The curse of 507 Westheimer strikes again. Less than two years after moving from cramped quarters on the near northside to a substantial location in Montrose, vegetarian-oriented, Tex-Mex restaurant Radical Eats announced on Friday that it will close after service on Sunday (May 24).
Radical Eats will serve it's last service this Sunday. We hope that you will see fit to come out say goodbye. We have...
Posted by Radical Eats on Friday, May 22, 2015
"The landlord offered me an out, and I took it," chef/owner Staci Davis tells CultureMap. Davis thinks she'll be back with another project, but that it will be somewhere "less expensive" than lower Westheimer.
The sudden closure comes shortly after the departure of two other nearby restaurants. At the end of April, the Eatsie Boys turned over their space on Montrose to Melange Creperie in order to focus on their food truck and rapidly expanding brewery. Last week, Southern coastal restaurant Eleven:Eleven closed unexpectedly.
Davis says she hasn't heard what the future holds for her space, which has been home to a number of restaurants over the years including Roots Bistro, So Vino and Cafe Mustache. Typically, built-out restaurant spaces in Montrose get snapped up quickly to cater to the neighborhood's seemingly insatiable demand for new dining options — just look at how quickly The Burger Joint took over for Little Bigs — but perhaps high rents are scaring off new operators. For example, no announcement has been made about a new occupant for the former Berryhill Baja Grill space even though it closed in January.
As for Davis, the only thing she's sure of is that, after five years of running a restaurant by herself, she's due for a vacation. "I'm going to Oaxaca and learning to surf," she says with a laugh.
Staci Davis says she's planning to learn to surf after Radical Eats closes.
A vintage picture of chefs EJ Miller and Ryan Lachaine. Photo by