Louie, Louie!

Rebranded East End cafe reveals new Italian-American menu and opening date

Café Louie’s transformation into an Italian restaurant is nearly complete. Louie’s Italian American will open for dinner this Sunday, December 11.

As CultureMap has previously reported, Café Louie closed last month to focus on the Italian American fare that it had begun to serve during its popular Red Sauce Sunday dinner special. The Mediterranean-inspired, all-day cafe had earned considerable media attention for chef Angelo Emiliani’s classic bistro fare and pastries made by his sister, pastry chef Lucianna “Louie” Emiliani, but the six-month-old restaurant struggled to build a sufficient following. Sunday night’s success prompted them to make the change.

“Louie and I grew up with Italian American cooking, and we launched Red Sauce Sundays at Café Louie to honor that tradition,” Angelo Emiliani said in a statement. “Little did we know it would resonate so much with seemingly everyone, and we had to take a good look in the mirror when Sundays started to regularly outperform Saturday nights. We poured our hearts into Café Louie, but we must be responsible as small business owners and give the people what they clearly want.”

While Red Sauce Sundays featured a prix fixe menu, Louie’s Italian American will offer an a la carte, family-style menu. Meals will begin with selections such as a chopped salad or a Caesar salad along with Café Louie’s fan favorite shrimp cocktail with verde cocktail sauce and lemon aioli.

Louie will make four pastas in house — rigatoni, tajarin, tagliatelle, and spinach ravioli – each of which can be paired with difference sauces such as rigatoni with vodka sauce or meatballs and gravy, tajarin with mushroom masala or vongole, and spinach ravioli with cultured butter sauce or a classic red sauce. Entree choices include chicken parmesan, redfish piccata, and steak and shrimp fra diavolo made with wagyu New York strip.

Vegetable sides such as roasted pumpkin and seared cauliflower round out the savory options. While the menu may be new, the chefs remain committed to utilizing ingredients from Texas farms, ranches, and other producers.

Pastry chef Luciana has put her spin on Italian-inspired desserts such as tiramisu, Meyer lemon posset, carrot cake, and a daily gelato. She also developed the restaurant’s cocktail offerings that include a frozen Negroni, different spritzes, and a martini.

Louie's Italian American tajarin with clams

Photo by Lindsey Cooper-Trevino and Sergio Trevino

Tajarin alla vongole.

Louie's Italian American aperol spritz An Aperol spritz.Photo by Lindsey Cooper-Trevino and Sergio Trevino

Inside, the space has been given a makeover that includes floral wallpaper, bistro-style wood chairs, framed recipes, and lace curtains along the kitchen windows.

Located at 3401 Harrisburg Blvd., Louie’s Italian American is part of The Plant. The East End mixed-use development is also home to wine bar How to Survive on Land and Sea, popsicle and gelato shop Popston, the Little Red Box Grocery, and others.

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SUDDEN SHUTTERS

Cracker Barrel shutters Houston suburb's biscuit sandwich spot

Maple Street Biscuit Co./ Facebook

Maple Street Biscuit Co. is done, but Biscuit Belly is still coming to the Heights.

Cracker Barrel is flaking out on its Maple Street Biscuit Co. brand. On Tuesday, July 21, Louisville, Kentucky-based brunch chain Biscuit Belly announced it had acquired 35 locations of the breakfast sandwich favorite. An additional 16 units will close altogether.

Neither Biscuit Belly nor Cracker Barrel confirmed which stores were converting, but Maple Street’s location map offers some clues. It no longer lists the restaurant's Katy location at 4906 FM1463. A recording on the location's voicemail states that it has permanently closed. Biscuit Belly does not currently have any Houston-area locations, but its website lists a Heights location (3601 White Oak Dr.) as coming soon.

In a release, Biscuit Belly says it plans to convert all remaining stores over the next 18-24 months, starting with Cincinnati, Ohio, and Richmond, Virginia. It’s unclear whether or not that will require major renovations. A request for clarification was not immediately returned.

Maple Street first debuted in Katy in 2022. It was most known for its oversized biscuit sandwiches like the Squawking Goat with a fried chicken breast, crispy goat cheese, and jalapeno jelly. The chain also served chicken and waffles and Southern-inspired bowls filled with grits or a potato hash.

Biscuit Belly offers a little more variety with toasted BLTs, pancakes, and yogurt parfaits, but some of the biscuit sandwiches might look suspiciously familiar. The G.O.A.T. has a fried chicken breast, goat cheese, and sweet pepper jelly.

The other key difference can be found in a cup. In addition to a lineup of juices and coffee drinks, Biscuit Belly pours “breakfast cocktails” like mimosas and espresso martinis. It places an old fashioned inside this category, which might require a few extra eggs.

As Cracker Barrel pours one out for Maple Street, it hopes to recover from a plunging stock price and falling revenues. Biscuit Belly, meanwhile, says the acquisition helps it along its 10-year plan to become the “largest gourmet biscuit brand in the U.S.”

“Acquiring an iconic brand like Maple Street, one of the original gourmet biscuit sandwich concepts, was not on my 2026 bingo card," said Chad Coulter, co-founder and CEO of Biscuit Belly, in a release. "Two of the biggest headwinds that growing brands encounter are the time required to find and build locations, and the difficulty of finding great teams. When we looked at Maple Street's geography, footprints, and established teams, a light bulb went off."

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