Homegrown Success

The country atmosphere isn’t just for show at the restaurant, an extension of a family-run agricultural enterprise in the small town of Melvin.

“It is important to me that the servers tell our guests where the ranch is, what the family is about and where the beef is coming from,” says Adam Jacoby, who grew up working at his family’s ranch, feed business and café before coming to Austin to attend the University of Texas. “People have been so welcoming and have given us a chance to tell the Jacoby story. They have really embraced it.”

ROOTED IN AGRICULTURE

About 150 miles to the west, near the geographic center of Texas, tall grain bins rise from Jacoby Feed and Seed on a hillside in Melvin. Jason Jacoby, Adam’s father, started the business in 1981 to store the grain he grew or bought from fellow farmers.

To meet the needs of the local community, Jason gradually expanded, adding a feed mill, feed store, café, gas station, mechanic shop, and construction and custom fertilizer businesses, plus a rail loading center 15 miles away in Brady. His family also produces wheat, hay, club lambs, meat goats and cattle.

Today 50 people work at their complex in Melvin, which has a population of approximately 180.

“Way back in the early ’80s, I figured out real quick that you can’t hire and fire somebody just because things cycle,” Jason says. “We depend on Mother Nature here, and she throws you different things. The ups and downs make it tough if you’re not diversified.”

Grains rattle in the elevator above the Feed and Seed office as Jason pulls up in his Kawasaki Mule, taking a break from a construction project up the hill. Driving around the complex, he explains how diversification started early.

“Back then, there was no one around here to clean seed for farmers, or oats for the horses at G. Rollie White Downs in Brady, so we put in a seed cleaner,” he says. When fellow wheat farmers had a good crop, he also added vertical mixers, manufacturing and selling feed. Over time, he and his wife, Kelli, built their brand and added on.

Today Jacoby Feed and Seed is best known for its show feeds, dedicating space on the company website to photos of youth livestock show winners with their sheep, goats and cattle.

The Jacobys’ children, Adam, Holden, Reece and Dylan, also grew up stockshowing, along with working in the family businesses. Holden, now married, has his own cattle and helps with the family cow-calf operation, in addition to managing the Jacoby Rail Center. He finances his cattle business through Central Texas Farm Credit, where Jason has been a member since the 1980s because it’s a local business with competitive rates.

Under a poster of a black Angus in his office at the Feed and Seed, Holden talks about how cattle and grains are central to the family businesses.

“We finish our cattle ourselves, and custom-make our own rations here,” he says, explaining that the calves are fed out for up to six of the 11 months that it takes to go from ranch to plate. The meat is processed in other towns, dry-aged 21 to 28 days for the best flavor.

At Jacoby’s Café, across from the Feed and Seed, the meat is a big part of the draw.

“All of the beef and lamb that we serve here or in Austin, we raised,” Jason says. “It was born here, raised here and fed here. We know what it’s been fed and how it’s been treated from start to finish.”

The only step they lack, he says, is processing — which brings up another way to diversify. Though still just an idea, a Jacoby processing plant would let the family age its beef longer and would help meet local demand, especially among sheep and goat producers, he says.

FROM FEED TO FOOD SERVICE

Jason seldom stops moving. When he grabs a burger at the café, he makes the rounds to talk about the weather, crop conditions and the livestock market with the other diners, many of whom are customers or fellow producers. Next he visits with Holden about baling hay and getting ready for incoming cars at the rail center.

Begun in 2002 to give employees a place to eat lunch without driving to the next town, Jacoby’s Café now attracts diners from around the region.

Adam Jacoby remembers how impressed his college buddies were with the meaty flavor of the burgers when they visited. After graduating, he moved home for a couple of years, remodeling the café to bring out the small-town charm and adding a bar and gift shop. Now old family photos line the burlap walls, and clothing with the Jacoby’s logo is sold in the café shop, right by the door to the feed store.

“It just hooked me,” Adam says. “I decided I loved what we were doing, I loved our story, and I wanted to replicate it. That’s how the idea of Jacoby’s Restaurant came to be.”

He and his parents scouted restaurant locations across the state before discovering just the right site — a cinderblock industrial building east of downtown Austin, with stunning river views. They spent the next year and a half bringing a little of the country to the city.

Working with Austin designer Kris Swift, Adam transformed the building with materials from Melvin, including reclaimed brick from a building on the square, weathered metal roofing and barnwood. Old cattle panels fence the outdoor dining area, preserving the river view and breeze. Contemporary furnishings create an inviting blend of old and new.

Like the café that inspired it, the restaurant has a retail area, selling Jacoby Brand dry-aged beef alongside nostalgic Fenton hobnail glass, home goods and antlers from the ranch. Kris, a former finalist on HGTV’s “Design Star,” says Jacoby’s Restaurant and Mercantile reflects the attention to detail and quality that the family brings to everything they do.

That’s very apparent on the menu, each hand-embossed and stamped with the date, which features family recipes, café favorites and seasonal specials highlighting vegetables from Austin farms and meat from the Melvin ranch.

One dish featuring Jacoby-raised lamb helped put the restaurant on the culinary map just six months after it had opened, winning the American Lamb Board’s regional Lamb Jam in Austin in February. Adam beams with excitement as he talks about advancing to the national competition in New York City this September.

Currently about three calves a month and three lambs a week from the family ranch supply the two eateries. Adam envisions the Austin restaurant becoming an outlet for fellow farmers and ranchers from Melvin, as well, forming two community hubs that support each other.

“I’m happy that this is an extension of small-town Texas,” he says. “That ties in with Farm Credit and agriculture, because this wouldn’t be happening without agriculture. That’s the core of our story.”