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Abby Najar is one of those very special people whose passion not only paid the bills (rare enough in itself), but earned respect, affection and recognition from its beneficiaries. Abby’s passion was cooking, and even after 26 years of cooking as a job at restaurants including the Club Llano and the Fireside and Starlight in Buchanan Dam, she wasn’t ready to call it quits. And that is why, on Cinco de Mayo in 1973, Abby Najar opened a take-out restaurant in a small mobile home on the north side of Llano. The restaurant never became large or fancy, but its fame spread around Texas (and beyond) as Abby’s passion for cooking gained admirers from near and far. This is her story.

Abigail Talancon was born on March 31, 1915, in Michoacan, Mexico. Her parents moved to Texas when she was nine months old, and settled in Llano, where they raised eight daughters and two sons. She and her sisters were widely known as “the beautiful Talancon women.” She married Catarino Najar in 1936.

Abby worked at several jobs while raising her four children, but her first love was cooking. “She was a tremendous cook,” recalls her daughter, Mary Moore. “She could do Mexican, American, Italian, anything. She made great cakes that would just melt in your mouth.” Around age thirty, Abby had a tracheotomy, and from then on could only communicate in a whisper or by writing notes. But it didn’t stop her from cooking.

Two years after Abby “retired” for the first time in 1971, her husband bought a mobile home at 1208 N. Bessemer (Highway 16) in Llano. She decided to use it as a take-out-only restaurant, opening for business (with her daughter, Mary; another daughter, Dodie Henderson, began working with them later) on May 5, 1973. It wasn’t long before customers wanted to eat in “Abby’s kitchen.” At first, there was just one table with four chairs, but soon the seating capacity was eight. A review in the June 1975 issue of Texas Monthly said, “Another gem in Llano is Abby’s Mexican Kitchen . . . . The sign is small, but the food is superior. Abby prepares every order by hand. The standard array of Tex-Mex dishes are all delicious, especially the enchiladas. There are only two tables in her trailer, so most customers take the food out; if you eat in, you’ll be inundated by delicious aromas and Willie Nelson tapes.”

Later that year, Abby knocked out a partition, filled the little mobile home with booths, and increased the capacity of the increasingly-popular restaurant to 21. In 1977, Abby’s Kitchen was “discovered” by a Connecticut couple named Michael and Jane Stern, who were putting together (for McGraw-Hill Publishing Company) a book on the best small and inexpensive restaurants across the country. The review in “Roadfood” gave Abby’s its best rating (four stars), and raved about Abby’s $2-$3 meals. “Everything here starts from scratch,” the Sterns wrote. “Abby grinds peppers for her hot sauce and makes tortillas from corn flour.”

According to the popular book, Abby’s “special” consisted of a guacamole salad, a taco, an enchilada, a tamale, rice and beans. She also served chalupas, nachos and tamales. “Abby’s is an easy place to drive by,” the Sterns continued, “There is only a small sign outside the trailer to let you know it’s a restaurant. It’s a clean place, and it is unique. We know of no other combination of authentic food and mobile-homespun atmosphere that so perfectly captures the spirit of Tex-Mex roadfood.”

In the fall of 1979, Abby added another dining room to the front of the mobile home, and expanded the seating capacity to around 40.Over the next few years, Abby’s Kitchen received accolades from a variety of publications, including Texas Highways, the Dallas Times-Herald, Southern Living, the Dallas Cowboys Weekly, the Pike County Dispatch and (believe it or not) the Detroit Free Press.

In 1986, Abby’s Kitchen was featured in the Marble Falls Highlander’s “Highland Lakes Dining” section. Writer Dale Fry told of Abby’s cooking style: “Chuck meat, ground fresh daily, goes into her tacos, and fresh chili meat, cut daily, makes up her famous chili. She dices fresh tomatoes and onions into exact sizes, grinds fresh jalapenos by hand for her hot sauce, and shreds lettuce and grates cheese daily. Exactly ten pounds of perfectly-seasoned pinto beans boil merrily on the stove.” By then, the price of the “special” had risen to $6, and Abby’s Kitchen offered beer and wine coolers along with coffee, tea and soft drinks.

A 1990 article in The Llano News told of customers who made special trips to Llano just to eat at Abby’s Kithchen, and described Abby’s recently-perfected secret recipe for chili con queso.

The little restaurant attracted its share of celebrities, and one of Abby’s prize possessions is a business card with a hand-written message. “Thank you, Abby, for the wonderful meal,” it says. It’s signed, “Tommy Lee Jones.” Other treasures include autographed pictures of singer Johnny Rodriguez and rodeo stars Tee Woolman and Rich Skelton.

By 1993, when Abby’s Kitchen celebrated its 20th anniversary, the restaurant’s owner was herself a celebrity. That year, Mayor Jeffrey Hopf issued a proclamation declaring May 15 as “Abigail T. Najar Day” in Llano. In 1998, she was listed as an “Honored Professional” by the National Directory of Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals. That directory is registered in the Library of Congress.

By the time of the restaurant’s 26th anniversary, Abby was 84 years old, and more of the day-to-day operations were in the capable hands of Abby’s daughters. Still, a newspaper article told readers how Abby supervised “as much as possible,” and described new breakfast hours from 6 to 9 on weekday mornings.

Abby retired again shortly after that 26th anniversary, and although Mary and Dodie kept Abby’s Kitchen open for a little while longer, it wasn’t the same without her. “It was hers,” Mary says. “She deserves all the credit for its success.” They closed the restaurant for good about nine years ago.

Abby Najar is now 94 years old, and is living at Care Inn in Llano. But everyone who has lived here for any length of time has fond memories of her, and recalls proudly the days when some of the finest Mexican food anywhere was served fresh from the oven at “Abby’s Kitchen.”