By all accounts, Dave Saunders was destined to become the owner of the Texas Inn, affectionately known to generations of Lynchburg locals as the T-Room. But if you ask him, the journey back to his hometown diner wasn’t part of any master plan.
“I was born in Lynchburg General Hospital on Halloween, 1967,” Saunders said, “And except for one year when my dad took a job in Maryland, I’ve been here. My roots are deep in this town.”
Saunders, a local kid turned marketing mogul, never forgot his childhood mornings spent eating breakfast at the T-Room while his firefighter father and nurse mother swapped shifts.
“My mom would drop us off out front and Dad would walk us in for breakfast,” he said. “Years later, when I bought the place in 2018, Miss Frances [Staton] — who still worked there — looked at me and said, ‘Your daddy was Wayne Saunders, right? I used to serve you when you were little.’ I hadn’t thought about that in 40 years.”
The Texas Inn was already a Lynchburg institution when Saunders and his high school friends made it their regular hangout, showing up in tuxedos and ball gowns after prom or piling in for late-night cheesy Westerns.
“We had a Facebook group called ‘Fans of the T-Room’ long before I ever dreamed of owning it,” he said. “It wasn’t just a restaurant. It was the backdrop of our lives.”
In 2017, when a Craigslist ad advertising the business for sale went viral on the “Living in Lynchburg” Facebook page, Saunders knew he had to act.
“I saw it and thought, ‘I gotta do something,’” he said. “I didn’t want it to close, not on my watch.”
Despite the T-Room having lost money for seven consecutive years, he bought it anyway.
“Nobody in their right mind would’ve bought that business,” he laughed. “But I wasn’t in it for profit. This place mattered.”
He tackled the project head-on, investing heavily in renovations, replacing decades-old equipment and scrubbing 50 years of grime from every corner.
“I spent more fixing the place than I did buying it,” he said. “We filled up a dumpster with junk from the attic and then filled it again.”
Still, Saunders was careful not to mess with the T-Room’s soul.
“The front of house? I didn’t change a thing. That nostalgia, the food, the feeling, it's what people love. It’s the brand. That’s the value,” he said.
Except, of course, for the pork and beans.
“There was a menu item that hadn’t been ordered in seven months,” Saunders said. “We were microwaving canned Van Camp’s pork and beans. I climbed a ladder and pulled the letters off the menu myself. Nobody missed them.”
He made similarly thoughtful tweaks such as swapping out obscure items like mozzarella sticks and introducing crinkle-cut fries.
“People got mad at first, sure. But fries are now our third biggest seller,” he said.
As the brand expanded, now with locations in Cornerstone, Richmond and Harrisonburg, Saunders still faces uphill battles.
COVID-19, a drawn-out fight with the health department over relish temperature and relentless inflation have all taken their toll.
“Margins in this business are razor thin. We’ve run at a loss more years than not,” he said. “But this isn’t about money. This is my nonprofit.”
The Texas Inn has even been recognized as one of Virginia’s six official legacy restaurants.
“Governor Youngkin came to our Richmond opening,” he said. “He orders two cheesy Westerns and a Dr. Pepper all the time. We know the order by heart.”
For Saunders, the magic of the T-Room isn’t just in the chili or the hot dogs, it’s the memories.
“I had someone send me a photo of her and her brother at the counter, taken 30 minutes after their father’s funeral. He’d eaten here every week of his life. That’s the kind of thing that makes you know, deep down, you made the right choice,” he said.
Despite the odds, Saunders isn’t quitting.
“I’ve got two coffee mugs on my desk,” he said. “One says, ‘Don’t let the bastards wear you down.’ The other says, ‘Failure is not an option.’ That’s how I run this business.”
Saunders said one family had their Christmas card photo taken at the T-Room, the relish is shipped to all 50 states and people have traditions that began at the establishment.
“This place isn’t just burgers and dogs,” he said. “It’s good, fast and cheap. It’s dinner and a show. It’s where you go after prom. After a funeral. After a night out. It’s part of Lynchburg’s DNA.”
Photos provided by Texas Inn
