Food History of Houston

Key eras

1836 to 1900, founding and Galveston port era

Houston was founded August 30, 1836 by the Allen brothers on a swampy bayou trade post. Through the 19th century the food economy ran on Galveston port arrivals: salt cod, coffee, sugar from Cuba, plus inland Texas beef from cattle drives down the Chisholm Trail. The Houston Ship Channel opened in 1914 and reset everything; by 1920 Houston was a commercial cooking-oil and rice-milling hub for the Gulf South. The pre-WWII Houston food map ran on diners, oyster bars and the Mexican corridor along Navigation Boulevard.

1969, Frenchy Creuzot and Creole fried chicken

Percy 'Frenchy' Creuzot, a New Orleans-born Black entrepreneur, opened a po-boy counter on Scott Street in Houston's Third Ward on July 3, 1969, two blocks from Texas Southern University. By the 1970s the menu shifted to Creole fried chicken with a heavy paprika-and-cayenne rub. The Scott Street counter became a Houston Black-community institution and codified the Creole-fried-chicken-in-Texas template. Frenchy's now has multiple locations citywide; Scott Street remains the original.

1973, Ninfa Laurenzo and the restaurant fajita

Ninfa Laurenzo opened a ten-table room on Navigation Boulevard, in Houston's East End, on July 25, 1973. She put grilled skirt steak with flour tortillas on the menu as tacos al carbon. By the late 1970s the dish was branded as fajitas and went national. Skirt steak had been ranch food on the Texas-Mexico border for generations; Ninfa turned it into white-tablecloth food with the sizzling cast-iron platter, the side bowls of guacamole, pico and pickled jalapeños. The Original Ninfa's on Navigation remains in business.

1975, the Vietnamese refugee resettlement and Bellaire Boulevard

The fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 set off the largest U.S. resettlement of Vietnamese refugees. Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Galveston-Houston processed thousands of families through Houston that year and the next. The Vietnamese community concentrated along Bellaire Boulevard west of Beechnut, and by the 1980s it became the country's most concentrated Vietnamese food strip. Pho Binh opened 1983. Crawfish and Noodles opened 2008 and codified Viet-Cajun crawfish. The corridor now runs ten miles.

2004 to present, Hillcroft and the South Asian corridor

Kaiser Lashkari opened Himalaya on the Southwest Freeway at Hillcroft Avenue in 2004 and codified the Pakistani-and-Indian template in Houston. The City of Houston designated the Hillcroft-and-Southwest Freeway area as the Mahatma Gandhi District in 2010, formally recognising the South Asian community there. London Sizzler, Bombay Sweets, Hyderabad House, Shri Balaji Bhavan and Bombay Brasserie now anchor the strip. Anthony Bourdain's 2016 Parts Unknown feature put Lashkari and the corridor on the national map.

Immigrant influences

• Mexican-American (East End and Second Ward, Navigation Boulevard): Ninfa Laurenzo invented the restaurant fajita in 1973 at the Original Ninfa's. El Tiempo Cantina (her son Roland) followed. The Long Point and Spring Branch taco-truck corridor anchors the modern street-taco scene.
• Vietnamese (Bellaire Boulevard, Sharpstown, Midtown): Post-1975 refugee resettlement built the country's deepest pho corridor. Pho Binh since 1983, Cali Sandwich since 1979, Mai's, Pho One. Crawfish and Noodles codified Viet-Cajun crawfish since 2008.
• Pakistani and Indian (Hillcroft, Mahatma Gandhi District): Kaiser Lashkari's Himalaya (2004) codified Pakistani-Indian biryani and hunter's beef. London Sizzler, Bombay Sweets, Shri Balaji Bhavan and Hyderabad House anchor the Hillcroft corridor.
• Czech (Brazos Valley and Houston commute): 1850s-1880s Moravian Czech settlers brought the kolache to Texas. Three Brothers Bakery (Polish-Jewish, since 1949 in Houston) plus Kolache Shoppe and the Czech Stop chain anchor the sweet-and-savoury kolache tradition.
• Black Houston (Third Ward, Fifth Ward): Frenchy's Chicken since 1969 codified Creole fried chicken. The Breakfast Klub. The Third Ward corridor along Scott and Almeda runs soul food, gospel brunch and the Frenchy's Sunday-after-church tradition.
• Nigerian and West African (Bissonnet West, Wilcrest): The Bissonnet corridor west of Wilcrest holds the country's largest Nigerian-American food cluster, with Suya spots, Yoruba pepper soup rooms and Igbo egusi houses. Most national lists miss it.
• Salvadoran and Honduran (Spring Branch, Long Point): Pupuserias, baleadas and Honduran fried chicken anchor the Long Point and Gessner Road strip. The Central American community runs parallel to the Mexican-American Long Point taqueria network.
• Chinese (Bellaire Boulevard, Sharpstown): Cantonese banquet halls, Sichuan rooms (Mala Sichuan since 2011) and Hong Kong roast meat shops along Bellaire Boulevard. Hong Kong City Mall and Welcome Food Center are the grocery anchors.

Signature innovations

• The restaurant fajita, invented at the Original Ninfa's on Navigation in 1973.
• Viet-Cajun crawfish, codified at Crawfish and Noodles on Bellaire since 2008.
• Creole fried chicken in Texas, codified at Frenchy's Chicken on Scott Street since 1969.
• The sizzling cast-iron Tex-Mex platter, Ninfa Laurenzo's staging since 1973.
• The Tex-Mex yellow Velveeta-and-Rotel queso, standardised in Houston after 1943.
• The Mahatma Gandhi District as a recognised South Asian food corridor.
• Bellaire Boulevard as the country's most concentrated Vietnamese pho strip.