Following Hurricane Beryl, Houston Restaurants Work to Recoup

Days after Tropical Storm Beryl hit Houston, a climate event initially graded as a Category 1 hurricane, much of Houston remained without power. Houstonians, left in record heat temperatures, gripped at straws — desperately searching for nearby restaurants and businesses where they could charge their phones, eat warm food, and cool down in air conditioning. Meanwhile, the businesses they typically leaned on, too, were suffering.

Several local restaurants lost tens of thousands of dollars in mere days due to the power outage, which seemed to impact large swaths of the city indiscriminately. While Montrose restaurants like steakhouse Doris Metropolitan had access to power, restaurants just streets over like Little’s Oyster Bar, Hugo’s, and Goodnight Hospitality’s entire campus (March, the Marigold Club, Rosie Cannonball, Montrose Cheese & Wine) are still dark.

For Houston, this is the fourth devastating natural disaster in the last five years, including the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, which rendered several restaurants closed for months, and the massive freeze in 2021. In May, the city endured Tropical Storm Derecho, a severe storm that left thousands without power. Many say the city of Houston — the self-proclaimed energy capital of the world, a region that is no stranger to natural disasters — should have learned and been prepared for another extreme climate event, while others have aimed their frustrations at energy provider Centerpoint. Restaurants, however, have had little time to process as they strive to recoup their losses. For many, this has meant getting creative.

Downtown bar Angel Share, owned by Mary Ellen Angel, quickly reopened, making its frustration known by decorating one of its martinis with the word “CenterPointless” — a dig at the energy company (the word was scrawled in graffiti on a Houston underpass just days before). East End Italian restaurant Mimo, which didn’t get its power back until Sunday, circulated its Circolo del Vino wine club link in hopes of gaining subscriptions while its doors were closed. Jūn, helmed in part by Top Chef: Houston finalist Evelyn Garcia, hosted a walk-up-only pop-up at its Heights restaurant while still without lights or air conditioning, and Squable, which is still without power as of Monday, July 15 held pop-ups at Refuge’s coffeehouse.

After five days without power, East End Mexican restaurant and cafe Cochinita & Co. shifted from hosting pop-ups outside of its restaurant to finally reopening on July 13 with limited hours and menus. Victoria Elizondo, chef-owner of the James Beard Award-nominated cafe, says she began to worry about the financial losses mid-week. She knew she’d have to pay her employees, repurchase ingredients and products that spoiled, and pay for repairs to her cooling equipment and refrigeration system. “I own and funded my business 100 percent with my own money and support of customers, so cash flow is very important. We don’t have that support where we can rely on to cover emergencies. It might not be a good business practice, and the goal is to have that eventually, but we don’t have a cushion to fall on,” Elizondo says. “Even one day closed can affect a business a lot.”

Elizondo says that, initially, she felt defeated. But then she took the restaurant’s phone home, where she received more than 100 calls a day. “I didn’t want to accept donations, because I knew other people had it bad, and it didn’t feel right,” she says. Instead, Elizondo wrote Instagram post to float the idea of diners purchasing gift cards, a way to pre-purchase their meals or meals for others ahead of intended visits. The first day, Elizondo says Cochinita & Co. received $1,000 within a few hours. By the end of the weekend, the restaurant had received $10,000 in gift card sales. “I lost my mind because that covers most of the labor costs for the week, which was my main concern,” she says.

The Saturday following the reopening, the restaurant was packed, but elsewhere, Elizondo says she could still see the effects of Beryl. The Pasadena carniceria where Elizondo purchases a specific chorizo, for example, was empty after much of its products went bad. This also affected Cochinita’s menu, but Elizondo worked around it. “I didn’t want to serve something if it wasn’t consistent with what we serve,” says Elizondo, who says that she makes it a point to support small suppliers. “And I don’t want to purchase chorizo from H-E-B. I’d rather not offer it at all.”

In just a week, Southern Smoke Foundation, the nonprofit organization helmed by married couple James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd and executive director Lindsey Brown, received more than 300 applications requesting emergency relief funding and assistance in just five days. Most of the funding is associated with damage, flooded cars, and fallen trees — a stark contrast to the applications received after Derecho, which were largely due to a loss in wages or groceries.

“I just didn’t think Beryl was going to do this,” says Brown. “I thought we were going to get a break after Derecho.”

Brown says Southern Smoke is working double-time to get every applicant verified, which requires them to have worked in the industry for six months for at least 30 hours per week. Once verified, applicants are organized by level of need. Applicants who have such severe damage that they can’t live in their homes or travel to work because their cars were flooded will be processed first, Brown says, followed by businesses that were closed the longest. Funds have yet to be dispersed, but Brown says the first round of grants should go out by the end of this week. She already predicts that more money will be granted for Beryl than Derecho, which saw 372 grantees for a total of $330,600, with an average of $888 granted per person.

Now, as restaurants reopen and try to return to a sense of normalcy, many chefs and restaurateurs are attempting to absorb what they can do differently in the face of another natural disaster. “I hate to say it, but when you go through an experience like this, you have to have plan Bs and Cs,” says Vanarin Kuch, the chef-owner behind Koffeteria in East Downtown. Since the 2001 freeze, Kuch says the James Beard Award-nominated bakery is more stable and can pay its employees during an outage. Still, Koffeteria nearly set up shop in another restaurant to make up for days lost following Beryl — but it regained power on Saturday.

Ahead of Beryl, Kuch says he knew this time to clean out all of the freezers, and he learned to turn off all breakers immediately (a detail Kuch says he learned recently from Street to Kitchen after the power outage killed its electrical rational oven). The long-term goal is to get a generator. “I made it my own initiative that we’re going to get through this and just do it,” Kuch says. “That’s the hardest part: to make the correct calls and call the shots.”

Elizondo says she’ll revisit her insurance policy, ensuring she’s covered for everything at risk during severe weather, including ingredient losses. She also says she’ll think twice about restocking or purchasing certain items before an expected storm to prevent waste, and she knows its essential to create a cushion fund for emergencies. “We’re thankful for all the support. It’s just beautiful, but at the end of the day, we’re all suffering and we’re all going through a crisis, so I understand that not everybody is going to have a means to do that,” Elizondo says.

Still, it seems the support of other restaurants, chefs, and diners is crucial to keeping Houston’s restaurants alive during trying times. At Cochinita’s pop-up, local chefs like Kuch and Joseph Boudreaux of smash burger pop-up Boo’s Burgers could be seen among the dozens of diners visiting Elizondo following her Instagram call for support. And when Koffeteria was in search of a place to relocate its baking operations, Kuch says restaurants like Pudgy’s Fine Cookies and Winnie’s reached out offering their space.

It was nice to see a disaster organically turn into a moment of mutual support, Kuch says. “I feel like we have to lean on each other.”