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    Cafeteria News

    Treasured Houston restaurant ranks No. 1 on Food & Wine list of best cafeterias

    Teresa Gubbins
    Nov 29, 2019 | 9:00 am
    Cleburne Cafeteria interior
    Cleburne is America's best cafeteria.
    Cleburne Cafeteria/Facebook

    Texas tops a new list from Food & Wine covering the humble realm of cafeterias. Just in time for the holidays, the magazine issued a "10 Best Cafeterias in America" list that highlights three Texas institutions, with a Houston restaurant coming in at No. 1, and a Dallas cafeteria making the list of honorable mentions.

    Houston's famed Cleburne Cafeteria earns the top slot on the list, touted for its fighting spirit, egalitarian milieu, and great turkey. Two other Texas classics are included in a "best of the rest" list of 14 cafeterias that were good, but not good enough to make the top 10:

    • Highland Park Cafeteria in East Dallas
    • the Luby's chain

    Written by David Landsel, the article traces the cafeteria's origin to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where entrepreneur John Kruger operated a restaurant inspired by the smörgåsbords of Sweden.

    Landsel calls the cafeteria concept "hopelessly dated," while acknowledging that cafeterias are not only surviving but thriving in places like North Carolina, Texas, and "even future-minded Northern California." North Carolina and Texas, apparently stuck in the dismal past.

    Houston's very ownCleburne Cafeteria, which Landsel notes has overcome incredible odds including a major move and two devastating fires, seems to have provided the inspiration for the listicle. Landsel ate there for Thanksgiving in 2018, and was awestruck by the meal he shared with thousands of people he'd never even met. And yet they ate together!

    "We came as strangers, united in our appreciation of one of the city's great dining institutions, the Cleburne Cafeteria, a family-owned establishment that has been feeding Houstonians from all walks of life for generations," he says. "Some of us were here for the nostalgia, too, because they just don't make cafeterias like this anymore, others because it was easier than cooking our own turkeys. And really, why compete—the turkey here is just that good."

    "Today, the city's oldest cafeteria is better than ever," he says, "serving up quality home cooking at reasonable prices to anybody and everybody wise enough to understand just how lucky we are that this place still exists."

    Other places on the list stretch from Alabama to Sacramento, California, and include restaurants such as Valois in Chicago, Sokolowski's University Inn in Cleveland, Arnold's Country Kitchen in Nashville, and famous Philippe's in Los Angeles (although that place is really better known as home to the original French dip sandwich rather than being a cafeteria).

    His blurb about Highland Park Cafeteria, whose Casa Linda Plaza location is the final survivor in what used to be a chain, applauds its longevity.

    "After nearly a century of serving chicken—chicken fried steak, chicken and dumplings, fried chicken, you name it—to Dallasites with big appetites, what was once referred to as 'America's Cafeteria' has downsized greatly, to just the one location, but the legend (thankfully) lives on," he says.

    As for Luby's, he notes its ubiquity: "Driving around the Lone Star State, you can’t help but feel as if reports of the cafeteria’s death have been greatly exaggerated—Luby’s seems to be everywhere, mostly because it is—dozens of these cavernous mess halls continue to dot the landscape."

    "One of the house specialties—the square fish, translated as neatly-portioned filets of fried, wild-caught cod—is popular enough that it’s now sold (along with the other house classic, macaroni and cheese) at H-E-B, the state’s best-loved grocery store," he says.

    In addition to Luby's, he includes three other chains: Piccadilly, K&W Cafeterias in the Carolinas, and the Midwest treasure MCL Restaurant & Bakery. If Landsel thinks those places are good, just wait until he checks out the spread at a Mediterranean cafeteria like Fadi's. Mind blown.

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    With or Without Whiz

    Houston burger mastermind fires up new pop-up devoted to Philly cheesesteaks

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 19, 2025 | 4:35 pm
    Bas's Cheesesteaks Abbas Dhanani
    Photo by Michael Ma
    Abbas Dhanani is serving up cheesesteaks at his new pop-up.

    Abbas Dhanani is at it again. The food influencer-turned-restaurateur behind the CultureMap Tastemaker Award-winning smash burger concept Burger Bodega is firing up a new pop-up concept devoted to another iconic sandwich.

    Called Bas’s Cheesesteaks, the new concept will Dhanani’s take on the classic Philly cheesesteak, made with sliced ribeye and white cheese on a seeded hoagie roll — onions and a spicy sauce are optional. A second version swaps the white cheese for Cheez Whiz. Like Burger Bodega, Dhanani is using halal beef for his cheesesteaks.

    Bas's Cheesesteaks cheesesteak sandwichThe cheesesteak is served on a seeded hoagie roll.Photo by Michael Ma

    “We have experimented with cheesesteaks as specials on the menu at Burger Bodega and received amazing feedback,” Dhanani said in a statement. “However, the cheesesteaks at Bas’s are the most refined versions we have done so far. I am excited to bring authentic Philly cheesesteaks to Houston as a new flavor experience while continuing to build on the energy and community we have created at Burger Bodega. This is a huge passion project for me, and I plan to take it step by step, just like Burger Bodega."

    As Dhanani notes, he introduced Burger Bodega with a series of pop-ups throughout Houston. To answer the obvious question, of course a restaurant could be in the cards for Bas’s, too.

    “I think thats the goal of any new pop-up concept,” Dhanani tells CultureMap. “Like Burger Bodega, we want to take it one step at a time and see where it goes.”

    Bas’s Cheesesteaks will have its first pop-up on Monday, June 30 at Burger Bodega’s location (4520 Washington Avenue). In addition to the two cheesesteaks, diners can get fries. Future pop-ups will be announced via Instagram.

    As for Burger Bodega’s second location in Katy, Dhanani says it’s still working through securing the necessary permits to begin construction.

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