In the heart of Hill Country, one beloved Texas restaurant is proving that comfort food and community go hand in hand.
After devastating flash floods tore through Kerrville, Texas, Billy Gene’s, a local favorite known for its chicken fried steak, opened its doors and its heart to first responders, feeding them warm, home-cooked meals for free.
“On the day that it happened, we just started,” Crystal Smith said, who co-owns Billy Gene’s with her husband Ty. “We knew they were coming out, we knew they’re going to be working 24/7, so that’s the way that we can help the community.”
Help, they did. The restaurant has become a place of rest and refueling for the men and women working around the clock to clean up the aftermath of the floods. And the gratitude flows both ways.
“Everyone is very appreciative that it comes in, they want a home-cooked meal,” Smith shared. “People have been giving us hugs that have come in and gotten a meal saying ‘thank you.’ And we’re really the ones to be thankful, we’re thankful for them.”
Even as they serve others, the restaurant itself is facing its own challenges. Smith showed Fox News Digital a picnic table, upright and wedged in behind the restaurant, that wasn’t there before the waters rushed through. “We’re trying to sort through items in the debris to return them to their rightful owners,” she added.
While Billy Gene’s building stood strong through the storm, one of its staff members lost everything. But true to the spirit of the place, Smith said the restaurant is giving the employee and her husband a place to stay, and covering their food costs.
That spirit of support is nothing new to Billy Gene’s. The restaurant was founded by Smith’s in-laws nearly 30 years ago and has been voted Best All-Around Food in Kerrville for the last 10 years straight. Since 2007, locals have crowned its chicken fried steak the best in town. It’s more than a place to eat, it’s part of the soul of the community.
And that soul is showing up in every way it can.
“We put on our boots and we get to work. That’s what we do in the Hill Country, that’s what we do in Texas. That’s who we are, that’s our spirit,” Smith said.
Janyce Karcher, a lifelong Kerrville resident, echoed that spirit of resilience while waiting for her husband, a retired firefighter, at the restaurant.
“This was much worse than what we have ever experienced in our entire life here in Kerrville,” Karcher said. “Even the flood back in 1978, we had almost 20 inches of rain, but it did not do the destruction and we did not see the devastation that we see here today.”
Still, she said she believes in the strength of her neighbors.
“We are Kerrville strong,” she said. “We’re gonna overcome this.”
And thanks to Billy Gene’s, they’re doing it one plate of comfort food at a time.
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