Teresa Kendrick Managing Editor
Last week, Bruce Calkins, his wife Mardee and Tiffany Adams arrived at the Wimberley View office holding a box of photos, several photo albums and old music posters with the aim of telling the story of the Cypress Creek Cafe. For those not familiar with it, the cafe was a Wimberley landmark from 1981 to 2017. Bruce Calkins, along with his brother Dave, purchased and ran the cafe from 1981 to 2008. The Calkins brothers sold the cafe to Randy and Trish Uselton who retained the name and operated it until it was destroyed by a fire in 2017. The Useltons, who lived upstairs, narrowly escaped the fire with their lives. The flames left little more than a brittle facade and soon after the fire, Grady Burnette purchased the property from the Useltons, perhaps in part because his grandparents once owned it when it was the Dinner Bell restaurant.
Part One
In late 2024, Michael and Morgan Mekuly purchased the property from Burnette, with a plan to build a restaurant, small hotel and boutique grocery store. The articles that follow focus on the years the Calkins brothers owned the cafe.
The cafe’s story is told by Bruce Calkins himself, by good friends Danny and Lois Hickman, by Jim Venable, Tiffany Adams and by the people who wrote in and shared their memories. Dave Calkins passed away in 2014, so his voice is sadly absent from this account. What follows is Part One.
Bruce and Dave’s family were originally from New Orleans. Their parents, Earl Sr. and Dorothy, moved from Louisiana to Houston in the 1930s, and they raised their large family of seven children in the city’s Spring Branch neighborhood.
As a boy, Bruce discovered Wimberley in 1959 when he attended Scotty’s Boy’s Ranch with his best friend Kim Willis. In 1969, Bruce’s father bought property on Old Fischer Road and the family spent long summers there. The way Bruce tells it, “I never wanted to leave there to make the trip home.”
“When I was pushed out of the house for college, I went to Texas State University in San Marcos. In 1974,” he said, “I worked at the Woodcreek Resort as a bartender and almost immediately bought a house nearby.” He ran the resort’s club for a couple of years until the owner declared bankruptcy.
“After that, I worked a number of jobs around town, including selling advertising for the Wimberley View at the time Patrick Cox was editor.”
“Then one day, Pokey Rehmet told me that the Dinner Bell was up for sale and asked me if I wanted to buy it.” Pokey and his brother Pat were developing the Wimberley Hills neighborhood at the time.
Bruce asked his brother Dave if he would be a hands-on partner in the restaurant if he bought it and Dave agreed. They turned to their family for help raising the money, which they did by forming a family partnership, “The Seven Cs.” The property, 3.1 acres in all, included the cafe and two older buildings along Oak Street. In late 1981, the purchase was complete. Larry Brisco, from the Woodcreek Resort, agreed to join the restaurant as its chef. The brothers settled on a name. They called it the Cypress Creek Cafe. “Wimberley in the early ‘80s wasn’t like it is today,” Bruce said. “In the summer for something to do, you could jump in Blue Hole or try to find your way to Jacob’s well. But in January and February, you’d think this place was a ghost town.”
With the future of the Cypress Creek Cafe squarely in their hands, the brothers faced the challenge of creating a place that the locals would embrace and that would attract visitors who would want to return.
