Sanity in Sand Flat

Friday is our day to get out and about. And it was a beautiful day so we

Farm near Sand Flat

decided to take a road trip to some of the more rural areas. Sand Flat is a rural community that sits on Farm Road 4 about six miles southeast of Cleburne. It was also supposed to have a place to eat that had gotten some good reviews. What we didn’t know was that it is one of the oldest settlements in Johnson County.





In the mid-1850s the first settlers arrived in Sand Flat. They left shortly thereafter. Five years later the Bennett, Walraven, and Boatwright families arrived and started subsistence farming. The population grew slowly,

General Store

putting up a school and a church by the late 1860s. It is not clear just what happened with the naming of the town, and the school; evidently the name of Cuba was attached to each, but folks who live – and have lived – in the area say that Cuba has always been south of Sand Flat. In any case, the post office arrived in 1882 and the name of the town was called Cuba. In 1884 the population had grown to 50, supporting a church, cotton gin, district school, gristmill, and other businesses. There was also a doctor practicing in the town for several years. By 1898 there were 32 students in the two-room school and the population was up to 75. After 1904, when the post office closed, the area was referred to as Sand Flat. Surprisingly, this community has persisted although there is no major highway or railroad to serve the town. The general store still stands, and across the street is the cemetery. One day we’ll go back to Sand Flat to take a look at the cemetery and to visit the general store.

The restaurant we went to find was actually where it was supposed to be and it was open. There weren’t many folks in the area, but we decided to visit the restaurant. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Ell’s Place (4205 FM 4, Cleburne, TX 76031, 817-556-3835) started as a burger stand about 10 years ago. The restaurant was added to this and is

Top L to R: Jesse James burger, Matt Dillon burger
Bottom L to R: Lone Ranger burger, mural

doing a good business selling tasty food to local patrons. It’s best known for its burgers, but I saw plates of fish go by that looked really good; next time that’s what I’m having. However, on this visit we all opted for different burgers; all of them came with lettuce, tomato, and onion (except mine). Vince had the Matt Dillon with onion rings. That burger has jalapeños and pepper jack cheese on it. Vince said that it was nicely spiced, but he really appreciated the onion rings that were fresh and crispy. Dave had the Jesse James with tater tots. This is a double meat burger with grilled jalapeno peppers, mushrooms, onions, and provolone cheese. He enjoyed the burger, but really liked the tater tots – I had one and they were especially good. I decided to try the Lone Ranger with fries; I also got cheese as an extra on this standard burger. The burger was very good, but the fries were just okay. Service was good and we were able to chat with the waitress until the lunch crowd arrived. We did find that the meat came from a local butcher and that everything else was purchased locally, as well. When we get back to this area we’ll certainly visit this restaurant, again.

Red bud tree

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