Christian "Fixer Upper" stars Chip and Joanna Gaines have announced they will soon open a restaurant dedicated to breakfast - the most important meal of the day.
According to Southern Living, the creative duo purchased Elite Cafe, a historic eatery in Waco, TX, earlier this year, and after auctioning the contents to benefit Mission Waco's Jubilee Food Market, they began renovating the space.
"The restaurant itself is literally one big giant kitchen," Chip recalled to Southern Living. "When we first got in there, it was all the things you can imagine-dingy, musky. But if I took you in there today, you'd be like 'Oh! This is so clean, everything smells so great.' Those are a few benefits of a little bit of elbow grease and hard work on the front end."
Several months later, the couple announced the official plan for the restaurant, expected to open in the Summer of 2017.
"The Elite Café is going to be a breakfast joint," Chip said. "I've always been a breakfast connoisseur. I always do a heavy, bigger breakfast, but Jo is the exact opposite. She was kind enough to come with me on this one, and we are going to do up a breakfast joint here in town."
He added, "Now, everybody that comes in tells me how smart I was to have bought this property. Six months ago, I wasn't getting as many encouragements. But the restaurant has some serious history that we're going to tap into."
The home renovation pair continues to expand their Magnolia brand, which includes the Magnolia Market, a real estate company, a furniture line, a premium interior paint line, a bakery, and a quarterly home magazine.
Last week, Chip and Joanna released their first book, "The Magnolia Story," which, according to its description, offers "a detailed look at their life together. From the very first renovation project they ever tackled together, to the project that nearly cost them everything [...]."
During a recent "I Am Second" video, the couple shared their faith drives everything they do and revealed how their differences have made their marriage stronger.
Joanna explained that Chip's willingness to take risks and step out in faith allowed her to experience God in a whole new way.
She said: "God had a funny way of bringing me Chip, to almost have this reality of what it's like to follow Christ, which is a lot of things are going to push you to a place of discomfort; a lot of things are going to push you to place of freaking out.... I don't want to be in a box anymore, I don't want to play it safe...because where the impact is, is over here on the other side."
Joanna elaborated on the benefits of working together in a September blog post: "Our jobs are unique, and we've found that we work best side by side," she wrote. "Sometimes Chip will have to give me little daily reminders, like not to sweat the small stuff, and I'm the one who is usually reminding him to sit down and take a quick break."
In turn, Chip explained Joanna's calm, steady personality and unfaltering faith allowed him to become the person God created him to be:
"I think that's one of the reasons I love her like I do," he said. "She knows me in a way that has caused me to stop acting, I feel like I've really been an actor, a character my whole life. I always tried to prove something to someone. When I caught her...for the first time in my life, I felt like I could be exactly who I was."
He added, "I've learned so much about order and structure and processes through my wife, and God is all of those things to me now. But, at the beginning, God was just chaotic to me, He was wild, He was untamed, He was unruly, and I like that."
