Gourmet Country Café

Taylor, Texas

I was on a genealogy / graveyard exploring / football stadium documenting trip a few days ago, and as I was passing through Taylor, Texas (Home of the Taylor Ducks) I came upon an oxymoron of eating establishments.  Right there on 3rd street was the Gourmet Country Café. 

I wasn’t sure what they served but I was hungry enough to find out.  I have seen eating establishments with the word “country” in the name and in the big cities of Texas I’ve even seen a few with the word “gourmet” in the name, but I have never seen “gourmet” and “country” on the same sign describing a place to eat. 

When I went inside it looked country enough all right.  The waitress was even wearing cut off jeans.  She handed me a menu and before I could see what a gourmet chicken fried steak was going for in a gourmet café she began to describe the special of the day. 

I started off with a glass of ice tea and a simple tossed salad.  Since this was a gourmet place I ordered it with bleu cheese dressing. 

Then there was the bowl a creamy pablano soup.  The Pablano chili is the big pepper folks like to stuff with cheese and also make Chiles Rellenos.  I’ve had it grilled, stuffed and fried but never in a soup.  It was very good

The special of the day was catfish.  This was not your run of the mill Lake Buchanan rolled in corn meal deep fried catfish.  This catfish was rolled in crushed tortilla chips, fried and covered with pico de gallo.  This pico de gallo even had a lot of onions.  You know it’s getting harder and harder to get many if any onions on anything anymore, even at a country café and the older I get the more I like onions.  Am I getting inconsiderate in my old age?

Side dishes? Too many to try, but I did try a few. 

Mashed potatoes, made with red skinned potatoes.  Does that make a difference?  I don’t know, but they sure were good.

Creamy squash casserole; anybody would like this even if they don’t like squash. 

Dessert? Hummingbird cake; a piece so big we shared it.  What is humming bird cake?  I don’t really know but it tasted sort of like the banana nut cake my grandmother use to make. 

Update

The Gourmet Country Cafe has closed its doors but they still have their catering business with the same great food.
TexasBob