West Texas Fresh
Last year, when an artfully arranged stack of black-painted containers appeared just off the Coulter exit on west I-40, the massive green “WTF” painted on one side asked the right question. By August, the question had been answered.
West Texas Fresh opened west of the AISD Rod Schroder Education Support Center, with a drive-thru format serving salads, wraps, smoothies and breakfast burritos to the hospital employees heading down Coulter and another 60,000 vehicles per day on the interstate.
The concept was developed by Connor O’Rourke and Brian Singleton—both former owners of Crush downtown—and Alex Cunningham, whose family has owned and managed Eat-Rite for decades.
Everything is intentional about the design of the restaurant and its menu. “The idea was to make a super-small space, where everybody can see and you can hear each other so you can run with a really small crew,” O’Rourke says. The container-framed size eliminates the need to meet certain commercial kitchen regulations, and a lean team minimizes the staffing struggles many restaurants are facing.
O’Rourke spent six years at Crush after several years in the Chicago wine industry. He and Singleton alike had begun to be frustrated by the demands of a large restaurant concept. “You saw the same people come in on the same day every week and eat the same thing,” O’Rourke says. Given the consistent behavior of so many customers, a more minimalist approach could still meet expectations.
So they created a simple menu for a simple kitchen. Every ingredient at WTF is used in at least two or three other menu items, resulting in a 20-item menu built on fresh ingredients. Customers order ahead using an app, customize their salad or wrap with add-ons, pick it up and go.
The hospitals right down the street—their combined 5,000-plus employees, along with the Vet School and TTUHSC—represent the city’s largest concentration of full-time employees. “People that work [there] maybe have 45 minutes at lunch,” O’Rourke says. “They’ll grab a smoothie in the morning and their salad for lunch.” Some customers come two or three times a week.
Menu highlights include the popular PanHandle salad and the Roasted Peach salad—a holdover from Crush. Every salad can be turned into a wrap, and every breakfast burrito can be ordered as a bowl. The Super Green smoothie, with spinach, kale, banana, avocado, peaches and coconut milk, is another customer favorite.
But O’Rourke hesitates to describe the West Texas Fresh menu as “healthy eating,” because he thinks that sounds unappetizing to some people. “People should crave or want whatever food they’re going to get. Food shouldn’t be a punishment,” he says. “It should be good and the flavors should be good to start with. If it’s healthy for you, that’s just a bonus.”
7210 W. Interstate 40
806.463.9014
westtexasfresh.com
