Feeding community brings joy to Holmes family

By Emily Smith Staff Writer

The Holmes family originally opened Catfish Cafe, a restaurant located in Atascocita, in 2000. The family attached a trailer to the outside of the restaurant to handle overflow when the restaurant was at full capacity. Due to rising popularity in the food truck industry over the past 21 years, the restaurant and its overflow trailer have evolved into a popular food truck business. Now located in Homestead, the family works together to run and operate the food truck Bayou City Catfish.

“I hope for continued growth among the community and food cost levels to plane out,” owner Joanna Holmes said. “It’s been challenging throughout the pandemic.”

The hard work is split among the family to keep up with the rush of customers. There are so many important roles such as writing out orders, accepting payments, cooking and packing the orders. Workers also have to make sure customers return to the window when their food is hot and ready to go. All

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are essential tasks that must be done efficiently to keep the operation flowing.

Senior Edwin Holmes said the most effective way for his family seems to be that while his mom cooks, he plates the food and his sister Madison Holmes communicates with the customers.

“I think the family aspect adds a strong bond to our work ethic and we all try to help each other out whenever we can,”

At the UIL Academic State Meet, seniors Ryan Eckerty and Constance Streitman won state titles.

Eckerty finished first in the state in Physics and 4th Place overall in science.

Streitman won the gold in Copy Editing. She also placed 1st overall out of all the conferences 1A through 6A.

Edwin said. “With it just being our family that runs the business, knowing that this puts the food on our table, it makes everyone work together as a tightly bonded team.”

As for the customers, the Holmes family attracts many regulars to their window because of the work they put into the food they make and into the relationships with their customers. Between call-in orders for family gatherings and walk-up orders, customers are taken care of “the Holmes way.”

“We have a very close relationship with our customers,” Edwin said. “We have over 50 customers who just have to call in and say their name for us to know their go-to order. And the whole neigh- borhood looks out for our family.”

Getting to know as many people as the Holmes family does in the community makes their job even more meaningful. They hear the inside scoop on customers’ lives and are treated as friends. A good story is always bound to come up at the window.

“We know everyone by name and some people have been eating with us every week since 2002,” Madison said. “I love getting to know the community.”

The workload may be extensive, but the secret to getting it done successfully starts with family.

“The best part about working on the food truck is the gratitude of helping my mom,” Edwin said.

Meet the Top 10 academic students in the Class of 2023. They share what their journeys have been like and what they are planning to do next year. They also talk about the teachers who impacted them the most during high school. Senior Ryan Eckerty is valedictorian and Iman El Attar is salutatorian.

What do you miss most?

“I’ll miss the holiday parties and just how easy everything used to be before, but I’m excited to see my former elementary classmates’ futures.”

Delaney

Espinoza