Cuero restaurant features electric vehicle charging, delicious eats | For Subscribers Only

Cuero is an unlikely place for a restaurant with electric vehicle charging stations, but Allen Gilmer, owner of The EVthing, said the restaurant is more than just a charging station.

“It’s an ongoing experiment,” Gilmer said in mid-April.

The EVthing, 511 E. Broadway St. in Cuero, had their electrical vehicle charging stations built back in 2022, a year before their restaurant opened in October. The idea behind the business was to implement a high-speed charging station for electrical vehicles and give customers a place where everyone wants to come, a place where “no one is getting their arm twisted to come out here,” Gilmer said.

Back when the business first opened with just the charging stations, Gilmer would only see an electrical vehicle every three days. Now, he sees three to five electrical vehicles a day. Even though the business opened with EVs at the forefront, he knew it wasn’t sustainable on its own. Thus, a restaurant and gift shop was created to both accommodate travelers and cater to locals.

“It’s a chicken and egg problem. We knew there were not enough EVs outside of big cities. We knew we needed to develop a local clientele that doesn’t drive EVs. We needed to be appealing enough for them to come in and have an experience that makes them want to come back,” Gilmer said.

The business started after he realized his friends would drive down from Austin to visit his family in Rockport, and the trip would take them twice as long. That’s because there were no high speed charging stations along the way.

“The infrastructure is there in big cities, and that’s where EVs took off, but in Texas, we have a lot of places other than big cities and a lot of distance between them,” Gilmer said.

There are three levels of EV charging. Level 1 charging takes anywhere from overnight to multiple days to fully charge a vehicle. Level 2 takes several hours to charge. Level 3 is a high speed charging station that usually takes about 20 to 40 minutes to fully charge a vehicle. At The EVthing, their level 3 charging is the only one available in DeWitt County and for several counties around. Gilmer said people make the loop when coming from Corpus Christi and Houston to stop in and charge up.

But even with high speed level 3 charging, that leaves customers with 20 to 40 minutes on their hands.

“I don’t think people want to spend the 30-40 minutes it takes to charge a car at a convenience store,” Gilmer said.

The restaurant was created with two questions in mind: What kind of place is going to be the most interesting? And what place is going to be the most engaging to people for awhile?

That’s why the business evolved from a charging station to a restaurant with an electrical vehicle charging station. Gilmer said he wanted to “build a place where people were gonna hang out and stay for awhile. COVID-19 took the community out of a lot communities, and we want to put the community back into our community.”

The EVthing features one of the first self-pour tap rooms in South-Central Texas. For $15, customers can pour their own beer, mead, wine or cider from the 39 different taps on hand. Customers can sample at their leisure, and if they find one they like, the restaurant will can it for them. Along with a self-pour tap is handmade gelato that is made fresh daily and a gift shop that sells unique candies and old comic books. They serve what Gilmer calls “elevated street food,” which is “things you’ve had that are comfortable and taking them to the next level.” Sandwiches and tacos made with in-house smoked meats and chicken wings with handmade sauces are popular with guests. Their handmade gelato is also a hit with guests as it’s made in-house daily.

“We want people to come once and come again. That’s the experience we want. We want to be a place that men, women, and children all want to come to.” Gilmer said.