Katy’s diverse fare breaks cookie-cutter mold
Residents increasingly seek more than the chain restaurant experience
When the survival rate of new restaurants is enough to scare off most entrepreneurs, Phat Eatery in Katy is bucking the odds. Owner Alex AuYeung’s 50-seat Malaysian street-food restaurant marked its first anniversary at the sprawling 1.5-acre Katy Asian Town with news that it would take over the space next door, doubling capacity.
“I am overwhelmed by the support,” Au-Yeung said of the local foodies who have embraced Phat Eatery, which he hopes will spawn additional locations in other parts of Houston. “Opening in Katy was the best decision of my life.”
Au-Yeung is part of a new era of food-savvy entrepreneurs turning Katy into one of Greater Houston’s most exciting and culturally diverse dining communities. Gone are the days when only chain restaurants ruled the main highways with familiar, cookie-cutter fare. Today, more than 700 restaurants — including mom-and-pop shops, craft barbecue joints, Asian bakeries and markets, and even the best new sushi restaurant to come along in years — are making a go out west,
where good schools, affordable homes and rapid development have contributed to dramatic population growth.
Brett Jackson, 37, who has lived in Katy since grade school, remembers when residents hunted for doves in the open lands where the Grand Parkway now pumps cars in and out of business, retail and housing centers.
Today, his Brett’s BBQ Shop is among a new breed of destination-worthy barbecue operators in Katy. Word of mouth has produced a line every day for Jackson’s brisket, house-made sausage, pork ribs and pork belly burnt ends since the shop debuted in October. Along with Daddy Duncan’s BBQ and Harlem Road Texas BBQ in Richmond, Katy is now solidly part of Houston’s booming craft barbecue movement. Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, the legendary Llano barbecue joint, will open an outpost there later this year.
“People want something authentic, and now Katy is getting it. We’re in that excitement period right now, and it’s just the beginning,” Jackson said. “Standards are so much higher now. You can’t just put things on a plate. It has to be special, especially if you want people to come back two or three times a week.”
That would be customers such as Chris Garcia, a residential mortgage lender and lifelong Katy resident who says he’s eaten at Jackson’s shop at least twice a week since it opened.
“Growing up here we had Chili’s and that was it,” said Garcia. “There’s a want in the community to have good quality food and not just chain restaurants. People are willing to spend their money for quality.”
And there’s a lot more people in Katy with those bigger wallets. According to the most recent data from the Katy Area Economic Development Council, Katy’s population grew 84 percent from 2000 to 2010, and today at 347,000, it is expected to swell to 392,000 by 2023. The average household income is $131,732, which is projected to increase to $154,065 by 2023.
The Asian population in Katy more than tripled between 2000 and 2010. Today, Katy has about 40,000 Asian residents, a number expected to grow to 50,000 by 2022 according to the Katy Area EDC.
That Asian demographic was one of the factors in Eric Leong’s and Jennifer Nguyen’s quest to bring Japanese cream puff franchise Beard Papa’s to Katy. The husband-and-wife team, both corporate accountants, visited one of the bakery’s locations while on vacation in San Francisco in 2017, and thought it would translate well in their hometown. So they pitched Beard Papa’s corporate office.
“They told us no, they weren’t interested in Texas,” Leong said. But that didn’t stop the Katy residents from pressing on, sending in essays and demographic reports.
It worked. In August 2018 Leong and Nguyen opened the state’s first Beard Papa’s franchise in Katy Asian Town. There was a line out the door.
“They didn’t know what Katy was,” Nguyen said. “We told them we’d bring nothing but giant crowds.”
Those crowds have the couple considering opening another cream puff bakery in Houston inside the Loop.
Using Katy as a launching pad for a new restaurant brand made sense to the owners of Tobiuo Sushi & Bar, which opened last year at LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch and quickly made a name for itself for inventive, high-end sushi from chef Mike Lim.
“People are very easygoing out here and a little more patient,” Tobiuo general manager Le Chau said. “We were able to build a team from nothing and learn about our strengths and weaknesses.”
