Bonnie Shea spent years just trying to make sure her mother’s story didn’t disappear. Patty Lou Peters fronted an all-female western swing band called Patty Lou and the Texas Sweethearts back in the 1940s and 50s, back when female touring groups almost never existed. They piled into a convertible and drove routes stretching from Chicago to California, playing gigs along the way. Shea wanted people to know who her mother was. So she built her a restaurant.
Patty Lou’s Smashburgers just opened in old downtown Plano, in a space that most recently held a Starbucks, and almost everything in it points back to Patty Lou somehow. There’s a road map mural tracing her actual touring route. Her original guitar sits on display alongside other memorabilia. A jukebox mixes old and new country. Interactive QR codes let guests pull up more of her story while they wait on their order.
Shea has said her goal for years was simply making sure her mother wasn’t forgotten, and that watching guests walk in, hear the music, and learn who Patty Lou was has meant more to her than she expected.
Shea and her husband Nathan run the restaurant together as the newest concept from their company, Urban Family Concepts, which also owns Urban Crust, Urban Rio Cantina & Grill, and Urban Seafood Company. Nathan handles the burger side, made from never-frozen wagyu off the family’s own Black Gold Ranch. He’s said the whole process is old-fashioned, start to finish, right down to how each patty gets smashed.
The menu stays small on purpose, and it’s built entirely around Texas-raised wagyu. The Patty Lou’s Smashburger is the plain-and-simple double patty, American cheese, grilled onions, pickles, and Urban sauce on a potato bun, for anyone who wants the classic done right. The Texas Sweetheart is the same burger dressed up with jalapeño relish for a little more kick, and it’s the one carrying the restaurant’s own name. For something different, the Jailbird Chicken Sandwich swaps in two grilled chicken breasts with Havarti cheese, pickles, and Urban sauce, and the Smash Dog takes a quarter-pound all-beef hot dog and dresses it the same way as the burgers, onions, jalapeño relish, and Urban sauce.
There’s a lighter option too, a Burger Salad with a double patty over mixed greens, cucumbers, carrots, pickles, and tomatoes with agave vinaigrette, or build-your-own versions of the burger, chicken sandwich, and hot dog for anyone who wants to start from scratch and pick their own toppings. Hand-cut fries and onion rings round out the sides, and the kitchen makes its own sauces in house, including a jalapeño ranch alongside the Urban sauce.
Dessert leans into the diner theme just as hard. There are classic milkshakes in chocolate, vanilla, salted caramel, and strawberry, plus old-fashioned floats made with bottled root beer, Dr. Pepper, or Coke. For the grown-ups, there are even adult milkshakes, including a Kahlúa Koop and an Espresso Martini version, alongside beer, wine, and a Frozen Jack & Coke for anyone who wants their nightcap blended.
The room itself is a classic diner setup, counter seating and all, but it never really stops being about Patty Lou. It’s an odd combination on paper, part burger joint, part small museum to a Texas musician most people walking in have never heard of. By the time they leave, they usually have.
Patty Lou’s Smashburgers is located at 1000 E. 14th St., Suite 105, in downtown Plano.
