Watauga mom-and-pop Campfire Grill, a Southern comfort food restaurant at 6321 Rufe Snow Dr. #100 famous for its chicken-fried steak, is closing after 10 years.

According to a post on the restaurant’s Facebook page, their lease is ending, and they'll close on May 30.

Husband-and-wife Kareem and Jessica Lawton first opened the restaurant in 2015, with former partner Pablo Resendez (who left a year ago, according to Kareem). It became a community hub for Watauga and North Richland Hills, especially through the pandemic when they added a prayer wall and giving wall for contributions from customers.

Kareem said he notified employees of the closure first because he didn't want to blindside them before letting the public know.

“Our lease is ending and it’s just a good exit point for me,” Kareem says in a call. “I just want to focus more on my family because owning a restaurant is a big deal.”

Kareem had dreamed of owning a restaurant since he was 14. They first opened in a different location about a mile away at 6751 Rufe Snow, then closed and relocated to the current location in 2020.

The star of the menu was chicken fried steak with gravy made from scratch with bacon drippings; hickory-smoked meatloaf with BBQ sauce; Nolan Ryan burger; and fried catfish with three filets and three sides.

They also had chicken-fried chicken, chopped steak, pork chops, meatloaf,fried shrimp, and catfish, fried or blackened. Plus wings, a patty melt, fried pickles, and desserts such as banana pudding, peach cobbler, and brownies.

The couple have not determined what's next.

“I’m not quite sure where I’ll land at this point, but I will take a little bit of time and hopefully clear my mind and put my resume together today,” Kareem says.

“I didn’t come to this decision lightly, and I’m not closing because I have to,” he says. “But I’d like to have a job that when I leave, I don’t have to keep thinking about it. I’m not downing the idea that I’ll ever do it again; my wife is more ready to try it again, but she was also more ready to close it than me.”