Tobiuo’s success in Katy has the partners considering expanding into the Houston market. “If we can make it out here, we can make it in town,” Chau said.
While launching in suburbs then growing into the inner city market isn’t unusual in startup culture, there’s plenty of examples of Houston-born restaurants moving to Katy, as well.
Bernie’s Burger Bus and Dish Society both have opened outposts in Katy. Others, such as Mia’s Table, Bosscat Kitchen & Libations, The Union Kitchen and Jax Grill, have committed to opening in Katy this year, and Molina’s Cantina will open by the end of the year in nearby Fulshear. Katy, where Waller, Harris and Fort Bend counties merge, has lucrative potential.
Opening in Katy makes perfect sense to restaurateur Paul Miller, the owner of Gr8 Plate Hospitality, which operates The Union Kitchen and Jax Grill brands.
“A lot of people who live out here in Katy lived in the Loop before they had kids,” said Miller, a Katy resident. “They were used to going to restaurants in Midtown, Montrose and the Heights. They couldn’t afford a five-bedroom house in the Heights or Memorial — so they moved west.”
Miller thinks his brands will resonate in Katy because “a lot of people who live in Katy work in Houston.” And, he adds, “We are mom-and-pop and very familyoriented. We want to be that restaurant that you go to three or four times a week.”
That kind of thinking has kept Kellie Messer in business for 22 years. The owner of Texas Borders Bar & Grill restaurants in Katy said she has worked hard to build a loyal base one customer at a time. She’s done that, she said, with good food — a menu of familiar dishes from the borders of Texas such as Mexico, Louisiana and the Gulf — and a “Cheers”-like attitude where everybody knows your name. A rousing “Hey, y’all!” greets every customer walking through the door.
“I think people are very loyal in Katy,” Messer said. “When we win them, we really win them.”
She understands that people are naturally wowed by restaurants with name recognition, advertising and public relations budgets, and a big team behind the brand. “You’re look at the team right here,” Messer said, placing her hand to her chest. “We’re mom-and-pop. This is genuine.”
One of Messer’s fans is Andrew Leeper, the founder of the Katy/ Fort Bend Foodies group on Facebook, which has grown to nearly 37,000 members since he started it five years ago. Leeper and his moderators keep up with the busy food scene in Katy, Richmond and Fulshear. The group’s members are an active bunch loyal to established businesses such as Messer’s and eager to champion newbie restaurants that seem to open almost daily.
“We went from a food desert to everything times two,” Leeper said describing the Katy food scene’s growth in the past five years.
One of Leeper’s favorite new restaurants is only days old: That’s My Dog, which marked its grand opening last week, is a made-in-Katy success story.
Kevin and Ryan Muccular moved to Katy in December 2016 from the California Bay area, where they operated a gourmet hot dog trailer.
“I’m a firm believer God has a plan for all of us,” Kevin said. “We didn’t know anyone here. We had our faith and our hot dogs.”
And they had virtually no competition in Katy, where Kevin said they decided to move because it has a strong school system and a growing population that he hoped would ensure a stable customer base.
About six months after introducing their That’s My Dog trailer in Katy, Hurricane Harvey struck. For three weeks the Mucculars generated no income. But they helped feed displaced Houstonians, including those sheltered at the George R. Brown Convention Center. They served 5,000 hot dogs under a program they called Hot Dogs and Hugs.
“We gave away more hugs than hot dogs,” Kevin said. “We wanted them to know they were not alone.”
The Mucculars worked hard to establish themselves in everyday Katy life, and their trailer business finally yielded a brick-andmortar store. Opening day, Kevin said, felt surreal. “I woke up in the morning and there were butterflies, like you get at kickoff at a football game,” he said. “I knew this day was coming, and now it’s happening. And it feels good to be here.”
And like any newly minted, successful local restaurant, Muccular is thinking big — thinking way beyond Katy.
“We’re going to put a That’s My Dog in every major city in America.”