welcome to nopo

Houston's hottest restaurateur delivers all-day cafe to emerging new 'hood

“No, we’re not done. We’re not done at all.”

Opening three restaurants in one year would seem like enough for any hospitality company, but Ben Berg has even bigger plans for 2021. The owner of Berg Hospitality — known for B&B Butchers, The Annie Café, and others — announced he will open NoPo Café, Market & Bar near his corporate office at 1244 North Post Oak Rd.

NoPo — a name designed to describe the emerging neighborhood that sits east of Spring Branch, north of the Galleria, and west of Timbergrove — will be an all-day concept that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a market designed to provide staples to nearby apartment residents. Berg has hired chef Jose Hernandez, a French-trained chef whose resume includes Triniti, Etoile, and Lucienne at downtown’s currently closed Hotel Alessandra, to serve as the company’s culinary director and develop the menu for NoPo Café.

“We have these openings. I wanted to start strengthening our culinary team as we expand,” Berg tells CultureMap. “He was recommended to me by three or four people. We sat down. I thought he’d be a good fit with us and really help us do this.”

Berg also announced he hired Sean Mohammed to be the company’s vice president of concept development. A veteran of restaurants in New York, Miami, London, and more, Berg says Mohammed brings extensive experience in developing and opening new restaurants.

Berg will certainly keep his new hires busy. The company has already announced that it’s relocating B.B. Italia to a new location in the Memorial area, opening a live fire steakhouse in a Timbergrove mixed-use development, and opening Trattoria Sofia, a romantic Italian restaurant in The Heights. Even more projects are on the way.

“There were good deals out there to be had,” Berg says. “You already probably had a lot put on hold in ‘20. Now we’re coming out of it, those holds are being taken off.”

Those good deals include NoPo Café. Berg partnered with the site’s developer, Robert Clay of Clay Development & Construction, Inc., to create the 3,000-square foot restaurant and market. It’s slated to open in early May.

Turning to the menu, Berg says it will serve both grab-and-go items like coffee and breakfast tacos as well as a full sit down experience. Lunch will offer staples like a hamburger as well as a range of salads. Dinner options will range from pizza to wagyu flank steak frites.

Developing a casual concept represents a big change for the owner of Turner’s, arguably Houston’s most luxurious restaurant, but Berg says he’s still found a way to work in some elevated details into the design.

“It’s casual, but there’s a beautiful bar,” he says. “It has a real calming mix between French country and vintage rodeo. Kind of a quirky but really relaxing neighborhood place.”

Berg Hospitality owner Ben Berg.

Photo by Leah Wilson

Berg Hospitality owner Ben Berg.

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on the road

Growing Houston coffee shop hits the road with battery-powered electric van

Courtesy of Coffee Fellows

Look for Coffee Fellows mobile café at festivals and farmers markets.

A growing chain of coffee shops is taking its service on the road. Coffee Fellows recently added a mobile café to its offerings.

Built from an all-electric GM BrightDrop van, the mobile café allows Coffee Fellows to brings its signature lattes, coffees, and snacks to festivals, farmers markets, and other happenings across the Houston area. After a couple of trial runs, the van will make its official debut this Saturday, April 11 at the Art Car Parade. The company claims the van is Houston's first all-electric mobile coffee shop.

Coffee Fellows North America CEO Daniel Ogbonna tells CultureMap that an elective vehicle was a natural choice for the company, which places a high enough value on sustainability that it serves all dine-in guests in reusable china mugs rather than add to landfills with disposal packaging.

“An electric van was a natural thing to do,” Ogbonna says. “It helps play a role in preserving the environment.”

As Ogbonna explains, the van has one battery that powers the vehicle and a second battery for its latte machines, coffee grinders, lights, menu board, and other equipment. A solar cell helps the battery recharge during service. All told, the van can operate for up to nine hours. Best of all, since it’s an EV, it doesn’t use a noisy generator or require propane the same way a conventional, gas-powered food truck does.

Of course, all-electric power comes with some trade-offs. The van serves almost everything a brick-and-mortar Coffee Fellows cafe does — including two exclusive lattes, Ube Coconut and Biscoff Caramel — but some compromises had to be made. Since the van doesn’t have an oven or a blender, both bagel sandwiches and frozen drinks aren’t available. Certain preparations have been tweaked to allow the baristas to serve them more quickly.

“One of the biggest things with the van is paying attention to speed,” Ogbonna says. “We have a shorter menu that allows us to deliver the beverages and food items to our customers in a short period of time. That requires a little bit of thinking to figure out — what is it that customers typically want and how can we deliver it to them in the mobile van with greater speed?”

Ultimately, Ogbonna would like Coffee Fellows to operate multiple vans that could introduce the brand to new customers before brick-and-mortar locations open in their neighborhood. Although it was founded in Germany in 1999 and has four Houston-area locations, the company is still building awareness, especially compared to its national competition.

“We think we have great drinks that can go toe-to-toe with the big name coffee companies,” he says.

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