Karat Bar & Bistro - The Diamond of Downtown

While some may be lamenting the lack of cupcakes from behind Ganache Cupcake Lounge’s closed doors, others are eagerly looking forward to Ganache at its new location downtown in the Zales Building, on the corner of 8th and Ohio. Ganache closed its doors on October 28th with the goal of moving everything into the Zales Building, as well as hiring and training employees by December 1st. Renovations on the building were extensive and just recently completed.
Amber Schacter is the owner Ganache Cupcake Lounge and The Yard under the flag of Ganache Co. She will not just be reopening Ganache, she will be opening 3 new establishments in that building that will be bigger and better than their namesake. Ganache will be reformatted to a take out restaurant that will deliver to the downtown are and will carry the name of Ganache To Go. Along with Karat and Ganache, Amber will be opening a third venue which will be called The Morris Supper Club will provide a formal dining setting. “It will be a white table cloth, fine dining restaurant with and extensive old world wine list. It is named after Morris Zales and we are very excited about it,” Amber said. Karate Bar & Bistro will exhibit a laid back atmosphere with bar and open seating. “We are really excited about the new location. We will be servicing the businesses and residents downtown. People don’t realize how many residents live downtown, and it can sometimes become a ghost town down there after five,” Amber said.
The restaurants are expected to draw customers in from all over Wichita Falls as well. “Ganache To Go will make quick serve food, almost a deli style counter with cupcakes and sandwiches that are healthy whole foods. There will also be a separate restaurant called The Karat Bar and Bistro. We will be serving fresh well made food sourced locally and with everything made by hand from scratch. We want the restaurant to feel special, prestigious not pretentious,” she stressed. “Our chef will be Kyle Dalka. He is from the Austin area and we have been working together for over a year on the concept for the new restaurant,” Amber said, “It will be an upscale, casual, full service restaurant and bar. There will be a permanent art fixture in the restaurant. David Fowler is painting a large mural in the space of The Karat featuring Morris Zales,” she said.

She said that the old diamond vault will be used as whiskey and wine lockers for patrons of the supper club. The restaurants will be serving lunch and dinner with everything from aged local rib eye steak to club sandwiches.
“We will be offering things that aren’t available in Wichita Falls with a new level of service and hospitality,” Amber explained. “We have always wanted to be downtown,” she said, “The building itself is very special. It is located in Depot Square, which was the heart of the city 100 years ago.”
Amber explained that Morris Zale, the original owner of the building, was the first jeweler that made it possible for a middle class person to afford fine jewelry by letting them make payments. The building was also the first location of Zales Jewelry Store that is now a billion dollar company.
She isn’t just interested in the changes the building is making, she is interested in its past too “It is important for me to tell the story. I think a lot of times we forget our history,” Amber said, “To be able to preserve the history and share that with the community is very important to me. I think that we are having a Renaissance in Wichita Falls. We are not the redheaded stepchild of the Metroplex. I hope that this building, and all of the buildings downtown, are filled with an entrepreneurial energy,” she said passionately.
She has plans to continue to develop the property. “The spaces that we aren’t using we are going to renovate and lease and hope to find other interesting things for the downtown,” she said.