location in The Woodlands area in the next year or two.
“We have grown dramatically here,” he said. “We’ve almost quadrupled our sales since we’ve been here, and it’s still going up.”
