By Natalie Lozano Trimble
Photography by Thanin Viriyaki
The writing is on the wall, literally. Recipes from Austin Odom’s great-grandmother, Oma, and Shannon Odom’s grandmother, Willene, decorate their Hico restaurant, Oma Leen’s, where the couple serves unique Texas-Italian spins on food, Shannon says.
Their fall dinner menu highlights this style: venison bolognese with hazelnut, orange zest and cocoa, a fennel and sausage lasagna with brown butter and pumpkin, and chicken and gnudi dumplings topped with crispy chicken skins, just like Shannon’s Maw Maw used to make.
“All these stories of our childhood built what we’re creating today,” she says. Shannon’s dad’s family is Italian by way of New Jersey, and her mom is from Louisiana.
“The whole point is to bring what you’d get in the city to small towns,” Austin says, and guests are coming from Fort Worth, Dallas and Austin to this tiny town in Hamilton County.
The couple met at Tarleton State University, where Shannon was skipping classes to work on her meal prepping business. When they outgrew her apartment’s kitchen, they began renting a commercial kitchen from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and later landed a corporate catering gig.
At one point, they moved to Dallas while Austin worked at Homewood, a restaurant in Oak Lawn. Shannon says their menu inspired the Odoms to leave corporate catering and start a restaurant.
Their first Oma Leen’s opened in 2020 in Walnut Springs, about 20 minutes east of and smaller than Hico. “If I were to fail, nobody would know,” Shannon, who had never worked in a restaurant, says.
The beginning had evenings with only eight guests in the 60-person dining room. But word spread about their farm-to-table concept, which was only open two nights a week, had no indoor bathrooms and in summer would sometimes get up to 86 degrees inside. “They loved the food, but they were sweating,” Austin says.
An investor invited them to move their concept to their current building in Hico in 2022.
Although the restaurant’s grown, Shannon still cooks and Austin handles pasta and biscuits, which are made from scratch daily. Austin says there’s nothing they serve that one of them hasn’t touched, even if it’s just the final taste before plating.
In September, they cooked for 3,000 people at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival, one of two restaurants invited to represent Texas. They served a smoky Texas-braised brisket ragu for the event’s first two nights so they could be back at Oma Leen’s for Saturday’s dinner service.
The Odoms, who both turned 30 this fall, opened a pizza shop around the corner, Barbacellis, in 2023. The crust is inspired by their love for Fort Worth’s now-closed Black Cat Pizza.
Between the two restaurants, they employ 50 people, Austin says, including high school students who work the line, a retired lawyer with a knack for pastry and a horticulture major who is also helping them start a garden.
Hico’s sense of community is something the couple is enthusiastic about. Their closest competition, Chop House, is anything but. The owners, Lonesome Dove alumnus Chef Eric Hunter and his wife, Jennifer, told the Odoms not to buy basil, as they were growing enough to share. The farmer who sells them eggs also takes scraps from the restaurant for the chickens.
Hico’s population — 1,335, according to the last census — includes the couple’s two young children, who have had a front-row seat to their parents’ unending hard work.
Austin is creating experiences and a cookbook to share his love of hunting, cleaning and butchering with those who either don’t hunt or don’t know what to do with their harvest. Shannon hosts Verdant Supper, pre-fixe dinners often held in local homes in the spring.
Oma Leen’s is open Thursday through Monday for lunch and dinner, with brunch available on Sundays.
Chicken Pasta Sauce
Serves 4
- Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 10 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup roasted Campari tomatoes
- 3 tablespoons dry white wine
- 4 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, finely chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1 pinch of black pepper
- 1 cup roasted and salted blitzed pistachios, see note
Preparation:
Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Fry the garlic until golden brown, then add the chopped onion. Let sauté, then add the roasted tomatoes.
Add butter and melt.
Gradually whisk in the heavy cream until smooth.
Add white wine, lemon juice, cayenne, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and salt. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes until the sauce starts to brown. Add the grated parmigiana.
Stir in basil and pistachios. Simmer for 2–3 more minutes.
Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, or lemon juice as needed.
Serve over pasta with grilled or pan-seared chicken. Garnish with more Parmesan and basil.
Note: You can blitz pistachios at home in a food processor. Stop when they are a finely ground powder consistency.