Eat Wit Yo Eyez draws customers to kitchen no one can see 

Marcel Brady runs one of the best kitchens you’ve never seen.

It may be the hottest Wednesday night kitchen on the West Side.

The headscratching truth is no one can put their eyes on a place called Eat Wit Yo Eyez. But plenty of people feast on the kitchen’s Wednesday night special: $1 wings.

Eat Wit Yo Eyez is a ghost kitchen at Lombrano Food Hall, a restaurant co-op. Some customers order online or get their food delivered through UberEats, GrubHub or DoorDash.

Others place orders inside the food hall on a touchscreen kiosk. But no one is allowed to peek or enter behind a wall where 21 kitchens and a drink station operate.

Customers Taylor Macek and Tariq Williams from Atlanta, Georgia order food from Eat Wit Yo Eyez using the self serve kiosks at Lombrano Food Hall on Thursday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Adding to the mystery: Lombrano Food Hall sits in a hard-to-find spot off a small road in an industrial complex near Interstate 10 and North Brazos Street.

The seclusion notwithstanding, Eat Wit Yo Eyez cooks up a pretty good crowd. 

“Wednesday is our busiest night of the week,” Brady said. “It used to be our slowest. We asked ourselves, ‘What can we do to turn this around?’ So we started selling wings for a dollar.”

One dollar wings might attract a crowd. But can a business turn a profit on bargain-priced chicken?

“We don’t lose money,” Brady said. “People say, ‘$1 wings? Okay, we’ll get 20 or 40 of them.’ People end up buying more. We might have to do more work that day to meet our profit goal because people order more than they normally would.”

Brady and his wife Teresa Brady share space with kitchens that serve a variety of fare, among them Noods Mexican-Asian Fusion, Taco Street, Hawaiian Bros, Marcos Pizza, Blissful Thai Cuisine and Mad Burgers.

Customers order food from self serve kiosks and then retrieve the food from lockers once the orders are ready at Lombrano Food Hall. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

“We all look out for each other,” Marcel said. “If I need something, I can ask another kitchen, and if they need something, they can ask us. It works out.”

Marcel developed his chops at  Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, Colorado. He and Teresa built a following selling wings and seafood from a truck at since-closed Bentley’s Bar on Broadway. Customers enjoyed the cajun flavors. Marcel prided himself on the plating. 

Presentation, he says, is important. The food has to look good. Hence the name, Eat Wit Yo Eyez.

The most popular items on the Eat Wit Yo Eyez menu are the wings and fish and the fish and shrimp combos that lets customers indulge in both chicken and seafood. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Two years ago, a fellow chef invited the Bradys to share space at Lombrano Food Hall. The good news was moving into a larger kitchen. The odd news was placing orders in to-go bags and setting them inside a locker for pickup.

How could customers eat with their eyes if they couldn’t see the food?

Regulars followed the Bradys from Bentley’s to Lombrano Food Hall. Marcel posted photos and creative videos on social media. New customers took to the wings and seafood. Business grew. 

“People are loving the flavors, the techniques we use to make the food delicious and definitely the presentation,” said Teresa, the sous chef. “It’s something they don’t normally have here in San Antonio.”

To promote Eat Wit Yo Eyez, Marcel creates videos for the kitchen’s 24,000-plus followers on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. 

Marcel and Teresa Brady walk orders down the halls of Lombrano Food Hall to the pick-up area where the food is placed in lockers and delivery drivers or customers can then collect the food. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

In one video, he delivers an order of wings to workers on high-rise scaffolding overlooking downtown. In another, he hands steaming wings to an officer at an airport security checkpoint. In a third, a patrolman pulls him over only to be given a box of hot wings.

“Tell you what,” the officer says, “I’m gonna give you a warning. Hit that blinker next time.”

A large measure of creativity and hustle is required to market an invisible kitchen.

“I do a lot of social media,” Marcel said. “We go to events and pass out flyers. We do a lot of walking to push and market our brand.”

Lombrano Food Hall has four picnic tables. On a recent Wednesday, only two were occupied. 

A couple ate a platter of wings at one table. A family of five ate chicken at another. Most customers grabbed their food to go. The most popular order? The $1 wings. 

“I’m an accredited chef,” Brady said. “I care about recipes and sauces, every detail down to the batter on our chicken and fish and how they are seasoned. We try to make sure you can’t get anything else like it in the city.”