Where are we headed next...?

What's new with cordell’s?  

First of all, we apologize for not posting to this blog for two years.  We got busy with other projects (including physically building our home, with the help of some awesome friends and family, especially one superman friend and one studly father) and forgot to keep up with our posting.  Well, that is about to change.  Not only are we providing an update and a vision for where we are headed, we are also re-launching the blog.  We hope to make a blog post weekly.  We are not making any promises, but we do not plan to have another two years between posts. J

Okay, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about why you are here.  Odds are, you saw our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter post about new and exciting things or you just happened to stumble onto here, either way, we are glad you are here.  We will outline the new and exciting things below, but first, a little history.  We have spent the past 15+ years (25+ for Jason) planning, dreaming and hoping for the cordell’s vision to come to life.  In 2011, the first phase of that dream became a reality when cordell’s officially opened.  Since that day, we have been planning the next phases, phases 2-6.  We believed we had them in the proper order, but over the past year or so, we felt like we were being led to do things in a different order.  So, we have done that, we have changed the order.  We believe that God is leading us to the same goals, just in His order, not ours.  That being said, here is the new order:

Phase 1b – Acquire Land – We have been blessed to purchase 11.11 acres of land on Highway 89, half way between Abilene and Buffalo Gap.  This land backs up to the creek and has a working water well, which will become important when we discuss phase 3.  This land will be the future site of many new things for cordell’s.   

Phase 2 – Start a Food Truck – We are in the process of building out our new food trailer and hope to have it up and running in the next 90-120 days.  We already perform private parties and cooking classes, but this new trailer will give us the ability to sell to the public and still do the private work.  We are excited about the menu and hope you will like it.  We are calling it FoodEx.  It is short for Food Experience, Food Express and Food Excitement.  We will have the same standards for the food on the trailer as we do for the store. 

Phase 3 – Gardens and Greenhouses – We are looking forward to getting our gardens, greenhouses and orchards up and running on the new land.  We will also have a small Farmers Market on site for the selling of the produce.  We will use the produce on the food trailer, in future classes and will sell to local chefs and restaurants.  We will call it Emerald Farms.  All of the money raised will go towards an organization we are creating and hope to turn into a non-profit someday.

Phase 4 – Thrive – We will discuss this organization more in its own post.  We are forming a board of directors and hope to take it non-profit at some point.  More to come…

 Phase 5 – the Green Door – This is our flagship restaurant.  We will focus on seasonality and local as much as possible.  We will have a prefix menu with one seating.  Whether dining in our new Texas Farmhouse or outside in our landscaped gardens, it will be a wonderful evening.  It will take a couple of years to complete this phase.  However, it will be worth the wait.

Phase 6 – Flagship cordell’s – This is the final phase for now.  At some point we will build a new cordell’s on our new land and will expand its offerings.  We will add more activities, products and lunches to its already large product offerings.  As with phase 5, it will take a few years to reach this phase.

As you can see, we have big plans.  We believe that this is what we have been created to do.  Even though it seems very daunting and scary sometimes, we keep moving forward.  We are trying to not lean on our own understandings and to trust.  We appreciate your prayers and your support.  More to come as we make more decisions.

Until next time, Ciao!

Jason and Joy