Certainly one of Houston’s most revered informal eating places will quickly serve its last meal. Good Canine Houston will shut after dinner service on Sunday, April 27.
In a prolonged message posted to Fb on Thursday, April 24, Good Canine homeowners Amalia Pferd and Danny Caballero celebrated a 15-year run for his or her restaurant that started as a meals truck, developed into the present Heights location that opened in 2013, and included 5 years of a second location in Montrose.
A part of it reads as follows:
By means of the highs and the lows, you stood by us. You confirmed up throughout storms—each literal and figurative. We weathered hurricanes and floods collectively. And when the world shut down throughout COVID, your assist saved us afloat. You ordered takeout, purchased reward playing cards, and cheered us on from a distance. We opened a makeshift Bodega and offered gadgets to you all. That obtained us a bit shout out within the New York Occasions! By means of all that, you reminded us that this metropolis is manufactured from coronary heart and grit, and we’ve by no means been extra proud to be part of the most effective and most numerous meals scene within the nation…Houston, TX.
In a metropolis the place residents sometimes desire burger to sizzling canine, Good Canine stood out. From the start of its time as a meals truck, the restaurant rapidly constructed a loyal following for warm canine just like the Ol’ Zapata (bacon, Muenster, onions) and the Guac-A-Canine that featured a housemade garlic aioli, one of many many sauces and condiments that helped Good Canine’s sizzling canine stand out. Non-hot canine choices, together with rooster wings and Gulf fish and chips, helped the restaurant attain a wider viewers. Caballero shared his love for craft beer with a well-curated faucet wall.
In response to CultureMap’s request for remark about why the married couple determined to shut their restaurant, Caballero cited a variety of components. First, Pferd was identified with A number of Sclerosis. Though he emphasizes that she’s nonetheless in comparatively good well being, it has been a problem.
On the enterprise facet, the constructing’s new proprietor raised the restaurant’s lease to cowl the rising prices of property taxes and insurance coverage. The extra prices made it more durable to function the restaurant, however Caballero doesn’t bear his landlord any sick will.
“I’ve no unhealthy blood with present landlord. He’s really been tremendous gracious and allowed us numerous leeway,” he writes in a message. “He lastly discovered somebody keen to pay extra. Since we have been on a month-to-month foundation and lease was already onerous to maintain up with, it made sense to only shut it down. We’re so bummed out.”
Whereas the closure is undeniably unhappy for the restaurant’s employees and followers, Caballero ends on optimistic word. “Proper now it’s onerous to consider what’s subsequent however our entrepreneurial spirit lives on. Hopefully as soon as we grieve, perhaps we will get again within the combine,” he writes.
