Handout
Felipe Armenta, left, and John Clay Wolfe.
John Clay Wolfe, noted radio and car guy, and Felipe Armenta, first-rate restaurateur, became fast friends after a chance meeting at a tavern and restaurant in Walnut Springs a year or so ago.
“I'm like, ‘Hey, man, you're the Pacific Table dude,’” Wolfe recalled in his idiosyncratic way.
As it turned out, they are neighbors. Their respective ranches in Bosque County abut one another.
“And he is a complete car nut,” Wolfe said. “He has a collection of cars that would make your jaw drop. He's mesmerized with what I do because he's a car guy. He's like, ‘If you'll teach me how to do [the car business], I'll teach you anything you want to know about the restaurant business.”
The two partnered in a car that they recently sold for more than $1 million. And now, they announced on Thursday, they’re joining forces on a new restaurant venture.
Bosque Cantina will open middle-to-late November, Wolfe said. It will be located in that same tavern and restaurant where they met in Walnut Springs, a drive of a little more than an hour southwest from Fort Worth. The Chisholm Trail Parkway to U.S. 67 and another turn south to Texas 144.
On the menu will be Armenta’s approach to Tex Mex fare. Armenta plans to revamp the space to create a classic southwest vibe.
“John Clay and I have neighboring ranches in Walnut Springs, we both have a passion for cars, and we love bringing people together over food and drink,” Armenta said. “He told me how he wants to bring those two passions together to make Walnut Springs a destination spot and I said, ‘Let’s do it!’"
And, so, it will be.
Walnut Springs — in Bosque County — has become a point of focus for Wolfe. He calls it Radiator Springs, a reference to the animated movie “Cars.” His depiction of the scenic hilly drive getting there is akin to a romantic tale.
“We're gonna make a foodie spot out of it. It's gonna be a foodie destination,” said Wolfe, a 2023 Fort Worth Inc. Entrepreneur of Excellence winner.
Wolfe is noted for saying that he is “possessed” of two things: an indomitable entrepreneurial streak and a sharp wit that would get him into “trouble on a regular job.”
“So, self-employment works out well for everyone,” he has said in the past.
He has cracked the code on buying and selling cars through GiveMeTheVIN.com. Since 1996, he has bought more than 520,000 cars — and counting. Over the past three years, the company has generated revenues of more than $5 billion.
Selling your car is apparently so easy you can do it in your underwear.
Wolfe, an EOE winner in his second try, has a vision to buy and sell 100,000 cars a year.
“Everything it takes to accomplish that is the daily decision-making,” he says.
Givemethevin, headquartered in the more centrally-located North Richland Hills, has more than 150 employees.
Wolfe has hosted a nationally syndicated radio show for more than a decade. He can be heard on more than 60 radio stations from coast to coast each Saturday. That’s where Givemethevin began. Living in Vernon, he began purchasing vehicles from customers on-air.
Armenta is indeed the “Pacific Table dude,” with locations in Fort Worth, Southlake, and Las Colinas. In addition to Pacific Table, just one of his concepts operated under the umbrella of Far Out Hospitality, he has opened Press Café, Maria’s, Le Margot, F1 Smokehouse, and the Tavern. He also operates Cowboy Prime in Midland.
Wolfe said the Bosque Cantina will include uber local options on beef. Armenta raises Wagyu on his ranch, and the restaurant will also buy from Joey Walker’s W4 Ranch, which has specialized in the Hereford breed for more than 60 years.
As an aside: Asked what he was growing at his ranch, Wolfe said motorcycle trails. He’s still racing those things, and, in fact, he’s back on the injured list after a recent unplanned detour left him with more than simply dust on his boots.
Anyway, Wolfe also said that another guy eying Walnut Springs is Richard Rawlings, a gear head with Fort Worth ties who partnered with Wolfe on a record-setting sale of a Humvee at a Barrett-Jackson auction.
Bosque Cantina is merely the most recent of Wolfe’s plays in Walnut Springs.
Wolfe recently opened his new Classic and Collector Cars headquarters called GMTV Garage and the W6 Saloon. Both are adjacent to another bar and restaurant that Wolfe co-owns, Rattlesnake Roadhouse.
Walnut Springs was named for a spring that was surrounded by Walnut trees.
Once upon a time, in the midst of a railroad boom in the late 1800s, Walnut Springs was the largest town between Waco and Fort Worth. It isn’t that anymore. It’s most recent population count totaled in the 840s.
“I saw it 20 years ago when I was driving through it. No,” he Wolfe says, “30 years ago … 28 years ago, I remember when I drove through it, and said I want to do this here. And then I found a place four years ago and I bought a ranch out there, and I keep staring at it, and I'm like I'm gonna do this here, and I'm doing it.”
On this new venture, the Bosque Cantina, he’s partnering with a good buddy.
“I couldn’t be happier about partnering with Felipe,” said Wolfe. “With his talent and track record of success, this is going to be great for Walnut Springs.”