After 42 years located off Fort Worth’s West 7th Street, Fred’s Texas Café is moving.
Long before West 7th was West 7th, long before all the trendy bars and nightspots replaced a mostly industrial neighborhood, there was Fred's.
Named after the dog of the original owners, Fred's has served its famous hamburgers and brews to countless customers.
"We cook with love,” co-owner Quincy Wallace said. “That's why we've been here so long."
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Parking is cramped now, and the truth is this land on Currie Street has become too valuable. So the owners are making a business decision.
"It's for sale,” Wallace said.
Wallace said he can't stop change. But he will miss this place.
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"I'm glad for the developers but we're just an old hamburger joint,” he said.
This old hamburger joint will close at the end of the year and will re-open at a new location.
Customers will miss the old place.
"I think I will miss that old Fort Worth energy,” customer Laura Horton said.
Wallace understands – perhaps more than anyone.
He has been a part of it since soon after Fred's opened in 1978.
Wallace started eating here as a young boy -- his dad owned a cabinet shop next store -- and he worked in the kitchen before he became co-owner.
"The dishwasher was in the same spot when I learned to do dishes,” he said. "I'm sad to move from here.”
He said he'll literally take many of the memories with him to the new place, including an old pickup parked outside the restaurant.
"It's just the new Fort Worth is out there, and we're still the old Fort Worth,” Wallace said.
The new Fred’s will open in a few months in what was a steak restaurant at Highway 183 and West Camp Bowie Boulevard.
