It's been somewhat of a local mystery for several months: What happened to the historic Felix Mexican Restaurant sign when Uchi moved in?
Now we know it's safe and sound — and available for purchase by any interested Houstonians. On Monday morning Uchi put the sign up for auction on eBay in three separate parts, with proceeds to benefit The League of United Latin American Citizens, commonly known as LULAC.
Whoever bids might have to contend with Robb Walsh and his partners in EL Real Tex-Mex, who have filled their nearby restaurant with Felix memorabilia.
Felix Mexican Restaurant was owned for more than 50 years by Felix Tijerina and his family, and since Tijerina served four terms as president of LULAC, so the donation is a fitting recognition of his legacy.
“Our Uchi family is proud to offer this iconic sign up to benefit Mr. Tijerina’s favorite charity, LULAC, an organization he led, supported and believed in for so many years," chef/owner Tyson Cole said in a statement.
The vintage porcelain signs are being sold as is, with buyers responsible for retrieving the sign as well as any installation. Two auctions are for the 10-foot-wide main portions of the red and green sign that reads Felix Mexican Restaurant — one for each direction the sign faced. The third auction is for the two-sided "man sleeping in sombrero" that used to rest next to the cactus on top of the lower portion of the sign.
Each eBay listing starts at $1,500 and ends on Dec. 3. Whoever bids might have to contend with Robb Walsh and his partners in El Real Tex-Mex, who have filled their nearby restaurant with Felix memorabilia, including putting the refurbished Felix chairs in their bar. But they won't be the only interested parties.
As Uchi chef de cuisine Kaz Edwards told CultureMap's Marene Gustin in May, “When we took that sign down, we had people driving by stop and offer to buy it.”
