by Karen Welch — Senior Content Producer
Isn’t that the reaction most of us have when we hear that Amarillo is getting a Fuddruckers?
After all, Lubbock has had one for years. (Oh, and isn’t it time we quit using Lubbock as a measuring stick for everything? Ah, but that’s another subject.)
Come to find out, Café Venture Company, says “finally,” too.
“We’ve been looking for a long time for a property in Amarillo,” said Mickey Rogers, a partner in Café Venture Company, the outfit that owns and operates Fuddruckers restaurants.
When Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit-Bar-B-Que folded its Amarillo store in September, the right location finally caught Café Venture’s attention, Rogers said.
“We were able to buy the land and the building,” he said.
Renovation work currently is making the vacant Famous Dave’s at 8518 W. Interstate 40, east of Soncy Road, ready for Fuddruckers, a chain that claims to make the “world’s greatest hamburgers.”
Fuddruckers serves a wide range of burgers, sandwiches and salads, and its menu includes hand-blended shakes and fresh-baked cookies.
City of Amarillo building permit database information places the construction value of the remodeling project at $350,000. The restaurant structure encompasses nearly 6,900 square feet.
Fuddruckers has targeted May 17 as its opening date and needs a staff of around 60 people to operate, Rogers said.
The company currently is taking applications and is seeing several submissions a day, he said.
Rogers and Daniel Stanton are partners in Café Venture, which also provides catering services. The company started in San Antonio in 1980, but its corporate office later moved to Houston.
Amarillo’s store will make an even dozen in the chain. Most are in Texas.
* Karen Welch is senior content producer for Panhandle PBS. She can be reached at karen.welch@actx.edu, @KWelch806 on Twitter or https://www.facebook.com/KarenSmithWelch.
