changes at cafe louie

Promising East End Mediterranean cafe closes and rebrands as new Italian-American bistro

Cafe Louie has closed.

Photo by Becca Wright

One of this year’s most promising new restaurants has closed, but its chefs have a new concept planned for the space. Café Louie announced that it has closed and will become a new Italian restaurant called Louie’s Italian American.

Opened in May by chef Angelo Emiliani and his sister, pastry chef Lucianna Emiliani, Café Louie offered a Mediterranean-influenced take on the all-day cafe. Mornings featured pastries by Lucianna with savory items such as breakfast sandwiches. Chef Angelo served a more elevated dinner menu built around bistro classics such as shrimp cocktail, roast chicken, and freshly made pastas.

The closing comes as a surprise, particularly given the restaurant’s brief tenure. During its short history, it drew considerable praise, including a top 25 ranking in the Chronicle’s list of Houston’s 100 best restaurants.

In a lengthy statement provided by a representative, Angelo Emiliani explains that the restaurant struggled to balance its fast casual breakfast and lunch service with its full service dinner offering. “The economics of a morning restaurant and a dinner restaurant are also very different, and Café Louie became financially unsustainable once we shifted to dinner,” he writes.

As for the pivot to Italian American food, it grew out of the Sunday night dinner specials the restaurant has been serving for a couple of months. Dubbed “Red Sauce Sundays,” the prix fixe menu included dishes such as Caesar salad, wagyu meatballs, rigatoni, and chicken parmesan. As Emiliani notes, the offering proved to be a hit, drawing more diners on Sunday nights than would visit the restaurant on Friday or Saturday.

“We poured our hearts into Café Louie and wanted nothing more than to see it succeed, but we also must be pragmatic by giving the people what they clearly want,” he writes.

Currently, the East End restaurant is closed for renovations designed to suit its new mission as an Italian restaurant. When it reopens later this month, it will be open for dinner Thursday-Sunday.

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J.J.'s hot takes

Texans legend J.J. Watt drops 'controversial' crawfish take on soccer podcast

Courtesy of FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee

J.J. Watt discussed Houston's food scene on Men in Blazers.

“If you’re checking your watch, I’m on food talk now, so we’re going to be awhile.”

With that comment, former Houston Texans star and future Pro Football Hall of Famer J.J. Watt launched into an epic tribute to Houston’s dynamic food scene. Speaking with host Roger Bennett on the globally-renown soccer podcast Men in Blazers, Watt spent about 15 minutes introducing the show’s audience to many of the cuisines and restaurants that Houstonians love.

“When you look at this singular city, at Houston, what is it in your mind that makes it great — that the world is going to see this summer,” Bennett asks at approximately the 1:45 mark.

“Food,” Watt replies. “Truthfully, we have great, great food. I have always said that Houston is one of the most underrated food cities in the world. People that come here are going to get fatter.”

Encouraged by Bennett to “go deeper” into the topic, Watt offered more than 20 suggestions for restaurants to try. They included:

Breakfast tacos at Island Grill and Pappas Bar-B-Q
Barbecue at Killen’s Barbecue
Burgers at Becks Prime, The Burger Joint, and Killen’s Burgers
Seafood at Pappadeaux

Watt told an entertaining anecdote about Trill Burgers, the smash burger concept from Houston hip-hop legend Bun B.

“Trill Burgers, they put something in there that can’t be legal,” Watt quipped. “I’ve talked to Bun B. It’s like crack, okay? He gave me one of those burgers. When I came back from the Ring of Honor at the Texans, they put Trill Burgers in our suite. There were six, and there were 12 people in the suite. I had four of them. Everyone else had to fight over two burgers.”

Asked about crawfish, Watt dropped an opinion that he acknowledged would be controversial. “You’re not going to like,” he told the 300-person, sold-out crowd.

“That’s a lot of work. Then they tell you to suck the head. I’ll be honest. Didn’t do a lot for me,” Watt stated. “Look at this [points to himself]. The amount of crawfish you have to break and eat. When they dump it all out, I have to have my own 9-foot table. Nobody has the time to break that many crawfish open and suck the heads on every one.”

Watt appeared on the show as part of its Houston episode that marked 99 days until the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Houston Rockets icon and Basketball Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon also appeared on the show, which was recorded at Rice University.

Houston will host seven matches from June 14 - July 4, including five in the group stage and one each in the round of 32 and the round of 16. Find more details about the tournament and local celebrations at the official FIFA World Cup 2026 Houston Host Committee website.

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