Waco: Where (will) the Elite meet to eat?

​​​WACO – The Elite Cafe, which can trace its founding back
almost 97 years, has closed.

After decades as a dining tradition downtown and then on
Waco’s bustling traffic circle, owner Creed Ford III said competition from new
restaurants and a bleeding bottom line forced him to shutter the landmark.

For decades the restaurant’s marquee proclaimed it “where
the elite meet to eat,” and that included entertainer Elvis Presley, who
reportedly visited the restaurant while in basic training at Fort Hood in the
late 1950s.

It served steaks, burgers and salads during most of its time
operating in South Waco, where it anchored the circle and became a popular
stopping point for travelers between Austin and Dallas even before I-35 was
built nearby.

Ford, whose Austin-based restaurant group acquired The Elite
in 1999, said he made the difficult decision to close The Elite for economic
reasons, following months, even years, of subpar sales and customer counts made
worse by a recent influx of new dining establishments.

The Elite Cafe, which for a time operated as The Elite
Circle Grille after one of its ownership changes, has been a part of Waco’s
history since 1919, when it first opened in downtown Waco.

A year later, four Colias brothers bought the
restaurant after emigrating from Sparta, Greece. They opened a second location
in 1941 on the circle, which would become the classic venue Waco diners and
others from around the state came to know and love.