A ‘Fatt’ Minute in The Making

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A 12-week process is finally complete. Kody and Deah Weller began transforming what was once ‘Victory Motors’ into the location for Fatt Wellers. Kody and Deah Weller moved from Pampa three years ago to Colorado when the opportunity to open a restaurant fell into their laps. After running their restaurant for around a year in Colorado, and going through the learning curves it takes to own and operate a restaurant, the couple moved back to Pampa.

“When we came back, we realized we missed our Texas people,” Weller said. “Our goal was five weeks to get opened, but it took us a lot longer than we thought it would.”

The grand opening is set for Friday, May 26th with temporary hours for the first two weeks.

“We are going to work seven days a week, opened from 11 am to 9 pm,” Weller said. “We want to open and see how things go, let the people of Pampa tell us how often they want us to be opened. Then we’ll go from there.”

For the big, anticipated opening, Fatt Wellers will have live music from a special band, with hopes to have live music on a regular month to month basis.

“We are going to have ‘A Special Case’ performing, which is very sentimental to us,” Weller said. “The drummer and bass player of the band were members of the band Kody played in when we lived here before.”

Weller also plans to have some sort of giveaway for the top fans of the restaurant.

“It’s going to be rocking and rolling, just taking it as it comes,” Weller said. “We are rusty, it’s been almost six months since we’ve served so we’re a little nervous. Our staff is completely new.”

The staff will begin training Wednesday, two days before the grand opening, and then it’s opening day. The garage doors were changed into bay doors that will allow natural light to come through even when the weather doesn’t permit it. For opening day, the doors will be opened.

“We will have our full menu on opening day,” Weller said. “We’re nervous to finally open.”

“It’s a little bit of all emotions, a mix of the excitement and nerves,” Kody Weller. “Overwhelming in a sense, especially with the response from Facebook.”

The duo planned to host a soft opening a day ahead of the grand opening, but that was not in the cards.

“We wanted to do a soft opening with a few people just to see how everyone felt,” Weller said. “But anytime we have a car in the parking lot that isn’t one of our own, people stop in and think we’re open. We’ve loved the response and how eager people are for it, but it has added to the nervousness.”

The nerves are setting in ahead of opening day. From the moment the restaurant was Facebook official, the hype was on.

“We’ve been so excited to finally be able to open and show people what we have to offer.” Weller said.

Coming from a town of 800 in Colorado, there are a lot of changes the duo has had to make.

“We’ve changed procedures, and the number of quantities we have to make,” Weller said. “Without the soft opening we didn’t get a first run at anything, so opening day will be that. We just need time and patience once we open. Pampa is going to be a whole new learning curve for us. We can get the food out, but we want to make sure we’re getting tables served and new people in as fast as we can.”

The location has a whole new look to it. With the kitchen now encased in a barn.

“It was our third kitchen idea,” Weller said. “I showed my stepdad what I wanted, just from pictures, and he made it happen in about a week. Then the chairs, we got such a good deal on them, but they were so rusty and not good looking. So we spent a while sanding and tearing them down to paint them red to go into the restaurant. But we got it done, it took so many tries to get them done right, I was stained red after it was finally done.”

The restaurant will continue to add new things to it, adding flat screens to allow them to show Pampa sports.

“We want to be part of this community, we used all Pampa-based businesses when it came to our renovations,” Weller said. “A huge shout out to Bartlett’s, the guys up there have seen us so many times we know them by name. But we want to showcase our hometown sports as well. That’s in the plans, we’re waiting on our TV to come in from Colorado.”

The location for ‘Fatt Weller’s’ is at 2420 Alcock and will officially be opened Friday.