Donnie, Stephanie Bozant buy The Depot from the Head family

Donnie and Stephanie Bozant, Kilgore residents, have acquired The Depot Restaurant from Jim Head, Bozant said this week.

The official changeover date is June 1, but Bozant is in the restaurant now looking over the pricing, the menu and other facets of the establishment.

“My wife and I are excited to have this opportunity,” Bozant said. “Jim Head did a great job designing the restaurant and putting things in place. We have a few ideas of our own and want to have a family atmosphere where locals can bring their children, eat a quality meal and allow their children to play games in a safe environment. Hopefully, we can accomplish this.”

Bozant has years of experience in the food industry, and he has stated the number one goal of he and his wife is to consistently serve a quality meal which will make people want to come back over and over again.

“We want our food quality to be consistently outstanding so that people will know when they walk in the door that their meal will be top quality,” Bozant said. “We also want to have fair pricing, excellent service and all of the other things that go into having a successful business.”

The new owner thinks The Depot can achieve great success, not only with local customers but with local businesses and sports teams as well.

“We have meeting rooms that would allow businesses to have seminars away from their workplace, complete with special electrical hookups for power point programs and things such as this as well as a quality meal for lunch or dinner,” Bozant said. “Also, sports teams that want to get together after games, class reunions looking for a place for their meals or school organizations looking for meeting room or banquet space will be able to come here and be accommodated.”

Bozant said he wants The Depot to be a place that people think of first when they think about eating out in Kilgore.

“We will market to all of the sports teams coming into Kilgore from out of town and offer our services to them as well,” he said. “We will stay open late if they want, or we will box meals and take it to them.”

Bozant is already fairly well known in Kilgore from his time on the Youth Softball board of directors. He and his wife have lived in Kilgore for a number of years now and the couple's daughter, Kimberly, attends Kilgore schools. Their son, Adam Groce, graduated from KHS and is now preparing to enter the military. And, many people know Stephanie's parents, Dr. Pete Freeman and his wife, Gloria, from the years they spent pastoring the First Baptist Church of Kilgore.

“Kilgore is our home, and we think this restaurant can be a place where families can come and have a great time, any time of year,” he said. “We hope Kilgore will support us, and we hope that we are able to give back to Kilgore as well.”

The Depot Restaurant is open seven days a week in the Kilgore Plaza shopping center. The telephone number is 903-984-3100.