so thick, so fluffy

Tantalizingly thick cookie pop-up bakes up new permanent home in The Heights

These cookies are thick.

Photo by Michael Ma

A Houston cookie pop-up will soon unveil its permanent home in the Heights. Pudgy’s Fine Cookies will celebrate its grand opening this Sunday, July 31.

Owner Van Teamer tells CultureMap she started Pudgy’s after exploring her interest in baking during the pandemic. Part of an entrepreneurially minded Vietnamese family, she considered opening a franchise cookie store but found the products to be too sweet. Working with her sister, she began testing recipes.

Eventually, they settled on a thick, chewy cookie that’s a little gooey in the middle.

“We started with the basics. We wanted to achieve that thick, New York-style look,” she says. “The chocolate chip probably took us three months.”

Chocolate chip became “the Pudgy,” the bakery’s top seller. Other customer favorites include the Bonanza Brulee, a cookie that combines the flavors of creme brulee and bananas Foster, and the Wild Campfire, a s’mores-inspired cookie with toasted marshmallows and chocolate chunks.

After winning the approval of friends and family, Teamer and her family started to sell the cookies at markets around Houston. When baking supplies and boxes overwhelmed her home, she began looking for a permanent space. Teamer found a willing collaborator in Josh Deleon, the ice cream wizard behind CultureMap Tastemaker Awards winner Underground Creamery. The duo decided to share a space that would serve as a retail outlet and bakery for Pudgy’s and a kitchen for Underground, which distributes all of its ice cream in highly-coveted weekly “drops’ that sell out in under a minute.

“She reached out to me about looking for kitchen spaces. I like her product a lot and proposed this [shared space],” Deleon says. “I think sharing a kitchen between someone who makes cookies and an ice cream company is a match made in heaven.”

Located at 1010 N. Shepherd Dr., Pudgy’s joins Crawfish Cafe and newly opened Vietnamese restaurant Dinette in a shopping center that’s just south of 11th St. Teamer says she selected the location after consulting with her customers, many of whom liked having an excuse to come inside the loop for shopping and other activities.

Held from 2:30-6:30 pm, Sunday’s grand opening festivities will feature a free tote for the first 50 customers and free cookies for the first 100. Everyone who stops by will be eligible to win one of five mixed dozen cookies. The event is first come-first serve, and no preorders will be accepted. Going forward, the bakery will be open Tuesday-Saturday from 10:30 am-6:30 pm and Sunday from 10:30 am-5 pm.

Even though its been a long time coming, Teamer is excited to have reached this point.

“I’m happy with the way everything has turned out. I’m glad everyone likes the cookies,” she says.

These cookies are thick.

Photo by Michael Ma

These cookies are thick.

news-you-can-eat the-heights openings desserts

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 a former 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, former 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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