Trendy Houston restaurants you’ve tried because they’ve gone viral on TikTok — you’ve got a few, right? Or, maybe you’ve driven across town to sample an impossibly fragrant, mouthwatering bowl of pho because of a food blogger’s enticing Instagram photo. Perhaps you’re a regular reader of the Houston Press’s own amazing (full disclosure: she’s my friend) Lorretta Ruggiero, and were moved to make dinner reservations thanks to her deeply genuine and entertaining accounts of dining out with family and friends, the best way to eat.
One way we discover our favorite Houston eateries isn’t as sexy as a TikTok food video backed by Danna Paola’s “Khe Calor,” (it’s a banger!) or even thumbing through the Press’s award-winning culinary reviews. After 11 years with a small but wonderful downtown law firm, I moved to a large, wonderful law firm in The Heights. My lunch and dinner options weren’t on the pros-cons list when I was considering a job change, but once I was sitting at my new desk, chatting with new co-workers about where to get midday nourishment or even the essential coffee fix, it was clear I’d underestimated how large a role where we work determines what we eat.
We all know this is true, of course, but no one ever tells a fellow foodie, “Go try the osso buco at this place I stumbled upon before my 3 o’clock meeting about the TPS reports.” A 2019 U.K. study on this very subject described the office as “a unique microenvironment where people spend most of their time and consume most of their calories.” When I think of all the Tiff’s Treats, DoorDashed iced coffees and free breakroom snacks I’ve consumed since January on the new job (Pro-tip: a bag of Bugles and a can of Red Bull White Peach to power through an especially difficult afternoon), it’s a wonder I have room for lunch or dinner.
Luce’s Island Latte
Photo by Jesse Sendejas Jr.
But, I do, naturally, and when lunch time rolled around those first few weeks with the new employer, I could only think about my old favorites. How was I expected to have reasonable discussions with clients without my favorite po-boy from Zydeco Louisiana Diner, overstuffed with outrageously plump shrimp? Would I be able to snap out of zombie mode without the embarrassingly diverse choices I’d come to enjoy in downtown Houston food halls like The POST, Understory, Bravery Chef Hall and Lyric Market? Might there be a place as nice and scrumptious as Xochi in The Heights for an impromptu dinner with company I treasure or just want to impress? How could I work 8 hours without 20 ounces of coffee from Fifth Vessel or Day 6? It didn’t add up.
The answer was to go into the wild, to learn about the establishments that had fed the hungry in the area all those years I was eating downtown lunches and dinners at places like Treebeards and Thien An Sandwiches (yeah, sure, okay it’s Midtown – close enough). I knew they existed and now I had the proximity and time I needed to see if they could fill this unexpected void.
COFFEE
Ya boy has been drinking coffee since age 17 when his boss Mike Grisaffe would drag him to Champ’s Diner after the late shift at Mr. Gatti’s to hear tales of teenaged heartbreak and slam back the sludgiest mud that could still be “poured” into a mug. The palate has been refined since then and thankfully coffee houses in The Heights were eagerly awaiting my recent arrival.
Shaking beef, Hughie’s
Photo by Jesse Sendejas Jr.
A preferred spot is Sunday Press, 3315 Ella, in Garden Oaks. The shop is a neat café by day, bar by night hybrid that is becoming increasingly popular (see Rabbit’s Got the Gun-slash-Cariño Coffee north of Main, one of the best at this growing trend) and shows some industry savvy. The vibe here is all over the place, with laptops over there and romance over here. But there’s a wealth of beverage options and food, too, for customers. The go-to here is the pistachio matcha latte, served iced or hot with pistachio cold foam and perfectly crushed pistachios.
There’s a Luce Coffee Roasters right across the street, one of several Houston locations, so the place seems familiar, thanks to previous visits to the shop on Washington Avenue. The recommendation here is the Island Latte, which is coconut forward. One thing that happened at the Luce at 1717 W. 34th may say something about this part of town I’m getting to know. I’d ordered two lattes and before I could remove my pay card from my wallet the person ahead of me bought my drinks. So, I paid for the person behind me and she then paid it forward. It was a nice way to start the workday, I gotta say. Welcome to The Heights, friends.
