Day Trips
The Silver K Cafe brings fine dining with a Texas accent to the highway between Austin and Fredericksburg
By Gerald E. McLeod, Fri., Aug. 6, 2004
Silver K Cafe gives Johnson City something that it has needed for a long time – a high-end eatery. That is not to say that the hometown of the 37th president of the United States doesn't have its share of restaurants.
For a town of about a thousand residents, Johnson City has a few culinary options. There is a passable barbecue joint, a Dairy Queen that isn't too bad as far as the genre goes, a home-cooking cafe that became an institution years ago, and a couple of other places that are all right. But the Silver K Cafe brings fine dining with a Texas accent to the highway between Austin and Fredericksburg.
"We're more Luckenbach than Fredericksburg," says Al Pratt, husband of the proprietor, Kay Pratt. On the afternoon that I called to talk about the restaurant in the old lumberyard, Kay was taking a well-deserved afternoon off and Al was doing a little fixing-up around the shop. He was more than willing to take a few minutes from his honey-do list to talk about the cafe.
First and foremost Al wanted to talk about his wife's cooking. "[Kay] loves to cook," Pratt says of his wife of more than 40 years. "She lives to cook, and I'm one lucky man. I wouldn't trade her for anything."
The menu ranges from seafood to sandwiches. The salmon pouched in a dill sauce comes out pink without a fishy taste. The Reuben sandwich offers a twist on an old favorite that is difficult to identify. The cafe offers a Greek salad and a Greek sandwich that make good use of feta cheese, olives, and other ingredients for a unique meal.
"Kay has really learned about steaks," Pratt says. "Texans love their steaks, and we have certified Angus beef. That makes a difference." Some of the Southern dishes, like chicken-fried steak and catfish, have been slowly creeping onto the menu. "We were hesitant to add some of the traditional items because we're not a 'hash house,'" Pratt says with a laugh. "If we're going to do it, we're going to do it well."
Fresh herbs and vegetables show up on the dinner plates, but nowhere is it more evident than on the chalkboard dessert menu. The cafe might take pride in being on a different wavelength than the eateries in Fredericksburg, but Gillespie County peaches go into the peach ice cream, peach cobbler, peach pie, and other peachy desserts beside the death-by-chocolate brownie.
Looking over the dinner menu, you might not recognize the origins of the eclectic fare. It's kind of hard to recognize without a little help. Although the entrées give Texans what they like, the couple's 37 years in the Seattle, Wash., area are evident.
Pratt worked as a milk-plant engineer for Safeway grocery stores for most of his adult life. For most of that time Kay was working in retail food, a pizza deli, and doing catering. The Pratts discovered Johnson City when friends invited them to attend a Jerry Jeff Walker birthday celebration.
The couple retired to the Hill Country in 1999 and began work on the restaurant in a building of the former lumberyard in December 2001. It finally opened in October 2002. "It was quite rustic, to put it nicely," Pratt says of the building when they started remodeling. That's where they got the cafe's motto: "rustic elegance with Texas Pride."
Pratt says it took a lot of creative thinking to transform the storage barn into a restaurant. The result is a charming space with much of the old wood preserved. Next door is an antique shop with another dealer moving soon into the shop on the corner. Since music attracted them to Texas, the Pratts are planning on including singer showcases on Saturday nights.
The Silver K Cafe takes up half of the old lumberyard at 209 E. Main (U.S. 290) in Johnson City. Lunch is served from 11am to 3pm seven days a week with dinner served Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5 to 10pm. A Sunday buffet is offered from 11am to 3pm. For more information, call 830/868-2911.
686th in a series. Day Trips, Vol. 2, a book of Day Trips 101-200, is available for $8.95, plus $3.05 for shipping, handling, and tax. Mail to: Day Trips, PO Box 33284, South Austin, TX 78704.
