Just a few months after closing the Fuzzy’s restaurant in Argyle, Radical Hospitality Group is nearing reopening the transformed space as a new cajun restaurant.
Co-owner Steve Watkins said Fuzzy’s struggled after the coronavirus pandemic hit in March because of the dine-in restrictions and its lack of a drive-thru.
“The consumer was looking for really safe national brands, especially those with a drive-thru,” Watkins said. “The places that required you to go inside, fast-casual, stand in line, weren’t as appealing.”
Among many other restaurants outside Argyle, Radical Hospitality Group also owns Earl’s 377 Pizza, Kimzey’s Coffee and Bumbershoot Barbecue, which are all adjacent to the Fuzzy’s parking lot in Argyle. Watkins said that a few years ago, the company was considering building a couple new restaurant spaces nearby, at Cook Street and Hwy 377, and they wanted to move the Fuzzy’s there and open a new restaurant in the Fuzzy’s space.
“The building we were in was too big for a Fuzzy’s,” Watkins said. “The kitchen was designed for a steakhouse 20 years ago … the kitchen is more than double the size of what any Fuzzy’s ever needed. At some point, it’d make more sense to change … we thought we could do something way cooler than what we got.”
The plan to move Fuzzy’s into the new location at Cook Street was scrapped, though, when they realized that they couldn’t serve alcohol that close to Argyle High School, Watkins said. In the meantime, RHG had opened a new cajun restaurant in Celina, Bongo Beaux’s Bourre Palace & Cajun Kitchen, which inspired the idea to create a new cajun concept in Argyle.
St. Argyle’s Cajun Kitchen & Pirogue Sales is expected to open as soon as this month, Watkins said. The restaurant space has been painted and redecorated, inside and out, in a cajun experience where “the French Quarter meets backwater Louisiana.” No menu has been made public yet, but the eatery will offer “down-home Louisiana cooking” with a full bar and signature cocktails. Guests will order from the counter, and their orders will be brought to their table.
