The Waco Trib reported earlier this week that Chip and Joanna Gaines, stars of HGTV's Fixer Upper, have purchased Elite Café and have plans to do something with it. The Gaines didn't provide any details on exactly what they plan on doing with it, but given their history of turning old, run-down houses into dream homes and turning old, run-down silos into a tourist Mecca, we feel pretty confident that whatever they do will be great. But since we love all things Waco, and especially Waco restaurants, we thought we would offer 10 suggestions on what to do with the historic restaurant.
1. Erect a 100-year-old barn on the Circle
Why not? They did it at the silos.
2. Traffic circle races
The traffic circle is basically a race track. Just make it official. You know Chip would do it. On a related note, can you imagine all the Fixer Upper tourists at the traffic circle? Nightmare.
3. Replace the front door with a sliding barn door
I haven't seen any design plans, but I'm guessing a sliding barn door is going to feature prominently along with shiplap and cedar beams.
4. Keep Chip out of the kitchen
The man has eaten a cockroach on national television. I don't want him anywhere near the food.
5. Food reveal for every customer
They could put a picture of less desirable food on tiny little wheels that they roll out of the way to reveal your entrée. "Are you ready to see your meal?"
6. Tear it down and replace it with silos
You know Chip loves a good demo day, and they've already had so much success with silos. It's a win-win.
7. Have Chip explain how much the food is worth before you eat it
"The total cost of the ingredients is about 5 bucks, and the work our chef put into this meal is worth 30 bucks, so this meal is easily worth 35 bucks. With your all-in meal budget of 20 bucks, you're upside right 15 bucks."
8. Don't tell tourists about it
Seriously, Elite Café is ours. Let us have this one. The tourists can have the silos.
9. Put 3 options on the menu
That formula seems to work well on the show. Let the customers have 3 options, and they can only choose 1. And have the customer call Chip and/or Joanna while they're in the middle of something else to let them know which option they chose.
10. Have Chip bring cupcakes to the table at the end of every meal
It seems like at the end of every episode, Chip and the kids bring Joanna a box of cupcakes to eat while she works through the night staging the house for the big reveal. And who doesn't love cupcakes?
What do you think they should do with it? Leave your comments below with your own suggestions.
