![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Quincy-Wallace-Outside-Freds-Crowley_Courtesy-of-The-Cooper-Studio-1-scaled.jpg\")
Quincy Wallace stands outside the new Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe in Crowley. (Courtesy photo | Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe, photo by The Cooper Studio)\u00a0<\/p>\nThe community was all smiles at the Feb. 3 ribbon cutting of Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe \u2013 Crowley, but none were happier to hear the chatter, clatter and sounds of people swapping stories around the restaurant than longtime resident Jeanette Burns.<\/p>\n
Her father, Ray Legg, owned the building and operated Legg\u2019s Super Saver, a grocery and retail business that dates back to 1887, when it opened as the Hays Brothers General Store and Post Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDaddy\u2019s store was sort of a meeting place,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThe older men, who were retired, would gather there and sit on a wooden bench out in the front and talk about who knows what. But there was real life there. I remember that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The older men would \u201cspit and whittle,\u201d she recalled, but her father\u2019s store, which he owned from the late 1950s to the mid-\u201970s, was a center of social life in the city that then had a population of about 2,500 and was well outside of Fort Worth\u2019s city limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quincy Wallace, president of Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe, knew nearly from the moment he found the location that it was a fit for Fred\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The \u201cspit and whittle\u201d social aspect appealed to him and to Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe\u2019s laid-back, counterculture cowboy charm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to expand. That\u2019s our goal, but it has to be just right for us,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cThis was just perfect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fred’s knows a thing or two about breathing life into old buildings. The burger restaurant began life in a once-dilapitated area off 7th Street in 1978.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After that area underwent redevelopment, the main location moved west to a former Steak and Ale restaurant site at 7101 Camp Bowie West Blvd. They also have a restaurant at 2730 Western Center Blvd. in north Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crowley is its first location outside of Fort Worth city limits, albeit by only a few extra-long french fries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quincy Wallace stands outside the new Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe in Crowley. (Courtesy photo | Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe, photo by The Cooper Studio)\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t just the city\u2019s Mayberry-ish small-town feel that caught Wallace\u2019s eye. There was a solid business reason: Crowley\u2019s population now exceeds 20,000 and is growing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou drive down here from Fort Worth, and you\u2019ll see new rooftops after new rooftops,\u201d he said. \u201cWe like that. Lots of new Fred\u2019s customers to serve, and lots of our regular customers are from here too. It made business sense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A tour of the new Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe in Crowley. (Courtesy video | Fred\u2019s Texas Cafe)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fred\u2019s is bringing \u2014 along with its menu of 18 burgers and other items \u2014 a bit of the restaurant\u2019s funky Western chic in the form of an original chuck wagon that originated with the Springfield Wagon Company in Bolivar, Missouri.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was purchased by a group of chuck wagon enthusiasts, including Terry Chandler, the original owner of Fred\u2019s on Currie Street, Wallace and others who cooked on the wagon at ranches across Texas for about 25 years. It was officially retired in 2020 and now lives inside Fred\u2019s Crowley location.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The restaurant, newly renovated with bright white paint on the exterior, has room for 220 people inside and another 60 in the soon-to-come patio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some of those people may be locals, but Fred\u2019s customers come from far and wide, Wallace said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fred\u2019s was featured on Guy Fieri\u2019s Food Network show, \u201cDiners, Drive-Ins and Dives\u201d in a classic segment<\/a> in 2009 that created a sudden nationwide buzz for the restaurant. In 2024, a spin-off show, Triple D Nation, filmed a follow-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the buzz lives on. Customers often ask for a dish featured on \u201cDiners, Drive-Ins and Dives\u201d more than 15 years ago, the chipotle brown butter rib-eye. It\u2019s not on the current menu, but Wallace recommends the restaurant\u2019s popular Diablo Burger instead as it is similar to the steak consumed by the spikey-haired host.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Diablo Burger has chipotle peppers sauteed in brown butter and served atop a burger with grilled onions.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why exactly, but it\u2019s been very popular lately,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cMaybe they\u2019re rerunning the program, but the original segment put us on the map nationwide.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Crowley location will be helmed by some Fred\u2019s veterans, including Cliff Whaley, as director of operations; Adrien Lewis, general manager; and Sharry Darby, kitchen manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019ll be Fred\u2019s through and through,\u201d said Wallace. The restaurant will employ between 40 and 50 workers, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Crowley Mayor Bill Davis, the restoration of the historic building is just what the city needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFor generations, this corner of Main Street has been a place of connection and everyday life,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are excited to see this historic building beautifully restored, preserving its character while allowing it to continue serving Crowley well into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Crowley\u2019s future is likely to include more people. The North Texas Tollway Authority approved a $250 million, 13-mile expansion<\/a> of the Chisholm Trail Parkway from two to four lanes<\/a> from Crowley Plover Road\/FM 1187 in Tarrant County to U.S. Highway 67 in Johnson County.<\/p>\n For Burns, seeing the new restaurant breathe life into the town she grew up in and loves is more than just a memory for her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI loved seeing all the comments on the Crowley Facebook page from people writing about their first ride to Legg\u2019s Super Saver,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a rite of passage growing up in Crowley to be old enough to ride your bike down to Legg\u2019s and get a cold drink.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Her father\u2019s business was not just important as a social gathering spot, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf a new mother needed milk for her baby on a Sunday morning, Dad would go down to the store, open up and bring it to her,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her father also extended credit to families in need, Burns recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNo family in Crowley ever went hungry as long as Daddy ran the store,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just the way he was, and the way our family is.\u201d<\/p>\n Burns is the mother of Joel Burns, a former Fort Worth city councilman for the Near Southside who currently represents the city on the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport board of directors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jeanette Burns said the community has already embraced Fred\u2019s new location.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been there three times already, and it\u2019s been packed each time,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She admits she tears up a bit to see the building become the center of Crowley once again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt brings back such memories. I love preserving old buildings,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s smart business, but they don\u2019t need to just sit there. They need to have life, and Fred\u2019s brings that.\u201d<\/p>\n If You Go\u00a0<\/p>\n