Mel’s Country Cafe suffers massive fire damage, opens donation page

THE WOODLANDS, TX – Mel’s Country Cafe, a family-owned, longtime eating mainstay that has fed Woodlands area hungry people for decades, suffered a during-hours fire recently, resulting in catastrophic fire, smoke, and water damage.

One member of the community has decided to start a crowdsourced fundraising page to help employees at Mel’s during the aftermath and reconstruction. Mary Blackerby was proud to get the financial ball rolling. “Mel’s Country Cafe has been in [the area] since 1994, and has many ties to the community. They have donated and helped many times over the years. Now they need our help; anything will be much appreciated,” she said in regards to the GoFundMe page.

“The restaurant caught on fire yesterday in the middle of dinner. The staff got everyone out and no one was injured. The damage from the fire and water is pretty extensive and will take a lot to rebuild,” she added.

Mel’s Country Cafe has been in the Weirich family since the beginning. Charles Weirich Sr. (Collie) built the original building for his wife Mary in 1977 and called it Mary’s Fried Chicken. All of the ingredients used were grown and purchased from the local farms in the area. Two decades later, they moved into their permanent location at 24814 Stanolind Road in Tomball.

Those wishing to donate to assist the employees of Mel’s can click on this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mels-country-cafe.