For locals and visitors alike, the Wimberley Cafe is a well-known landmark on the Wimberley square. It is a heartfelt touchstone for countless meet-ups and, for many, an essential source for fresh, reasonably-priced meals. It is a place where everyone is welcome.
On a normal day, the Wimberley Cafe serves 1000 meals a day. On a busy day, that figure rises to 1200. Add to that the meals they serve at the nearby Marco’s Italian Restaurant, the business that Cafe owners Jay and Jen Bachman purchased last year, and the total jumps to 1600. In November, the Bachman’s celebrated a new 850-square-foot addition to their existing kitchen.
“The new kitchen was a three year project,” said Chef Jay Bachman. “One year in the planning, one year rewriting the fire code, and one year to build.”
According to Bachman, the cost to build the expansion came with a hefty price tag of $1.3 million. “$500,000” he said, “was the cost for the equipment alone.”
The permitting process,
“One year in the planning, one year rewriting the fire code, and one year to build.”
– Chef Jay Bachman, The Wimberley Cafe he said, was a “team effort between Wimberley Fire Chief, Carroll Czichos, the Hays County Fire Marshall, the Wimberley City Council, the builders, the property owners and me.”
As the project neared completion, Bachman encountered a hurdle that he wasn’t sure how to clear.
“There I was at the finish line and out of cash. I went way over budget because I wanted it to be done right. Ozona Bank came through for us,” he said. “Ozona’s Vice President of Mortgage Lending, Shelly Hicks, and Personal Loan Officer, Jeannie Miller, stepped in and made it happen. They were fantastic.”
The build-out added a walk-in cooler, two 40-gallon tilt skillets, three deep fryers, a grill and six burners, a washer and dryer, and four ovens. Two of the ovens are high performance BKI ovens which allow him to smoke meat, air fry, braise, prepare fish and bake pastries from recipes he programs into the oven’s computer.
The ovens were donated by Mercy Chefs, Inc, a nonprofit that deploys mobile kitchens and teams of volunteer professional chefs to cook meals for victims of natural disasters and national emergencies and for the first responders who render them aid.
As a Managing Chef with Mercy Chefs, Bachman planned the new kitchen to provide an essential, lifesaving resource for Wimberley, as well as for towns within a 30-mile radius.
“We can produce 20,000 full meals a day, apart from what we normally prepare in the cafe. The meals are transported to a distribution center where volunteers plate them up, with the help of refrigerated trailers, fork lifts and hundreds of volunteers,” he said.
The new facility joins Barnabas Connection, KWVH radio, Wimberley Fire and Rescue’s specially-trained rescue staff, Wimberley Emergency Medical Service expanding services, and others, to render aid in a largescale emergency. For a small town like Wimberley that can’t rely on services afforded larger cities, it is vital that help comes from strategic partnerships within the community.
