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Farewell & hello: Dharma Café closes, but a new restaurant is already set totake the space

Dharma Cafe is closing down, but another restaurant is already set to fill thespot.

Dharma Cafe/Facebook
Closing Dharma Cafe was an emotional decision for the owners.

Dharma Cafe/Facebook
The space became a place for people to hang out.

Photo by Karen Burd
Bradford Ralph

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Dharma Cafe/Facebook
Photo by Karen Burd
Photo by Karen Burd

Considering the passionate way that regular customers talk about Dharma Café, you'd think the restaurant had been in business for a generation. But after 11 years and one move, Dharma owners Susan Ralph and John Gurney are retiring and handing over the space to another beloved restaurateur.

Dharma has been sold to Catherine Duwez, who first attracted attention for her moules frites at Café Montrose and has more recently been cooking her French/Belgian specialties at Broken Spoke Café. Duwez tells CultureMap that her new concept will be called Café Brussels and will open in a couple weeks.

"The cafe doesn't have customers, we have friends," Ralph said, struggling to hold back her emotions.

Next Tuesday is Ralph and Gurney's last day in the café, and they are planning a huge goodbye party in the evening. But that doesn't mean all the Dharma traditions are going away. For now, at least, Ralph tells CultureMap that Duwez will continue to host the musicians that have been a Dharma mainstay, as well as the popular Sunday brunch.

"The cafe doesn't have customers, we have friends," Ralph says, struggling to hold back her emotions. "There is John, myself or [my son] Brad here all the time. We know the customers and the customers know all of us.

"We've always had the open window [into the kitchen] and you know, we could be on fire and people would walk by and say, 'Sue, good seeing ya!' "

Dharma Café spent its first six years in the tiny space in north downtown's warehouse district that would later house Latin Bites and (currently) Oxheart before moving just outside downtown to an eclectic building a few blocks north of lower Washington Avenue.

Ralph says the decision is a difficult one for them, but they are planning to travel and do other things that they couldn't while running the restaurant. "I have a little yard in front of my townhouse — it looks like shit. I'm the 'bleh' house on the block.

"And I love gardening, but I can't plant flowers. My whole life is here."

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Restaurant business

Comfort food chain Cotton Patch Cafe acquired by Dallas restaurant group

Chicken fried steak, CFS, Cotton Patch Cafe

Facebook/Cotton Patch Cafe

Chicken fried steak at Cotton Patch Cafe.

The Southlake-based Cotton Patch Cafe restaurant chain, known for its Texas-style comfort food, is finding comfort in the form of a new owner from Dallas.

According to a release, Dallas-based Local Favorite Restaurants group purchased Cotton Patch Cafe from Altamont Capital Partners. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Local Favorite's growing restaurant portfolio includes 99 restaurants spanning 10 brands, including well-known names like El Fenix Mexican Restaurant, Snuffer’s Restaurant & Bar, Meso Maya, Taqueria La Ventana, Wok Star Chinese, Twisted Root Burger Company, Campuzano Mexican Food, and Village Burger Bar.

The Cotton Patch acquisition “is an important step for Local Favorite Restaurants and a natural fit for the kind of brands we want under our roof,” Local Favorite founder Mike Karns says in the release. “Cotton Patch Cafe has loyal guests, a proven track record, and a Texas identity that gives it meaningful room to grow.”

Founded in 1989 in Nacogdoches, Cotton Patch operates 46 restaurants in Texas and New Mexico. The only Houston-area location is in Spring.

The deal also brings changes to the leadership team.

Karns will remain with the company in the role of founder and "Free-Range Creative," overseeing its creative direction and growth strategy. Cotton Patch Cafe CEO Brandon Coleman III will become CEO of Local Favorite Restaurants.

Local Favorite also owns and operates Sunrise Mexican Foods, which produces chips, tortillas, and other Mexican food products for retail and foodservice operators.

Cotton Patch Cafe is known for scratch-made, comfort classics like hand-breaded chicken fried steak, along with $9.99 Texas Value Meals.

Coleman says the acquisition won’t result in changes to the “heart” of Cotton Patch.

“We will continue to bring the small-town spirit, big Texas value, and quality scratch-made food guests count on, with the same focus on hospitality and community that has always made Cotton Patch feel like home,” says Coleman.

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Comfort food chain Cotton Patch Cafe acquired by Dallas restaurant group