For most of 2020 and 2021, Dickens County’s restaurant scene—always subject to ups and downs of ownership—struggled along through Covid-19 recommendations for social distancing, sanitization, or outright closures. Hours and menus varied wildly; food trucks, home kitchens, and deliveries sometimes supplemented brick-and-mortar restaurants.
But in 2021, combined with the “great resignation” labor shortages and supply-chain problems, those challenges became insurmountable for three existing establishments. Following on the heels of the earlier closure of the Espuela and & Cattle Company in Dickens, the Turnaround Café and the Dixie Dog shuttered. In neighboring Jayton, the Boots & Spurs Café also closed.
By summer Spur was left with no eatery except convenience-store offerings from Allsups—which itself was often overburdened with demand it couldn’t easily fill. Visitors expecting a meal on the road were dismayed; hometown patrons resorted to their own kitchens and limited gathering spots—including the mainstay Spur Senior Citizens Center for weekday lunches.
December, however, brought promises of three new ventures to Spur’s dining-out landscape.
THE TURNAROUND TOP CAFE
Renovation of the Turnaround is already under way by new owner Kevin Walkup of Lubbock, who has ties to the White River Lake community. He and his partner-girlfriend Shawna Little were already coming up empty on a suitable restaurant opportunity in Lubbock when his father suggested they look more closely at Spur.
Their goal for offering burgers and fries, chicken fried steak, chicken fingers and similar diner fare was well matched with the Turnaround property at the intersection of Burlington Avenue and Loop 120, said Walkup. When Charlie Morris put them in touch with owners Will and Machell Shafer, who had put the former gas station-café up for sale the previous year, Walkup found it a great match.
“Shawna’s dad was Jug Little,” Walkup said, who was renowned in the Lubbock barbecue scene. (Jug Little’s regularly turns up on lists of “Restaurants We Wish Were Still In Lubbock.”) Shawna Little also brings fast-food management experience to the venture.
Walkup’s experience in the cabinet shop at Texas Tech is also proving useful already, as the pair plan an interor and exterior rehab. They’ll keep the separate dining room layout, Walkup said, though both spaces will now be non-smoking. Smoking will be permitted in an outdoor dining area.
The eatery will keep a touch of the previous name, as Turnaround Top Café. Offering breakfast and lunch, it will be open by spring if all goes well.
“It’ll be a nice little place,” said Walkup.
Further, Walkup and Little anticipate setting up a tiny house on the east side of Spur for local residence.
MARVEL BUCKS COFFEE & DELI
Across the street from the Turnaround is a new venture that Spur diners have already had the chance to sample at the Farmers’ Market and Dana’s Pharmacy.
Karen Gunnels Marvel and her husband Hubert, who goes by Buck, came up with the “Marvel Bucks” coffee-shop takeoff after concocting coffee treats in her new Ninja machine. The frozen items were such a hit, her friend Dana Tilton invited her to try them out at the drugstore’s soda fountaion.
“This is how I knew it was God,” said Marvel, as opportunities began to open up. Though Marvel has a long repertoire of restaurant, institutional and conveniencestore food service experience, it hadn’t occurred to her to go the entrepreneurial route again once a much earlier plan to run the Dixie Dog fell through.
Marvel helped meet Spur’s recent, pent-up demand for meals via home delivery of sandwich plates, and based on that success, advertised for a suitable building or trailer for sale. The Vargas family, former owners of the old Mission No. 2 service station at the foot of Burlington Avenue, put Marvel in touch with the purchasers, who were willing to resell.
The tiny building seemed perfect for a drive-up or walkup purveyor of coffee and tea beverages, and a limited menu of pastries and sandwiches. The Marvels jumped right into renovations—roofing, electrical, plumbing, windows, addition of a bathroom—while retaining as much of the century-old building’s historic character as possible.
“I love the stucco look, even the exposed brick,” said Marvel, who has also researched the building’s past. “What we don’t have to fix, we aren’t going to,” she said.
The biggest challenge is locating the water line and meter at a busy intersection that has surely undergone a greal deal of regrading and repaving over the years. The City of Spur is on to the task, Marvel said, and TxDOT had even been swift in relocating a directional sign that would have impeded driveup window access.
Marvel Bucks plans to offer iced coffees, specialty coffees, teas, energy and weight loss drinks, and smoothies and healthy shakes. Breakfast beverages will be supplemented with muffins, scones and other bakery type items, while deli sandwiches will be available for pickup during lunch and dinner hours. They plan to promote daily-changing menus on social media. They anticipated being closed Mondays and Wednesdays; and on Sundays would likely open for an afterchurch special from noon to 2 p.m.
Marvel Bucks hopes for an opening as soon as this month.
MIX’D CAFE
Among the highly anticipated openings on Spur’s main drag is the Mix’d Café at 311 Burlington Avenue, in the former jewelry store space between the Masonic Lodge and Diversions Arcade that has sat vacant for some years.
Cade Rutledge of the Spur Syndicate, whose flagship enterprise is Spur Hardware across the street, said that the 1,500-square-foot eatery will offer lunch and coffee services and also serve as an event space and venue.
Rutledge described the project as a complete restoration of a historic downtown store space with original pressed tin decorative ceiling, original wood floors, extensive rework of storefront exterior, and a new roof.
New lettering on the streetfront windows reads “Coming 2022.”
Spur, it appears, has a lot to look forward to at last.
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