{"id":225867,"date":"2026-03-29T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T14:37:10","slug":"in-a-city-of-less-than-600-this-texas-cafe-is-serving-legendary-chicken-fried-steak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/225867\/","title":{"rendered":"In A City Of Less Than 600 This Texas Cafe Is Serving Legendary Chicken-Fried Steak"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary’s Cafe has been serving customers in the small town of Strawn, Texas, since 1986. Inside the cafe’s kitchen, owner Mary Tretter stands before a\u00a0flattop grill,\u00a0holding a ladle of melted butter and a metal spatula.\u00a0Strawn sits north of Interstate 20, between Fort Worth and Abilene, and is home to 540 residents. At Mary’s Cafe, Tretter is in the kitchen every day, cooking the homestyle food that keeps hungry folks returning. The cafe’s most popular dish is a hearty portion of tender, chicken-fried steak drenched in country gravy. The steak is a local legend, praised for its portion size, flavor, and crunch. Mary’s Cafe may have small-town surroundings, but it has been called one of the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The chicken fried superstar is a\u00a0\u00be-pound spread of tenderized cubed steak.\u00a0You can order smaller portion sizes, like the medium CFS, which is a more modest\u00a0\u00bd-pound of breaded beef cutlet. The components of Tretter’s spice blend and breading are well-guarded, but those secrets are consistently browned to perfection and adorned in melted butter. Tretter told the\u00a0Texas Country Reporter<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0she always serves the steak on its own plate with nothing covering it so customers “can see what they are getting.” It might also be because nothing else will fit. Creamy gravy is served on the side, leaving the option to dip, dunk, or smother up to the diners.<\/p>\n

Read more: What JD Vance Actually Eats<\/a><\/p>\n

More to order at Mary’s Cafe and how to make chicken-fried steak at home\"Homemade<\/p>\n

Homemade chicken-fried steak on white plates with mashed potatoes. – Agave Photo Studio\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

If the chicken-fried steak at Mary’s Cafe isn’t what’s calling, perhaps a two-pound cheeseburger is more your style. Yes, 2 pounds of ground beef make up the patty, which is dressed with burger toppings that fans can’t live without<\/a>: cheese, onion, lettuce, and tomato. Patrons who aren’t in the mood for beef at all may gravitate toward another one of the eatery’s classic Texan plates. Mary’s\u00a0enchiladas come with a choice of cheese, chicken, or beef, and are served with rice and beans.<\/p>\n

Mary Tretter might be keeping her chicken-fried seasoning recipe under wraps, but you can emulate her famous dish by implementing the basics of a good chicken fry.\u00a0Start by pounding\u00a0cube steak cutlets until they are about\u00a0\u00bd an inch thick.\u00a0Dredge the tenderized cuts in seasoned flour, followed by\u00a0buttermilk batter, then coat them in flour again. For the style of crust served at Mary’s Cafe, using\u00a0a flattop grill is key, but a griddle or flat-bottom frying pan works, too. Heat up just enough oil to get a sizzle on the edges of the steak, but not so much that you deep fry it, if using a pan. No chicken-fried plate at Mary’s Cafe is complete without a side of Tretter’s gravy, so don’t forget to whip up some\u00a0creamy country white gravy<\/a>\u00a0for your homemade version of Strawn’s signature steak.<\/p>\n

For more food and drink goodness, join our newsletter<\/a> and add us as a preferred search source<\/a>. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more!<\/p>\n

Read the original article on Mashed<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary’s Cafe has been serving customers in the small town of Strawn, Texas, since 1986. Inside the cafe’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15913,87549,87548,87547,87546,87551,27,29,28,87550],"class_list":["post-225867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-chicken-fried-steak","tag-cube-steak","tag-flattop-grill","tag-mary-tretter","tag-mary39s-cafe","tag-strawn","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tretter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}