Page 72 - Abilene Living

or fve restaurants and I am always asking him if this thing is going to end, and he says it doesn’t have to end. You can do this for years and years and people will keep coming. And I think we’re just going to keep right on going.”

Chef de Cuisine Steve Howard has been involved in Trueblood’s life long before he became a sounding board for the frst time restaurateur.

“I met Steve about ffteen years ago,” Trueblood explained. “He had a restaurant in Fredericksburg…The Navajo Grill…I walked through the back door of his kitchen and asked if he needed help on a Valentine’s Day, and he said ‘Oh yeah’, and that’s where it started.”

Howard eventually sold The Navajo Grill and had a catering business that Trueblood would help out with. Then Howard opened the original Bonterra restaurant, which was his house converted into a restaurant. Around the time Howard was dealing with some health issues, things were falling into place to start a restaurant in Clyde. “So I fnally just went to him and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you live here and we’ll just open a restaurant together,” Trueblood recounted. “He’s been a mentor that I’ve learned from all these years…I can go to him and have a source that I can reference because he’s opened four restaurants, and I can take ideas to him, and we work so well together.”

“No one imagined this thing would do what it’s done,” Trueblood said. “I think on our original business plan half of what we’ve done wasn’t even there in terms of volume. Steve, my mentor, has opened four or fve restaurants and I am always asking him if this thing is going to end, and he says it doesn’t have to end. You can do this for years and years and people will keep coming. And I think we’re just going to keep right on going.”