Tucked away underneath the Amarillo Police Department’s downtown headquarters is an inviting — and tasty — hidden gem.
Despite its somewhat clandestine location, City Cafe offers a delicious menu, as well as a hang-out space for everyone, complete with a puzzle table.
Shaun Sechrist started at just age 16 in the restaurant business, and after 30 years of experience in the industry, he wanted to start his own restaurant.
So, in 2023, when the location under APD opened up, he took the chance and opened City Cafe to serve both police and the general public.
“We do breakfast or lunch, and we do both all day, so if you want a cheeseburger, 8 o’clock in the morning, you can get a cheeseburger, if you want a breakfast burrito at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, you can get one,” Sechrist said. “You can get normal breakfast stuff — breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, pancakes, breakfast plates, omelets, bowls — and then lunch, we do a mix of everything, hamburgers, quesadillas, chicken strips.”
“I’ll do specials every now and then with, like I might like spaghetti or pizza, or different stuff like that, Chinese food, just random stuff that people ask for, or I just felt like cooking,” he said.
A niche location
After working for many food chains, Sechrist enjoys the freedom having his own restaurant provides.
“Being able to fix the menu how I want it … If I wake up tomorrow and feel like making meatloaf today, I’ll do that,” Sechrist said. “Especially working in big corporate chains, instead of saying, ‘Hey, this would work well here, in Amarillo,’ it doesn’t matter.”
Despite being in a niche location, City Cafe gets customers from police to members of the general public who have heard about the restaurant through word-of-mouth or on social media.
“We get about 50 or 60 officers and court people that work in the building and then Amarillo National across the street, the Amarillo building, the hotel up the street,” Sechrist said. “We are starting to get more of the outside people; Explore Amarillo came in and did a Tiktok and put us as one of the best burgers in town.”
City Cafe offers a unique environment for customers
Amanda Driver, a records division employee, said she enjoys the environment, the relationship Sechrist creates with his customers, and the food.
“The owner Shaun, he’s amazing, he buys us puzzles. We come here to relax after work, and he also gives us special orders because we are his regulars,” Driver said. “His food is amazing. If he’s not making us special off the menu stuff, we get his burgers.”
Corporal Candi Dickey, a warrant officer, expressed appreciation for Sechrist and his family and the space he provides for them.
“I just like that it’s a central location for everyone to meet and enjoy our meals,” Dickey said. “I will say that he really tries to accommodate the customer, so even if it’s not on the menu, if he can whip it up and you request it, he tries to satisfy that for you.”
Sechrist said the biggest drawback he faces is people not coming into the cafe because it’s located underneath the police department.
“We do DoorDash and get the drivers all the time saying, ‘It’s taking me to the police department,'” Sechrist said. “I promise it’s there, just go in and take the elevators down … it’s like they’re afraid to come into the police department. Like, ‘no, you’re going to arrest me’. And I say, no, I promise it’s real.”
Sechrist also launched his own business, Panhandle Provisions, a collection of bottled barbecue sauce, lemonades and coffees.
He started making everything from scratch for City Cafe, and after people loved the flavors, he decided to start bottling and selling them. He recently had a booth at the Texas Route 66 Festival Finale, where people could try and purchase the new items.
“The stuff that we sell in house, like all my barbecue sauces, we make all of our stuff from scratch,” Sechrist said. “So all the sauces, I’m bottling them to sell, so we’re in the process of starting that, too.”
Ashlyn Harvell is a contributing writer for the Amarillo Globe-News. Have a story idea? Send it in via email at newmedia@amarillo.com .
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo City Cafe might be the best kept secret in the Panhandle
Reporting by By Ashlyn Harvell, Special to the Amarillo Globe-News / Amarillo Globe-News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ashlyn Harvell, Special to the Amarillo Globe-News | USA TODAY Network
