One of Texas’ best cafes will reopen a popular restaurant. It’s in an old-time hotel
One of Texas’ famous old restaurants is making a comeback.
The Stagecoach Inn hotel, a stopover since 1860s cattle-trail days between North Texas and Austin, has reopened under its familiar name in the Central Texas town of Salado.
Sometime this fall, the once-nationally famed Stagecoach Restaurant will return alongside Interstate 35, this time under first-rate management.
The Stagecoach will be run by the Monument Cafe from Georgetown, one of Texas’ best home-cooking restaurants.
“We want to honor the history of the Stagecoach and serve people some of the same dishes they enjoy at the Monument,” cafe owner Rusty Winkstern said this week.
From 1943 into the 1980s, at the height of the roadside Americana era, the Stagecoach was listed in national highway travel guides for owners Dion and Ruth Van Bibber’s steaks, fried chicken, chicken-fried steak, banana fritters, hush puppies and fudge pecan pie.
Since the family sold it in 2000, the hotel and restaurant have suffered through ownership changes, I-35 construction, more ownership changes and the pandemic.
It was recently known as the Shady Villa but restored the Stagecoach Inn name May 23 in a ceremony at the hotel, 416 S. Main St. in Salado.
The current operator, Austin-based Alexa Management, also runs hotels in Round Rock and several in Big Bend.
Winkstern opened the Monument, a classic art deco roadside breakfast and lunch cafe, in 1995 after owning restaurants in Austin.
He said he hopes to host group dinners and corporate events at the Stagecoach along with serving hotel guests, Salado visitors and highway motorists.
“The Stagecoach is known for hospitality,” he said.
In its heyday, the waitstaff would bring each table hush puppies and bouillon and recite that day’s menu.
“They knew everyone by name,” he said.
When somebody ordered a steak, the staff sent a runner across the street to order it cut fresh at a meat market.
“It was the hot spot to hit on the way to or from anywhere in Texas,” Winkstern said.
His Monument Cafe, 500 S. Austin Ave. in Georgetown, is best-known for breakfast pancakes, migas, egg dishes, chicken-fried steaks and King Ranch chicken. Desserts include a variety of fried pies or chocolate cream pie.
The Monument is open for breakfast and lunch daily; 512-930-9586, themonumentcafe.com. There’s also a Tex-Mex cousin, El Monumento, 205 W. Second St. in Georgetown.
The Stagecoach Inn hotel is open; 254-947-5111, stagecoachsalado.com.
