Situated on Watauga Road in Watauga, Texas, is a convenience store/gas station called Chef Point Café. Like your typical convenience store, this one has a proprietary food program. Big deal, some may say. But it is a big deal if you consider that this food program is not your everyday, run-of-the-mill foodservice offering of sandwiches, pizza or fried chicken. This menu offers everything from stuffed artichoke bottoms to New York strip steak.

The newly expanded restaurant can now accommodate up to 160 guests, more than doubling the previous seating for 75.

Chef Point Café may have started as a c-store/gas station combination with a small kitchen for catering. But today, more than 10 years after opening, the "little kitchen that could" has taken over and it is now best described as a gourmet restaurant with a Conoco gas station.

It may seem a strange combination to some people, but not to owners Paula Merrell and her husband, Franson Nwaeze. Thirty years ago, Nwaeze moved to the United States from Nigeria with his head in the clouds – literally. His dream was to study for and receive his commercial pilot's license. Instead, he discovered his real passion was food.

As Merrell recalled, her husband showcased his talent at numerous country clubs and high-end establishments, but Nwaeze hoped to one day open his own restaurant. Two decades after arriving in the United States, he set out to do just that with his wife as his partner. But the path to opening his own kitchen did not come easy.

"My husband always wanted to open a restaurant, but banks were not lending money for restaurants," Merrell explained. "Restaurant start-ups had a high failure rate."

After being turned down at just about every bend, they were given a glimmer of hope: the couple was advised to open a convenience store instead.

"Ten years ago, there was a convenience store on every corner and they were making money hand over fist," Merrell said. "The banks said that if you had six months experience in the convenience store industry, you could get a loan to open one up."

So that's what they did. Luckily for the aspiring entrepreneurs, they had a friend in the c-store industry and Nwaeze was able to work in one of the stores part-time. Six months later, they were ready to open their own store, loan in hand.

Chef Point Café owner Paula Merrell knew her husband and co-owner Franson Nwaeze's talent in the kitchen would be a recipe for success.

After scouting for possible locations, Merrell and Nwaeze found a property with an unfinished convenience store already on site. The pair signed on the dotted line, finished building out the store and added a kitchen. According to Merrell, the initial plan was to run a small catering business out of the location. But as everyone knows, plans are bound to change.

One day, customers came in to inquire about and sample the catering fare. The next day, the same customers returned and asked for a menu. Not wanting to miss a golden opportunity, Merrell and Nwaeze told a little white lie: the menu was at the printers. No sooner did the customers leave than the husband-and-wife duo set about writing a menu.

The rest, as they say, is history.

"We had a few tables, but then those tables were always full so we added more tables. Eventually, we had to move shelving around to fit tables. Then one day, the tables were full so we set up a long folding table we bought at Sam's Club," Merrell said.

It wasn't long before the pair was back at Sam's Club for more folding tables.

"We grew this place as people kept coming," she said.

In November, Chef Point Café opened a new expansion, doubling the capacity of the restaurant from 75 guests at 15 tables to accommodations for up to 160 guests. A full-service bar was also added to the mix, and the staff is now capable of catering on-site events such as rehearsal dinners, graduation celebrations and corporate meetings in the party area.

Nwaeze also enlarged the kitchen and expanded the prep area for his staff to create dishes that will keep the customers coming back for more.

"On Friday and Saturday nights, we would have two-hour waits for a table," Merrell said. "We wanted to expand for a while, but the banks would not lend us the money. Finally, after nine years, we got the financing."

With all the buzz that surrounds the restaurant, it's easy to forget how Chef Point Café got its start. "We really are a restaurant in a gas station," Merrell said. "When we first opened, we really looked like a gas station ... a white building with bars on the windows. We still run the gas station, but that is if motorists can get to the pumps and restaurant customers are not parked there."

The convenience store has also undergone a makeover. The business still includes the c-store side, but the store's product mix has gravitated away from traditional convenience staples to more novelty items carrying the Chef Point Café logo.

"In the beginning, the convenience store is what paid the bills," Merrell noted. "Convenience stores are all about convenience, but there wasn't room for the customers in the store. People would be waiting for tables in the aisles with the beer and snacks."

As a result, sales on the traditional c-store side diminished. But Merrell and Nwaeze never lost those customers – they just converted them to loyal restaurant diners.

"The convenience store customers would come in, smell the food and ask what it was. Then they would come back for the restaurant. Now, we make more money from the restaurant," she said.

National Notoriety
Besides drawing the attention of diners from around the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, Chef Point Café has received national attention. Two years ago, the gourmet restaurant with a Conoco gas station was featured on Guy Fieri's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on the Food Network, and celebrity chef Paula Deen has stopped by to sample the fare. The New York Times, USA Today, NBC and Fox have all carried stories about the business.

Merrell is not surprised by the attention Chef Point has garnered, or its continued success.

As Chef Point Café's reputation grew, the owners added novelty items to the mix at the site's convenience store and moved away from traditional staples.

"My husband is an incredible chef. One thing I learned in business is that you can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one can buy it," she said. "We knew we had a great product in a not-so-great location. The first five years, we had to figure out the key to marketing. Once we got a handle on marketing, there was a 360-degree change in how much business came in."

Chef Point Café's growth has been mostly organic, with word-of-mouth being the best advertising it could ask for. Social media and the café's own website also play key roles. "In the beginning, it was word-of-mouth but at some point that is not enough," Merrell said.

The business is open for lunch and dinner, and serves breakfast on Saturdays. Some of its well-known dishes include its famous What Nots appetizer (mushroom caps hand-stuffed with three cheeses and baked in Chef Point's own savory garlic butter) and its equally famous bread pudding dessert (made fresh daily and smothered in its own hot cognac sauce).

Even with all the success and recognition, don't expect to see a Chef Point Café in a neighborhood near you, though. The business takes too much hands-on management, Merrell explained, so there are no plans to branch out to other locations.

Still, this one location has certainly proven doubters wrong.

"People said it would never work," Merrell mused.