37 Years of Texas Comfort Food, Straight Out of Nacogdoches

On August 25, Cotton Patch Cafe turns 37. The whole thing started in 1989 with a single restaurant in Nacogdoches, Texas — hand-breaded chicken fried steak, cream gravy made in the kitchen, and rolls out of the oven all day. Thirty-seven years later there are 46 restaurants across Texas and New Mexico, and the Nacogdoches location is still serving on North Street.

Where Cotton Patch Cafe Started

Cotton Patch Cafe opened its first restaurant in Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1989. Founders Larry Marshall and Michael Patranella built it around a straightforward idea: cook Texas comfort food from scratch, every day, and charge a price a family can actually pay.

Nacogdoches was a fitting place to try it. The town bills itself as the oldest in Texas, it’s home to Stephen F. Austin State University, and it sits in the Piney Woods of East Texas — a part of the state where chicken fried steak is less a menu item than a standard everyone’s grandmother is judged against. Opening there meant the food had to be right from day one.

The name comes from the crop. Cotton is Texas’s number one crop export, and the brand was named in a nod to that heritage.

What Hasn’t Changed Since 1989

The kitchen still works the way it did in the first restaurant. That’s the part worth marking at 37 years, because it’s the part most chains give up first.

Chicken fried steak is hand-breaded, not pulled from a freezer bag — which is why the crust comes out craggy and uneven instead of uniform.
Cream gravy is made in the kitchen, not mixed from a powder.
Rolls are baked fresh through the day.
No additives or preservatives, as published on the company’s own about page.

If you want the full test for judging a chicken fried steak anywhere in Texas, we wrote that up separately: the five marks of the real deal.

1989 to 2026, in Short

More on the ownership change is here — short version, the food and the team stayed put.

Eating in Nacogdoches

The original restaurant is at 3117 North Street in Nacogdoches, and it’s still doing what it opened doing in 1989. If you’re looking for somewhere to eat in town — visiting Stephen F. Austin, passing through the Piney Woods, or you’ve lived there the whole time — the chicken fried steak is the thing to order, and it’s the same recipe that started all of this.

A different scratch-made meal is also $9.99 every day of the week, dine-in only, at every location. Chicken fried steak normally runs $14.99, so on its day it’s five dollars off. The full daily lineup is here.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Cotton Patch Cafe open?

Cotton Patch Cafe opened in 1989 in Nacogdoches, Texas. The 37th anniversary falls on August 25, 2026.

Who founded Cotton Patch Cafe?

Larry Marshall and Michael Patranella founded Cotton Patch Cafe in Nacogdoches in 1989.

Where was the first Cotton Patch Cafe?

In Nacogdoches, Texas. That restaurant is still open at 3117 North Street, and there are now 46 Cotton Patch Cafe locations across Texas and New Mexico.

Is Cotton Patch Cafe a Texas company?

Yes. It started in Nacogdoches in 1989, is headquartered in Southlake, Texas, and in June 2026 joined Dallas-based Local Favorite Restaurants — bringing the company back under Texas ownership.

Why is it called Cotton Patch?

The name is a nod to Texas cotton heritage. Cotton is the state's number one crop export, and the restaurant took its name from that.