Local cafe has an almost 100-year-old history

It is a warm, 77 degree Friday lunch in Breckenridge, Texas, and a local cafe owner is throwing down some lean ground beef hamburger patties on a hot flat top grill while her husband is frying up some golden, crispy french fries as they get ready for the lunch crowd.

Local Breckenridge resident, Pam Harrison and her husband Bud, have ran Pam’s Cafe in Breckenridge for 31 years, when they took over Nails Cafe from the Baxleys in 1987.

The almost 100-year-old cafe was previously ran by Breckenridge resident Ethel Nail, where she worked at Nail’s Cafe for 50 years. A tire and automotive shop have taken up residence where Mrs. Nail’s home used to stand. There, she lived and cooked a lot of her food, including her famous pies, that she then took next door and served in her cafe. When Nail passed away of cancer on June 19, 1983, Mr. Baxley needed someone to run the cafe. Thats where Harrison stepped in.

At the time of Nail’s death, Harrison was currently working three jobs, one of which was closing, and she had been wanting to spend more time with her husband. “I opened Pam’s because I needed a job.” said Harrison. “The Ridge Restaurant was closing and I just found out I liked the food business when I took the café over,” Harrison said.

She added the job seemed to fit very well. In the past several years, Harrison has won many awards for “Best Hamburgers in town” where she uses fresh 80/20 hamburger meat and hand-shapes her patties, which still remain very popular to this day. With taking over Nail’s cafe, Harrison commented on Nail’s delicious and popular hamburgers saying, “When (Nail) needed hamburger meat, she would walk to the grocery store and buy just a pound of meat.

“She mixed bread with this and made her patties,” Harrison said. “People would tease her telling her you could read a newspaper through them. Of course they were only 10 cents.”

The most popular item on Pam’s Cafe menu are the delicious and mouthwatering Steak Fingers that are served with crispy french fries, Texas toast and homemade brown gravy. Other popular items are Pam’s chili buns that are made with homemade chili and delicious ‘hot puffs’ dessert that consist of a deep fried biscuit, covered in Pam’s secret cinnamon drizzle sauce.

Although the Baxleys still own the cafe, Pam’s continues to be an all-time favorite eating establishment of Breckenridge, and the Harrison’s plan on continuing their delicious cooking and serving to residents the small town until they retire.