When people see a crowd there’s a natural curiosity: “What’s happening?” The Chef’s Corner in Fort Worth, Texas, drew crowds to the Chevron station on East Berry St. to try Chef Mike Douresseaux’s food, which went viral through TikTok and the old-fashioned way, word of mouth.

It all happened by accident. On his way to a job interview, Douresseaux stopped at a Chevron station to grab something to drink. “I had my chef coat on and people began to ask me about food and what I did. I met Tony, the owner.”

The interview he was headed to that day was for a job that turned out to not be a good fit. But Douresseaux kept the Chevron station in mind. “Tony took me back to the kitchen. It needed a hood, gas grill and gas lines,” Douresseaux said, adding, “I had $45,000 in the bank. I prayed about it, put it in faith and asked God for guidance. I talked to Tony and he agreed to let me build it out.”

After six months, The Chef’s Corner opened on April 1, 2024.

Douresseaux has been in the food business for more than four decades. “I did a little bit of everything. I worked at the Four Seasons. I worked in hotels for about 10 years. I went back to school and became a dietary manager and did that for 15 years.”

A Slow Start

The Chef’s Corner started out serving breakfast, but business was slow. After a month, Douresseaux “flipped the script and started doing lunch and dinner.” He started offering shrimp and catfish po’boys, shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles.

“Boom! The community started coming in. People brought their friends,” he recalled. The response was overwhelming. Word spread fast.

“I did a pecan praline sauce over a Belgian waffle with a Cajun chicken breast. It had a little bit of heat. I used a vanilla bean cream with a caramel praline. It was unique. Customers wanted the waffle and they wanted yams with it. Before I knew it, I was famous for chicken and waffles. People were coming in and getting four or five at one time,” he said.

He kept prices reasonable. “I made corn roasted grits with shrimp. I used my jambalaya sauce and laid it on the grits with a Cajun cream sauce. I put 10 jumbo shrimp on it, all for $15,” Douresseaux said.

“I was feeding 300 people a day. People from TikTok started coming in. You’ll see videos of the store filled with long lines. I was serving stuff with a Louisiana flair that they couldn’t get anywhere else.”

An Overwhelming Phenomenon

Sometimes success comes with stress.

“I was working 15 hours a day, six days a week and I’m in a gas station. The mayor came in. Journalists started coming in. The police chief came in and the next thing I know I have lots of police officers coming in. I had days where I made $4,000 a day. I started popping up all over TikTok. It was rush, rush, rush,” he said. “I needed more space. My customers would pack in. It was hard on the store.”

Douresseaux explained, “I had a bell at the door. It would go ding dong. You’d hear four ding dongs in a minute, then five—it was stressful. When I’d hear the bell go off, I’d drop five waffles and I’d ask the cook to drop five steaks.

“My food was cheap and customers wanted to try a lot of things,” Doures-seaux said. One customer would go out the door with three or four meals. At times, he could have 30 customers buy 100 meals.

As the lines grew, Douresseaux bought pagers to alert customers that their order was ready. “I outgrew the store. Even though I was using the pagers there were so many cars in the parking lot. The owner of the station said you’re doing too much business to be in a gas station.”

In March 2025, Douresseaux used his c-store success to open a free-standing restaurant.

It’s All About the Customers

“The beautiful thing is introducing people to this food,” Douresseaux said.

“Customers will come in and want to talk. I talked to kids who wanted to get into a culinary program. Some had trouble with the law. I talked to customers about God. Through food that is spicy and zesty, the opportunity to have conversations is created. If you break bread with people, you have a chance to have conversations and impact lives.”

Douresseaux offered a seafood gumbo with blue crab, snow crab, crawfish tails, shrimp, andouille and chicken. “The base was roux made with butter, okra and chicken stock. I used dehydrated shrimp in the base. I’d make the base, let it sit for a day, then come back and add the other ingredients.”

The gumbo was a top seller, but also a conversation starter. “One customer brought his wife and kids. Then, he brought me his gumbo so I could try it. He wanted to know how I made my gumbo. This actually happened a few times,” he said.

Even though he now has a restaurant, he wants to continue to offer his food in c-stores. “I’ve had other gas station owners that want me to come in. I’ve decided to use the restaurant as a hub and a base. If I prep the food in the restaurant, I can open up food programs in multiple convenience stores. All I’ll need is staff to serve it,” he said.