For decades the little hamburger joint was a beloved part of the West Fort Worth landscape. Now, its owners are working to make it a Weatherford tradition.

By Marsha Brown

WEATHERFORD ñ For over two months the mouthwatering flavors of a Fort Worth tradition have been on the taste buds of Weatherford.

Kincaid's Hamburgers opened its sixth location in Weatherford Ridge Shopping Center. A tradition for 63 years in Fort Worth is quickly becoming one in Parker County.

So what made Kincaid's choose Weatherford for their newest venture?

"A lot of our customers come from the west side of Fort Worth and from even farther west like Weatherford,"ù Kincaid's owner Ron Gentry said. "We have customers that drive in from Abilene fairly routinely, and we know that there is a growth in Weatherford."

The Gentrys began their quest for a Weatherford location more than two years ago.

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"We have so many good customers from Weatherford that we thought it would be a good place to go,"ù Gentry said. "It's our first venture outside of Tarrant County. We looked around and liked what we saw. We liked the way other businesses conducted theirs. It's a very business-friendly town. The city departments, the officials, code enforcement and health department are all really very easy to work with. They're very supportive. We've gotten so much positive feedback in Weatherford."

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Kincaid's started as a small, independent grocery store. Ron Gentry's father, O.R. Gentry started working at the shop in 1947 as a meat cutter. Then eventually as Charles Kincaid got older O.R. took over more of the management of the store. O.R. purchased the business from Kincaid in 1968, but he kept the Kincaid name that had been a West Fort Worth fixture for 22 years. When O.R. Gentry died eight years ago, his son Ron, his wife and two sons were already a part of the Kincaid's business.

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About two years ago, trouble began brewing at the original Kincaid's location on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

"Our landlord passed away and there was an heir who came out of the woodwork," Ron Gentry said. "She tried to put a little squeeze play on us by wanting to quadruple our rent and she wanted a percentage of the sales too."

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But we (the family) just said, "It's not going to happen." So it got to where they said we would have to leave the premises. We thought we were out of there. What we didn't anticipate is that our customers would get involved. There was an unbelievable e-mail flurry to her. Some of my customers are commercial realtors, they were sending her stuff about what leases were going for around there, about the value of the property, and telling her that what she was asking for was way out of line.

"A couple of our customers are genealogists and they got involved, and to make a long story short, 19 months later we agreed upon a lease that we could live with, signed it, and it was approved by the judge for the estate."

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The Gentrys had planned for the Weatherford Kincaid's to open much earlier than it did, but the construction project and the development of the property fell behind schedule. During that period of time the Gentry's had so many positive comments from customers and support from local Weatherfordians that frequented the Camp Bowie store, that they knew Weatherford was where they needed to be.

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"We knew that they wanted us to be here, so it is a mutually beneficial thing and it has worked out great,"ù Gentry said. "Weatherford is not a small town anymore, but it still has the small town values and small town feeling. The atmosphere makes it a great place. I'm just glad we made the decision to come here."

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Kincaid's can boast of six locations at the moment. But what spurred the idea of expansion from the original location?

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"My dad (O.R. Gentry) was in the business for 44 years,"ù Gentry said. "He always told me that if he was younger he would have four or five of these because there are places around here that he would go that would be kind of 'a store of the community' place where people could go and not have to drive all the way to Camp Bowie. This was always kind of my dad's dream. He told me, about a year before he died, that his greatest desire was that his two grandsons would go into the business."

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The dream was on its way to becoming a reality and it was inevitable that more family members would join in the business. Gentry decided to open enough stores so they could all be in the business full-time, and make a career out of it. All that added together fueled the decision to expand.

Kincaid's first expansion opened in Southlake, then the Hulen area, over to Arlington. The stores are spaced far enough apart so as not to cannibalize each other.

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Both of the Gentrys' sons are now in the business. It's a small family-owned business like Cousin's Barbeque. Gentry is pleased that his dad's dream has come true.

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O.R. Gentry (O.R. as he was respectfully know to his customers) died eight years ago. He lived to be 86 years old.

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Ron Gentry's wife Lynn's area of expertise in the business varies quite a bit, being that she is the one who works with new store development. She gets involved with the design and colors, and the store decorations, kitchen equipment and back room items. When Kincaid's is between store openings she stays involved with the marketing and advertising end of the business. But her real assignment within the family business is new store development.

"Lynn gets to live a more normal life when we're between opening stores," Ron Gentry said. "That's where we are at the moment."

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The Gentrys' two sons, Christian and Jonathan, are both single, much to Lynn's chagrin. She would like to have grandchildren also to carry on the family tradition.

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With six stores in operation now, the Gentrys are concentrating on refining the operation to make it consistent from one store to the next.

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The Kincaid's brand does well in middle-market places like Weatherford. So, instead of slugging it out in big metro markets like Dallas and Houston, future expansion probably will be in smaller market areas.

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The Weatherford Kincaid's seems to also be helping the environment. When Kincaid's held their grand opening celebration in Weatherford, Gentry recognized a tremendous amount of people that frequented his Camp Bowie location. One man mentioned how much gasoline he was going to save now.

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"I can't remember all their names, but I know there is a gentleman that lives here named Jim Dill," Gentry said. "I used to go to church with him and his wife before they moved to Weatherford. I kind of lost track of him except when I saw him at the Camp Bowie store. They were some of the first people I saw when we opened in Weatherford. I've seen Jim there several times. I just happen to know their names but I see a ton of customers that used to come to Camp Bowie. Some still go to both places."

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The Gentrys try to capture as much of the atmosphere of the original Kincaid's as possible at their new locations. People familiar with Kincaid's say they've replicated the look and feel they're accustomed to. But the most rewarding thing they hear is that the food is exactly the same.

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In the early '70s the day of the small independent grocery store was coming to an end as the large supermarkets came in. O.R. Gentry recognized the need to customize his business. There was a grill in the kitchen where he'd been cooking hamburgers for customers 'in the know,'ù as early as 1964. By 1972 Gentry was trying to make burgers a bigger portion of the business. He'd cook hamburgers for the 'locals' ñ the postman, the neighbors and Arlington Heights High School students.

These early "regulars" recognized the quality of the product, spread the word and the business was off to the races.

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The popularity of Kincaid's garnered media attention, jump-starting the business into what it is today. Ron Gentry said he and his dad always measured the growth and success "in increments of three-foot grills."

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The store evolved from being a grocery store into a hamburger eatery. In 1991, 99.7 percent of the business at the original location was cooked food. That's when the Gentrys recognized the need to have the store become strictly a restaurant.

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The rest is history.