Cabo just the latest

Why is downtown dying? Restaurants keep shuttering as Super Bowl revitalizationgoes bad

Cabo has closed its doors after more than a decade
RoadsOfStone
El Rey at Main Street ended operations in late 2011
Photo by Patricia S.
Cielo and Cava Bistro were both closed by early 2011
Photo by Joel Luks
ERA closed in fall 2011
Byrd's Market lasted only a year and a half, closing in July 2011
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Latin Bites is relocating to a larger space in west Houston
Photo by Clifford Pugh

Downtown Houston has claimed another restaurant victim . . . Cabo, "the Original Mix-Mex Grill," has closed its doors after more than a decade of business.

The shuttering is just the latest in a string of notable downtown restaurant closures in the last 12 months — Cielo and Cava Bistro in January of 2011, Byrd's Market in July, ERA in the fall, and the El Rey at Main and Congress in December. Even the wildly popular Latin Bites Cafe in the Warehouse District is relocating to a larger space on the west side.

Cabo ownership was unable to be reached for comment on the closing, although several other recently shut down restaurants in the area cite a lack of walk-in diners and ongoing construction as major contributing culprits.

In 1998, Cabo opened at the dawn of Downtown's most recent period of revitalization. Starting in the late 1990s and culminating in 2004 with the Super Bowl and the creation of the light rail along Main Street, the renaissance brought new nightclubs and restaurants to what was once a relatively nine-to-five part of town.

Recently shut down restaurants in the area cite a lack walk-in diners and ongoing construction as major contributing culprits.

More than 10 years later, though, downtown residential activity remains light, leaving restaurants and bars to rely heavily on weekday foot traffic and rare weekend warriors.

Recent efforts to draw more residents into the city center seemed to have turned away from northern Downtown, focusing instead on the warehouses near the near Dynamo Stadium in the newly-dubbed EaDo and especially the blocks just west of the popular Discovery Green.

There's still a glimmer of hope for a boost to the northern portion of Downtown, which hopes to enjoy traffic from two new MetroRail lines along Rusk and Congress by 2015. But what will be left by then?

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domo arigato

Award-winning ramen shop sets opening date for new Memorial location

Courtesy of Ramen Tatsu-ya

Ramen Tatsu-ya opens in Town & Country Village on Tuesday, December 9.

Memorial-area diners will soon be slurping noodles and chowing down on Sweet & Sour Yodas. Ramen Tatsu-ya is opening its second Houston-area location this Tuesday, December 9.

Located in Town & Country Village (600 West Sam Houston Pkwy North, #605), the new Ramen Tatsu-ya builds on the success of the restaurant’s first Houston location that opened in 2017. It has earned a following for its signature tonkotsu broth, which takes up to three days to prepare.

The menu also includes small plates such as sweet and spicy Brussels sprouts (aka, Yodas), karaage, and gyoza. They can be paired with a full range of drinks, including beer, sake, frozens, and non-alcoholic sips such as lemongrass-cucumber limeade and strawberry-yuzu lemonade.

“Houston has been so good to us since opening our first ramen shop in Montrose in 2017,” Tatsu-ya CEO Todd Coerver said in a statement. “We’re excited to bring our authentic, Japanese-style ramen to Memorial City, and we aren’t stopping there. A third opening in Houston is planned for summer 2026.”

Ramen Tatsu-ya Memorial Briks mural Houston artist Briks painted the restaurant's mural.Courtesy of Ramen Tatsu-ya

The restaurant will open at 2 pm. The first 50 people to dine in will receive a t-shirt that features an image of the location’s mural, which was created by Houston artist Briks.

Founded in 2012 by chefs Tatsu Aikawa and Takuya Matsumoto, Ramen Tatsu-ya took Austin by storm. Fans lined up an hour or more to get a bowl of soup, and the restaurant earned a spot on Bon Appetit’s 2013 list of the country’s best new restaurants. Memorial/Town & Country will be the restaurant’s ninth location, following a to-go window that opened on the Drag near the University of Texas earlier this year. More are coming, as Coerver’s statement makes clear.

Ramen Tatsu-ya joins a dynamic mix of new and new-ish restaurants in Memorial and Town & Country Village, including neighborhood restaurant The Henry, classic American restaurant Relish Restaurant & Bar, Murray’s Pizza & Wine, and Michelin-recognized live-fire concept Credence.

Courtesy of Ramen Tatsu-ya

Ramen Tatsu-ya opens in Town & Country Village on Tuesday, December 9.

news-you-can-eat openings ramen tatsu-ya