Grand Central Café in Kingsland,TX

Now a Restaurant
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This little Queen Anne cottage in the small town of Kingsland has been many things.

When it was moved to this location in 1998, it became a café, with a railroad theme to match the railroad themed hotel on the property. 

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The Chainsaw Café?
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They could have gone for a totally different kind of theme, since the house was once used in the filming of the 1974 cult classic, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  I do love a themed restaurant.

Book Club
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My book club, a group that has been discussing books and films for years, was recently in the Kingsland area  for a weekend getaway. We decided to have dinner at the Grand Central Café. In this photo we look like we might be pondering whether or not to dine in this little house with its haunting history.  Or maybe we just look like we're posing as the cast for the latest sequel...Texas Chainsaw Massacre & The Book Club.  This would not be the first sequel or remake of this fine film!

Interior
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I took this photo a year ago, so I already knew what to expect.  It's not creepy at all. But when we stepped inside the café on Friday evening, the entrance did not look like this quiet photo.  The café was bustling with food toting servers and folks squeezing past each other moving up and down stairs.  The noise of cheery diners distracted us from any thoughts of gory movie scenes.

Upstairs
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The lounge upstairs was packed as well. This attic-like space was as upbeat as the downstairs, but there was one little movie reminder.  I saw it near the bar.  We had just moved towards the counter to order a glass of wine... and there it was... a chainsaw!  Okay, maybe it was made by Fischer Price. It was some kind of toy dangling from a hook as a playful decoration. I should have taken a photo.

Dinner
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Since it was so lovely outside we were actually glad to sip our wine on the patio for 30+ minutes before our table was ready.  We were seated in one of the two front rooms and spent the next 90 minutes jabbering away over various seafood dishes.  This group has had a lot of experience discussing books and movies and a million other subjects around tables of food.  But we did not once discuss the meaning of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In fact now that I think of it, I'm not sure anyone at our table had even seen the movie. In fact I don't know why I keep bringing up the subject.  No one else did!

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Our Food
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After a day spent mostly outside, we had worked up a pretty good appetite for dinner. A couple of us had the special with salmon and avocado, which came with two sides.  We had a few crab cakes on the table and a couple of Cajun shrimp stir fry orders.    I believe the salmon was the most praised of the dishes.  I would say the food was very decent for a small town. 

Should We Return?
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I told my book club I had come to the café a year earlier to enjoy breakfast with my daughter and husband.  The Book Group was almost convinced to return the next day to sample another menu so we could try a treat that had not been available at our dinner.

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Daytime Menu

It wasn't breakfast that was luring the group. (Although they do have yummy options with names like Locomotive and The Dispatcher)

The Caboose
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It was a dessert called The Caboose.  On Friday night, our server made the mistake of telling us about this favorite dish made with fried pancake batter...or something decadent.  But, we were out of luck. Only the day chef makes the dessert.   

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