Heights restaurant mogul Ken Bridge and his Delicious Concepts company are beginning the year with three major new projects.
Bridge tells CultureMap that Pink's Pizza will be expanding its tomato-pie empire to include Bellaire and the University of Houston — bringing the regional chain to a total of six locations, with other popular outposts in the Heights, West University, Garden Oaks and north Montrose.
In addition to the Pink's news, Delicious Concepts is busy at the corner of White Oak and Studewood as construction crews rework the old Redi Room music club and Conoco station into a 5,000 square-foot Tex-Mex cantina.
"The idea is to have the food we all love. There will be fajitas and margaritas all in a cool vibe with great service."
"The idea is to have the food we all love," Bridge says. "There will be fajitas and margaritas all in a cool vibe with great service."
Like the other Delicious Concepts restaurants — which include Lola, Witchcraft and Shepherd Park Draught House — he says the new venture will feature a simple menu that taps into Houston's favorite dishes.
While designs have yet to be finalized, Bridge appears to be looking at the Conoco mini-mart as a sort of anchor for the building project. "We'll be adding onto the gas station building and using the big overhang that's up there now. We're looking to have a big convertible patio as well."
Official plans have yet to be determined for the former Redi Room, the storied blues club where Bridge hung out as an underage teen, as he detailed in a recent interview with The Leader. Renovations are expected to be completed by late spring.
The restaurant owner told the Houston Press that, while he has yet to pick a name, he's tentatively calling the cantina El Camino . . . a shout-out to the 1965 Chevy classic he uses to cruise around town in.
Pink's will be adding two more locations to it stranglehold on Houston pizza.
