Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This east Texas landmark established by John ”Johnny” Cace, Jr. has served the area since 1949. Johnny was the son of a Yugoslav immigrant who grew up on the island village of Prvic Luka and spent his childhood fishing and boating in the Adriatic Sea. John Cace, Sr. arrived in Buras, Louisiana in 1915 where there was a community of Yugoslav fishermen and oystermen. In 1916, Cace married into a family who owned oyster beds and fishing boats. John, Jr., or Johnny, was born in 1917 and learned the way of the sea and bayous at an early age. Johnny graduated second in his high school class and attended Louisiana State University for two years before moving with his parents to Shreveport in 1936. The family sold fresh seafood and oysters from their home and soon opened a restaurant. In 1939, Johnny married Valerie Savony and then joined the U.S. Air Force. Johnny and his family moved to Longview in 1949 and opened Johnny Cace’s Seafood and Steak House. They lived above the restaurant which became noted for quality seafood, fresh shucked oysters and creole recipes. The original location was expanded three times before a New Orleans style building was erected in 1964 at this location. In 1966, Johnny was elected president of both the Texas Restaurant Association and the Longview Chamber of Commerce. Cace was named “Man of the Year” by the Longview Federated Clubs in 1992. He died in November 2000. Johnny Cace established a landmark family business that spans three generations and is known throughout the state, region and nation.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Johnny Cace, son of a Yugoslav immigrant fisherman from the Adriatic island of Prvic Luka, grew up around the seafood trade his family carried from Louisiana's oyster beds to Shreveport. In 1949 he opened Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House in Longview, living above the restaurant that became famous for fresh-shucked oysters and Creole cooking. A New Orleans–style building rose here in 1964, and the business grew into a beloved east Texas institution spanning three generations.
Why it matters
It traces an immigrant fishing family's American arc—from Adriatic waters to Gulf oyster beds to a landmark Texas restaurant—one small chapter in the immigrant story behind so much of American food culture.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1949, when Johnny Cace opened his restaurant in Longview, east Texas was riding the energy of the postwar boom. The oil economy had thickened the region's towns, cars were filling the highways, and Americans newly flush with confidence were eating out, traveling, and building the kind of local institutions that would define a community for generations. A good restaurant on a busy road was perfectly placed to become a landmark.
But the roots of this story run back much further and much farther away, to the Adriatic coast. Johnny's father grew up in the island village of Prvic Luka, fishing and boating the Adriatic Sea before emigrating from the old Yugoslav lands. His arrival in Buras, Louisiana in 1915 was no accident: there was already a community of Yugoslav fishermen and oystermen there, part of the broad wave of early-twentieth-century immigration that carried Old World skills to American shores.
So two American currents meet in this marker — the great immigrant migration of the early 1900s and the confident, mobile prosperity of the postwar years. The family carried a seafaring trade across an ocean and, over two generations, turned it into a Texas institution.
People & events
The Cace family's American story begins with water and work. Arriving in Louisiana in 1915, John Cace, Sr. married in 1916 into a family that owned oyster beds and fishing boats — folding himself directly into the seafood trade. His son Johnny, born in 1917, grew up learning the ways of the sea and the bayous from boyhood, the family knowledge passing down as naturally as it had along the Adriatic.
Johnny, though, had more than the water in him. He graduated second in his high school class and spent two years at Louisiana State University before moving with his family to Shreveport in 1936, where they sold fresh seafood and oysters from their home and soon opened a restaurant. In 1939 he married Valerie Savony and then joined the U.S. Air Force. Ten years later, in 1949, Johnny and his family moved to Longview and opened Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House.
They lived above the restaurant, and it grew on the strength of quality seafood, fresh-shucked oysters, and Creole recipes. The original location was expanded three times before a New Orleans–style building rose on this site in 1964. Johnny became a civic figure as well as a restaurateur: in 1966 he was elected president of both the Texas Restaurant Association and the Longview Chamber of Commerce, and in 1992 the Longview Federated Clubs named him "Man of the Year." He died in November 2000, having built a family business that now spans three generations and is known across the state, the region, and the nation.
Its place in the American story
So much of American food culture is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and Johnny Cace's restaurant traces one of those arcs almost perfectly. It runs from a fishing village on the Adriatic, to a Yugoslav fishing community on the Louisiana coast, to oyster beds and a family seafood business, and finally to a celebrated steak and seafood house in east Texas. Along the way, Old World skill became New World enterprise.
The restaurant also embodies the classic path of the family business as an engine of American belonging. The Caces didn't just make a living; they built an institution, and its founder rose to lead his industry's state association and his city's chamber of commerce — an immigrant's son becoming a pillar of civic life. That trajectory, from newcomer to community leader, is one of the most enduring promises of American life.
And there is the food itself. The Creole recipes and fresh-shucked oysters that made the place famous show how regional American cuisines are blended from many sources — Gulf seafood, Louisiana Creole tradition, and a seafaring family's deep instinct for what comes out of the water. A single beloved restaurant can hold a surprisingly large chapter of the national story.
If you visit
This is a place to come hungry and curious. Johnny Cace's has served the Longview area since 1949, and the New Orleans–style building that rose here in 1964 signals what's inside: a long tradition of Gulf seafood and Creole cooking, with fresh-shucked oysters at the center of its reputation.
As you visit, let yourself trace the distance the family's trade traveled to reach this spot — from an Adriatic island, to Louisiana's oyster beds, to a Shreveport home kitchen, and finally to a landmark east Texas restaurant carried on across three generations. Knowing that backstory makes the setting feel less like a stop for a meal and more like the last chapter of a long migration.
For a road tripper, this is the kind of local institution worth planning around — a genuine piece of Longview's civic and culinary identity rather than a roadside afterthought. Come for the seafood, and stay a moment with the immigrant story behind it, one small but vivid thread in the larger tapestry of American food.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John "Johnny" Cace, Jr.
- · John Cace, Sr.
Themes & tags
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