feeding hungry houstonians

Hungry Houstonians can grab a free meal at these restaurants and locations

Lucille's 1913 continues serving needy Houstonians.

Photo by Jenn Duncan

With Houstonians still recovering from the effects of this week’s devastating winter storm, local organizations are stepping up with free or heavily discounted meals.

Lucille’s 1913, a nonprofit founded by chef Chris Williams, has been distributed free meals since Tuesday, including distributions to the warming center at Gallery Furniture. Over the weekend, he will distribute 1,000 meals to residents of Acres Homes.

On February 24, Lucille’s 1913 will distribute 4,000 meals in Richmond and Rosenberg. Fort Bend County Judge KP George and others will attend the event to assist.

In addition to those efforts, Cotton Holdings will put its expertise in disaster recovery relief to good use with three free meal distribution sites on Friday, February 19 and Saturday, February 20. They are:

Jimmy Changas (300 Westgreen Blvd.): 300 Enchilada Plate with Chips & Salsa from 11 am-10 pm
Rollin’ Phatties (1731 Westheimer Rd.): 375 Chicken Phattie Roll from 5-12 pm February 19; noon-midnight on February 20
Jersey Mikes Subs (7670 Katy Fwy.): 375 Meal Deal of Regular-Size Cold Sub with chips and cookie from 10 am-9 pm

Meals will be served on a first-come basis until they run out, which will likely be before the posted end time. Limit of one meal per person.

Hospitality workers will find 100 free bowls of chicken tortilla soup at El Big Bad beginning at 4 pm on Friday, February 19. Owner Steve Sharma tells CultureMap he plans to continue supplying soup for a few days, and the number of bowls may increase if the restaurant’s staff have time to make them.

Several local restaurants are making smaller distributions of free meals and water. They are being documented on the houstonfoodiess Instagram account.

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Relish responds

Houston restaurant breaks silence about wage theft allegations

Photo by Julie Soefer

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A Houston restaurant has broken its silence about a lawsuit that accuses it of wage theft. Relish Restaurant & Bar issued a statement about allegations made by an employee that it improperly allocated money from the restaurant’s tip pool:

For more than a decade, we've worked hard to build a restaurant where our employees feel valued and respected. Our team is central to everything we do, and we take our responsibilities to them seriously. We remain committed to fair and lawful employment practices, and firmly deny the allegations that have been made. Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not comment further at this time. Thank you for understanding.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, employee Michael Baron alleges that Relish and its owners, Addie and Dustin Teague:

Used his and other employees’ tips to pay the maitre’d, who also had managerial roles, such as disciplining employees. The maitre’d was allegedly paid at least $21,000 in 2026 from pooled tips, according to the lawsuit. The maitre'd position is not included in the restaurant's notice about which workers get paid from the pool, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that the practices at Relish’s Town & Country location violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law that governs how tipped employees are paid. Under the law, restaurants are allowed to pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour, because the vast majority of their income is generated by customers’ tips. The law also governs which other employees — such as bartenders and other customer-facing positions — are eligible to receive a share of an employee’s tips. Salaried managers or employees in supervisory roles are not eligible to receive tips.

Baron is represented by attorney Josef F. Buenker, whose firm specializes in employment law, as noted by its domain name houstonovertimelawyer.com.

In March, a federal court ruled that Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille must pay $21 million for misallocating tips to more than 700 servers.

Relish is known for its classic American fare such as burgers, fried chicken, steaks, salad, and seafood. Its River Oaks location, which has been open since 2016, will soon close before moving to the RO mixed-used development next year. Relish’s Town & Country location will remain open.

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