There are more coffee options than we could cover with any brevity, so I’ll add just one more, Coco’s Donuts & Coffee Bar at 2026 W. 34th. The place is adorable, perfect for a meet cute or a midday coffee klatch with the girls or coffee with family, which is what I did. There’s a full-service bar, too and the Latino-owned establishment has sweet programming like a recent “Noches Romanticas” night with salsa and bachata lessons and social drinking ‘til midnight. It hosts a book club and cake decorating workshops and more events you can follow on its Instagram page. Best of all, I’ve loved every coffee I’ve tried there, including the Mexican Mocha, which was topped with a tiny li’l marranito, and the Neopolitan – espresso, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, strawberry cold foam and a mini-polvorón on top. Aye, que chulo!
Torta de tamal at The Tamale Joint
Photo by Jesse Sendejas Jr.
LUNCH
The first place I ate lunch when I went to work downtown 11 years ago was Frank’s Pizza, a Houston treasure. I needed the same sort of lunch the first day on the new job, a meal I knew would feel like a warm fuzzy (but, thankfully, not taste like one). I chose Antone’s. The legendary Houston sandwich shop is down to a few locations, this one at 2724 W. TC Jester. I feel a sense of allegiance to the sandwich joint, since Mom and Dad would buy us pre-game Originals at the long-gone Kirby location (it resembled a train car) ahead of games at the Astrodome. It was also the best meal they’d cater to the quad at 1980s-era HSPVA.
These days, I trend towards their newer sandwich, the Nature Boy, a meatless Mediterranean delight filled with tabouli, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese. There are hot food options, too, like a shrimp plate or gumbo. My first day on the job, I was back to the Original – ham, salami, provolone and chowchow on a fresh po-boy roll. Houston comfort food to salve any first-day jitters.
A couple of options that have replaced all the goodness I once enjoyed at downtown Asian eateries like Thai Café on Franklin and Pho Saigon and Thien An (yes, I know,…Midtown) are Hughie’s and Pho Ben. I visited the latter, 935 N. Shepherd, with a co-worker for a banh mi and wound up bringing half of the mammoth sandwich back to the break room fridge. My wife and I had been to Hughie’s Heights location (1802 W. 18th) before for the shaking beef and impressive count of cold beers on tap, so it was the first place we shared a lunch in my new locale.
Heading to Heights also meant I had more taco options than the couple of choices I was limited to in downtown Houston. So far, two of the best I’ve found are The Tamale Joint and Tacos Doña Lena. The former does breakfast, too, so I’ve started the work day with the breakfast tacos, the tamales, the chilaquiles and a better-than-it-needs-to-be café de olla. But the real winner was the lunch option we chose the first time there, the torta de tamal. It’s the guajolota on the menu, a fresh bolillo bread filled with two tamales, crema, salsa and queso fresco. At $8.99, it’s a steal because it’s enough food for two to share. And, it’s delicious.
Tacos Doña Lena
Photo by Jesse Sendejas Jr.
Doña Lena is a TikTok favorite and a Houston must, established by its namesake in 1985 in Guanajuato, Mexico and continued in Houston from her home until a brick and mortar finally opened in 2020. The place – located at 1805 W. 18th in the Heights — is festive and known for an array of salsas brought to the table in a flight for use on anything on the menu, meals with intriguing names like the “torta chingona,” (pastor, chorizo, ham and “weenies” doused in avocado and a creamy sauce within a lightly toasted bun) and “Las Tres Chismosas,” a trio of street corn tacos filled with your choice of meats, from the customary chicken and beef fajitas, barbacoa and pastor to deeper cuts like lengua, tripas and tinga de pollo.
The restaurant serves some nice refreshing beverages, too, aguas frescas and margaritas, an entirely acceptable lunch choice for when the boss has been especially demanding. Just don’t get swept up by the drink cup which reads “Chingate Otra!” or those TPS reports will never get done.
Speaking of adult beverages, and the want/need to imbibe after punching out, The Heights has proven quite capable of delivering the goods I’d gotten used to downtown. In this story’s companion piece, I’ll touch on dinner and drink establishments I’ve enjoyed in my new favorite place, Houston’s Heights. So, come back for more of this, please, or, you know, as Doña Lena would say, chingate otra.