restaurants remain open

2 Houston restaurants break their silence on owners' tragic deaths

Both Traveler's Table and Traveler's Cart remain open for business.

Photo by Troy Ezequiel

The Houston restaurants connected to the murder-suicide of their owners have broken their silence on the tragedy. Traveler's Table and Traveler’s Cart, the two restaurants owned by Thy and Matthew Mitchell, shared the following update to social media on the morning of Wednesday, May 6.

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A post shared by Traveler's Table (@travelerstablerestaurant)

The post notes that both restaurants remain open and requests that the staff at both businesses be treated respectfully. In the wake of the Mitchells’ deaths, Ryan Brown, the company’s long-time director of operations, is leading both restaurants.

As CultureMap reported on Tuesday, the Mitchells opened Traveler’s Table in 2019 as a manifestation of the importance of experiencing cultures through food. The restaurant has earned wide recognition, including an appearance on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. The Houston chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association named the couple their Restaurateurs of the Year in 2025.

Traveler’s Cart followed in 2024. More casual than Traveler’s Table, the restaurant is devoted to global street food, serving anything from tacos to burgers to steak frites and chicken parmesan. Originally opened as a fast casual concept, the Mitchells switched to full service in November 2025.

Texas Restaurant Association Statement
Emily Williams Knight, Ed.D., president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, issued the following statement about the situation:

We stand with the Greater Houston hospitality community as we try to process the horrific deaths of Thy Mitchell and her family. To say that Thy will be missed is an understatement. She served on the board of the Greater Houston Chapter of the TRA, and she was selected by her peers to represent the chapter as Greater Houston Restaurateur of the Year for 2025. We will remember Thy as a ray of light who inspired everyone around her.

Our leaders in Houston have reached out to the team at Traveler’s Table and Traveler’s Cart, and we stand ready to help in any way that we can. We also want to encourage anyone who needs assistance processing this tragedy to ask for help. For those who don’t have access to mental health services through insurance or a telehealth plan, there are non-profits and public resources available to help. Harris County residents can access resources here, and a full list of resources across the state is available here.

We do not plan to comment further as there is an ongoing criminal investigation and we want to respect a family and a restaurant team who are going through an unthinkable time.

In moments like this, we are reminded that our industry is more than workplaces — it is a community. May we all honor Thy’s memory by continuing to show up for each other with compassion and care.

Social media tributes
Some members of the Houston hospitality community paid tribute to Thy Mitchell, who police suspect was murdered by her husband, on social media. They celebrated her as a co-owner of two restaurants, the mind behind fashion brand Foreign Fare, and the mother to two children, ages eight and four, who also died on Monday.

In a length Instagram post, Sandy Nguyen, co-owner of Saigon Hustle and Sunday Press, hailed Mitchell as follows:

“She was a force never defined by her petite frame, always commanding respect with her presence, her conviction, and her voice. A true leader in our industry, she moved with vision and purpose, unafraid to speak the truth while lifting those around her. She had that rare balance of honesty and heart.”

Ronnie Nguyen, co-owner of Roostar Vietnamese Grill, remembered the family in his own Instagram tribute. “What a tragedy. Absolutely heartbroken. We will miss you all. Rest well my friends,” he wrote.

Photographer Kirsten Gilliam posted a portrait of Thy Mitchell with the caption, “Rest in peace, @thy_travelers. Today has been a complete shock. Thank you for your kindness, support, and lasting impact on our community. Sending strength to her family and loved ones.”

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A post shared by Kirsten Gilliam (@kirstengilliamphotography)

Lukkaew Srasrisuwan, the chef and owner of three Houston-area Thai restaurants, offered similar praise to Thy Mitchell in an Instagram post. “This woman was beautiful inside and out. She had a way of lifting people’s spirits wherever she went,” she writes. “We started our journeys at almost the same time, chasing similar dreams. We shared the highs, the unbearable challenges, and the pressure that comes with building something from nothing. It’s not easy.”

No details on a memorial service or funerals have been released yet.

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what's next for chef sunny

Exclusive: Outspoken Houston sushi chef sounds off on ghost kitchen pivot

Sunny Bertsch Chefs Bowls Three Fish Bowls

Courtesy of Sunny Bertsch

Chef Sunny Bertsch recently closed Kaisen Sushi.

Chef Sunny Bertsch is moving on from his embattled ghost kitchen concept. On Sunday, August 30, he closed Kaisen Sushi and will soon replace it with two more affordable concepts.

Like Kaisen, the ghost kitchen sushi restaurant that earned a Best New Restaurant nomination in the 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, Bertsch's new projects, called Chefs Bowls and Three Fish Bowls, will both be ghost kitchen concepts that operate in Third Ward’s Blodgett Food Hall. Bertsch explains that new concepts reflect the lessons learned from operating Kaisen for just over a year.

“Ghost kitchens are really designed for a particular kind of business, which is essentially lower ticket average QSR food,” Bertsch says. Kaisen, where a standard order could run $60 or more per person, never did enough business to be sustainable, an issue that Bertsch spoke about regularly on social media.

“Long story short, I didn't know what I was getting myself into by trying to put a really super nice concept in that my particular location. It was really difficult to overcome,” he says.

Bertsch acknowledges that his inexperience in the restaurant business also played a role in the decision to close Kaisen. For example, he says he pays his staff more than traditional restaurants, but Kaisen doesn’t generate the same revenue a brick-and-mortar restaurant does due to factors such as its lower prices and lack of alcohol sales (among others).

So he’s pivoting to two new concepts that will be more similar in price with the other concepts at Blodgett, roughly $15-25 per person. Although they’re similar and operate out of the same kitchen, listing them separately is necessary, because delivery platforms limit the radius of raw versus cooked concepts, Bertsch explains. Both are expected to launch the week of September 7, after Bertsch completes renovations to his space at Blodgett and gets the menus uploaded to third-party delivery services like Uber Eats and DoorDash.

Courtesy of Sunny Bertsch

Chef Sunny Bertsch recently closed Kaisen Sushi.

Chef’s Bowls will serve rice bowls topped with proteins such as chicken teriyaki, salmon teriyaki, and steak, which will be cooked sous vide and seared to order. Bertsch hopes to stand out with a little more attention to detail than his competitors.

“We've had access to rice bowl concepts that operate within our vicinity, and we see the kind of food that's being put out,” Bertsch says. “I want to see if I could do better. I'm not saying I am better, but I think there are some intangibles that are missing with the rice bowl space. I want to make my honest attempt at seeing if I can provide food at a lower price, and see if we can just make something from scratch that's of quality.”

That same spirit will power Three Fish, which is named for the three proteins that are the top sellers at every sushi restaurant — salmon, yellowtail, and bluefin tuna. Bertsch intends to use the same fish that he used at Kaisen, just prepared differently. Using bluefin will differentiate Three Fish from similar concepts that use less expensive yellowfin tuna, Bertsch explains.

“I'm really not a personal fan of yellowfin tuna. It's tasteless, and you’ve got to do a lot of dressing up of yellowfin tuna to make it taste interesting,” he says. “I'd rather have bluefin tuna. We've been testing it in the kitchen here and there when we have time, and it's so much tastier. Tuna should taste like tuna.”

As for Kaisen, it could come back in the future. Bertsch says he’d like to find a brick-and-mortar location that would allow him to serve both dine-in and to-go customers. For now, he’s focused on making Chefs Bowls and Three Fish as successful as possible.

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