Culinary and Entrepreneurial Skills Unite for a One-of-a-Kind Eatery Experience

By Sharon White | Photography by Justin Borja

When fifth-generation Alaskan Josie McKinney sought out a warmer climate to establish her restaurant and cooking school, she yearned for a small-town setting. “I wanted to be part of a project where I could contribute in some way to the revitalization of history.” Her search took her to College Station, Waco, Fredericksburg and Austin. In the end, she chose downtown Killeen. “A friendly military town,” she says. “It felt like home—without the mountains and snow.”

In February 2019, Josie purchased the building that now houses her coffee shop, eatery, and culinary school. The building had formerly been home to a trophy company, a law firm, a drug store, and a butcher’s shop—but never a restaurant. The carpeted, acoustic-tiled edifice consisted of a choppy cluster of rooms with dim, fluorescent lighting. After eight months of demolition, removing plaster to expose original stone, pouring concrete and converting the building to its current retro vibe, Let’s EAT Texas and Let’s COOK Texas opened its doors in October.

Josie says an interesting thing happened at the beginning of the remodel. “One morning, I was shaking plaster dust out of my hair and craving a cup of coffee. I Googled the closest coffee shop and found that it was three miles away! That was the day I decided to incorporate a coffee bar into the restaurant’s design. It could have just been a selfish move on my part so I could have my coffee,” she confesses. “But it also turned out to be a big hit.”

Breakfast and lunch business flourished. Adults and kids couldn’t wait to sign up for Chef Josie’s cooking classes. Her calendar jammed quickly with catering events. But all that came to a skidding halt in mid-March, when COVID-19 hit Central Texas, just five months after the restaurant’s launch.

“I admit,” says Josie, “I lay awake quite a few nights trying to figure out what to do. With a sous chef, a barista, and two servers, my job was to keep the doors open, so my employees could keep working and pay their rent.” Josie figured she could still provide coffee, breakfast, and lunch take-outs. But she wondered how to do even more. She came up with the notion of offering $20 dinner kits to customers. Everything would be included in a pre-made meal for four, which simply needed to be reheated.

The idea created an immediate sensation. After Josie posted her “Let’s Eat Texas” meal kit offer on Facebook, her followers shot from 200 to 700. And she received over 10,000 views that week. Customers could pre-order and pick up dishes like chicken parmigiana, pork chops, shepherd’s pie, meatloaf, lasagna, bar-b-que or roasted tomatillo verde enchiladas.

Josie’s background growing up in the North Pole area of Fairbanks included a family of entrepreneurs, beginning with a great-grandfather who came to Alaska during the gold rush. And while her grandfather was a baker, Josie admits that her mom wasn’t much of a cook. “I started cooking when I was 8 years old,” Josie says. “I would make the family meals and by the time I was 12, I was cooking for all the major holidays. I never had formal training, but I took every cooking class I could.”

After attending the University of Alaska in Anchorage, Josie married and had three children. Her knowledge of business and passion for cooking led her to operate a bed and breakfast for 13 years. She also supervised cooking classes and hosted large corporate events at her establishment. But after several family members moved away from Alaska, including her parents, she decided to leave “the last frontier” and seek a new adventure.

Three years and five states later, she landed in Austin temporarily, where she found herself buying and flipping a house (which ultimately became the seed money for her Killeen eatery) and finally achieving a lifelong dream—graduating at the top of her class with a degree from Austin’s prestigious Escoffier School of Culinary Arts.

Chef Josie, who turned 50 last year, says, “I wasn’t sure I could keep up with the younger students. I could have been their mother. And cooking at a restaurant level is pretty physically demanding. But, in the end, the young ones had a hard time keeping up with me!”

These days, when Chef Josie isn’t meeting the demands of her bustling business, scheduling catering events, instructing cooking classes or spending time with her husband during his commutes from Alaska, you may just find her darting down the highway—wind in her hair—relishing the warmth and brilliance of Texas in her (very first) prized, Mustang convertible!

Let’s Eat Texas
Let’s Cook Texas
207 E. Avenue D, Killeen
Monday-Friday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
254-768-0106

JOSIE’S MEXICAN BEANS

2 cans pinto beans (do not drain)
1 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup diced red or yellow onion
¼ cup diced green chilies (Josie prefers Hatch)
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. garlic powder
Chopped jalapeno pepper (to taste)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
Chopped cilantro (for garnish)

Sauté onions in oil for about 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the chilies and beans. Stir in all other seasonings. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Liquid will thicken to a rich sauce.
Garnish with cilantro if desired.
Serves 4