Dot's Place

Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm; Fri, 6-8pm

Dot Hewitt didn't start out to be a restaurateur. By the time she and her husband James opened their restaurant 20 years ago this October, she'd already spent years raising kids and working as a vocational nurse, caring for elderly patients. "I always knew I wanted to have a restaurant," Hewitt says with a smile, "but I just hadn't made up my mind to do it until I was 41 years old. Once my mind was made up, there was no stopping me." In the fall of 1980, the Hewitts found a brick house that had housed a barbecue joint on a quiet country lane north of Austin. Though neither of them had any previous restaurant experience, they cleaned up the place, getting rid of the wood smoke aroma, and opened Dot's Place in October of that year. As Dot recalls, it took about a month for customers to begin stopping by on a regular basis, but it wasn't long before country neighbors, construction workers, and city electrical crews were passing the word along to all their friends about the little restaurant in the country north of town: Dot's Place was the place for the best home-cooked meal around.

The line of hungry workers would wind its way down Orchard Lane, past a parking lot full of working men's pickup trucks. In those early days, an entrée and two vegetables set you back a whopping $3 bucks. Within nine months, it was necessary to expand the building, adding more kitchen and dining room space. Over the years, the continued success of Dot's Place has meant three more expansions but the Hewitts never thought of moving. "I liked it here and made up my mind to stay," says Dot. Now the kitchen and cafeteria line occupy the entire north end of the building, the dishwashing area has its own room, and dining rooms with long rows of tables open off each other. Austin has grown so far north that Dot's is no longer really in the country; the construction worker clientele is now joined by hungry high tech office workers from the Silicon Hills. Diners patiently snake their way through a maze inside the front door to a cafeteria line loaded daily with an embarrassment of riches. Hewitt reckons that meat loaf is almost always the first thing to sell out, but the tender beef tips, roast beef, delicate whole fried catfish and flavorful chicken 'n' dumplings have their loyal fans as well. She can't keep enough pecan pies made to meet the demand, with her sweet potato pie and peach cobbler running close behind in popularity.

In 20 years, the basic price for lunch has only gone up to $6, meaning you get a huge entrée serving and two vegetables for that very affordable price. That makes it possible to choose from an inviting array of salads, add cornbread or pillowy yeast rolls and a selection from the mouth-watering dessert case, and still spend less than $10! It's incredible that so much good food can be purchased so cheaply, but that's just the way the proprietor wants it. "I do a lot of legwork, looking for bargains and checking out specials prices to keep my costs down," she says proudly. The consistent quality of the food at Dot's is due to the fact that she still does the cooking herself, and all of it without a written recipe. A typical day begins at 6:15-6:30am and Hewitt keeps at it "until I get caught up." A hard-working staff of six, including Hewitt's brother Raymond Washington and one of her nieces, help with prep work before the restaurant opens, serve the line and bus tables during lunch, wash dishes, and start the next day's cooking after the last lunch table is cleared.

Though she lost her husband James to lung cancer a few years back and she's now raising a second set of children, Dot Hewitt keeps on working. "I'm like that Energizer bunny on TV," she laughs, "I just keep going and going." Among the framed articles and positive reviews on the dining room walls at Dot's place is a plaque proclaiming her "Grandmother of the Year" at Brentwood Elementary, where the two grandchildren she's raising go to school. Like any other single mother, she leaves work in time to pick the kids up from school, feeds them dinner, and oversees the homework. She allows that her children and grandchildren aren't drawn to the long hours and hard work of the restaurant business so she won't be turning the operation over to them, but she's not ready to quit by a long shot. "I'll cook a few more years," she says," as long as my health holds out." These days, she's concerned about building up the sales on Friday nights when the bill of fare is an all-you-can-eat catfish deal with all the trimmings for $8. It's hard to imagine her not being able to draw a crowd, so folks are sure to come. Talking to Dot Hewitt, you get the sense there's no obstacle she can't tackle. As she herself says, "When Dot puts her mind to something, Dot can do it!" Whether you stop in for lunch or make it to the Friday catfish fry, be sure to wish Dot Hewitt a happy 20th anniversary and tell her to keep up the good work.