Olga Lueke Wagner

Wagner Cafe was opened in Yoakum, Texas, around 1937 when Olga Lueke Wagner was widowed by her husband, Benjamin H Wagner, Sr., and had three small children to support.   

Ben and Olga Wagner in Galveston

Wagner Cafe was located in downtown Yoakum, Texas, offering economical homestyle meals, with daily specials, to local diners.  Olga Wagner had always been a good home cook since childhood, growing up on a farm in nearby Moulton, Texas.  Born in 1901, Olga married her childhood sweetheart, Ben Wagner, and they moved to Galveston, Texas, with their three children, where Ben died on the operating table for appendicitis.

 Her cafe patrons enjoyed her fresh yeast rolls and bread, stews, coffee cakes with streussel topping, turkey and dressing, and many of her other favorites.  Sunday breakfast specials included her famous chocolate waffles, which she often made for her kids in Galveston.

Olga became known to her grandchildren as "Nannie".

 

Seating was small, but adequate for local patrons