Boss ladies of Houston
Matriarchs behind some of Bayou City’s most beloved restaurants tell their stories
THEY’RE founders and owners; wives and mothers; proprietors and caretakers. You see them whenever you visit their restaurants, quietly toiling, never calling attention to themselves. They’re the dedicated keepers of the flame and the faces of some of Houston’s most enduring and treasured restaurants. And they are treasures themselves.
Meet Nancy Fung of Fung’s Kitchen, Irma Galvan of Irma’s Original, Pat Mickelis of Cleburne Cafeteria and Arpi Tcholakian of Arpi’s Phoenicia Deli. Each has invested decades of hard work and love into feeding loyal customers and running a successful business while also raising a family.
These matriarchs have engendered maternal fondness among generations of diners. They are the old-school boss ladies who continue to inspire and build allegiances for their long-running restaurants that are considered Houston institutions. As Mother’s Day approaches, these are their stories, told in their own words.
Pat Mickelis
Cleburne Cafeteria, 3603 Bissonnet, 713-667-2386; cleburnecafeteria.com
Years in the business: 64 Age: 92
What we’re known for: Meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, chickenfried steak, Greek salad, fresh side dishes like green beans, candied yams, carrot salad, cakes and pies made — everything unprocessed and made from scratch.
My story: I was born in Tuttle, N.D., in 1923. When I was 14, we left North Dakota because it was just too cold — 50 degrees below zero during Christmas. My family packed up all we had in our Studebaker and drove down to Liberty, here in Houston.
My mother was a photographer, and I became a photographer, too. I had a special gift as a coloring artist, where I would color in the black-and-white photos. By the time was in my late 20s, I had my own business, a photography studio in downtown Houston called Photos by Pat. That’s how my husband and I came to meet.
He was an immigrant from a tiny island in the Aegean sea called Patmos, Greece. His mother had asked him to send a picture home to her, so he came to my studio for a sitting. When I draped the cloak behind the camera and looked through the lens, lightning struck. I was instantly in love with the man that sat in the frame.
I found out that Nick worked at a local barbecue restaurant, and he was an artist. One day, I went to his restaurant, saw his beautiful artwork, and he sat down and had coffee with me. As the weeks went by, we would run into each other in downtown Houston. Nick didn’t speak much English, but I would say, “Coffee?” and we would have coffee. It didn’t matter that we had a language barrier. We fell in love.
At the time, Nick was in business with two uncles at the barbecue restaurant. Every day after work, he would tell me that he was tired of being in business with family that didn’t have the same motivation or aspire to the same dreams that he did.
I listened to him and told him, “You’ve got what it takes to make it on your own. You can do this. I can help you.” So I took out the newspaper and found that the Cleburne Cafeteria was for sale. When I took Nick there to see it, he said, “Pat, I know barbecue. I know hamburgers. I don’t know anything about a cafeteria.” But I told him, “I’ve watched you work. You can learn anything. You’re dynamite.”
In 1952, Nick bought Cleburne Cafeteria from Anabelle Collins and Martha Kavanaugh, the founders, without ever having eaten in a cafeteria. We got married. I closed my photography business and spent every day in the cafeteria, working side by side with my husband as a translator. “This is how you make apple pie. This is how you make a lemon tart. This is how you make baked squash.” I started to learn the business myself.
From day one, I had to learn how to be cashier because the cashier quit. Nick was in charge of the cooking and the kitchen. I managed everything in the front. Work was exciting. I like to say that it was like being a Bendix washing machine, where you get thrown back and forth and side to side. Every day in the cafeteria it was always something. Maybe we were shorthanded, or we had way too much food and not enough customers, or way too many customers and not enough food. When the help didn’t have a ride to work, I would go and pick them up. We were all a big family. Most of our employees stayed with us through all this time. The cake lady worked for me until the day she passed.
Nick and I made a life for ourselves at the cafeteria. When we weren’t working, I taught Nick how to drive and to speak English. In his spare time, he would paint. His beautiful works of art still grace our walls today. We had two children, George and Angela. They grew up at Cleburne Cafeteria. In 1969, we bought the location that we’re still in today.
My husband passed away in 1989 at the age of 68. After he passed, it was my job to continue our legacy. I continued to come in every day. I worked at the cash register well past our 65th anniversary, until about five years ago.
I still come to the cafeteria every day because, more than anything, this is my home. I like to drink my coffee and say hello to the customers as they walk by. My friends come and visit me here. This is my life. This is all I’ve known. My husband worked here until the day he died, and I want to be here every day until it’s time for me to join him. My heart is here, just like the picture of Nick that I fell in love with so many years ago.
Nancy Fung
Fung’s Kitchen, 7320 U.S. 59 S., 713-779-2288; eatatfungs.com
Years in the business: 26 Age: 55
What we’re known for: Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine. Dim sum, peking duck (roasted fresh every day); fresh seafood, including scallops in the shell, oysters, lobster, live Dungeness crab, king crab, lobster and geoduck; and fresh vegetables such as snow pea leaves and baby bok choy.
My story: I am originally from Hong Kong. I worked for a big Chinese restaurant there but in the personnel department. I met my husband when I was 19 years old. It was a special occasion, my eldest sister’s birthday. We all went to my husband’s father’s seafood restaurant in Kowloon to eat. Halfway through the dinner, my husband came in to say hello. And then he saw me, and he asked my brother-in-law if I was married. That was our beginning. We got married when I was 21.
My husband wanted to move to America to try and make a new life for us. When we moved here, I was pregnant, so I was not doing anything until my daughter was born. Then one of my friends called. Her boss lady was sick. They asked me to come and help at their Chinese restaurant on T.C. Jester. That was in 1984 — my daughter was just 2 or 3 months old. They wanted me to be a hostess, but they had a bar, so they taught me how to make the mixed drinks, too. Later on, they let me be a waitress.
My husband always wanted to open his own restaurant, but we weren’t sure of the economy. He saved some money but said maybe we should buy a house first. During this time — 1986 to 1989, we both worked at the same place, Golden China Restaurant. He was in the kitchen, and I was working in the front as a waitress.
In 1990, my husband said, “OK, maybe now we can try our own career.” I didn’t have any doubts because I knew he was a good cook. We opened Fung’s Kitchen that year. It was only a few thousand square feet then. We took over a restaurant called Hong Kong Kitchen.
In the beginning, I was the manager, the hostess, the waitress. I did everything that needed to be done. My husband and I both worked seven days a week, from open to close.
Our restaurant still sits in the same location, but we expanded four times. We both still work seven days a week. I am just like the hostess and the waitress. I answer the phones. Whenever my husband orders things, and the bill comes, I must help to double-check the invoices and write the check. I never go in the kitchen. At home, I let my husband cook. I say, “You cook, I wash dishes.”
The restaurant opens at 10:30 a.m., and I am usually here by 11 or 11:30. When I come to work, I concentrate on making sure that everything runs smoothly.
I’ve been doing this for 26 years. Sometimes, I feel sorry for my kids. My son and my daughter were 6 and 7 years old when we first opened. During their younger years, we took very little time off, and they spent most of their days at the restaurant. Things are better now. I take about a three-week vacation each year, but I go by myself. We cannot go together. One of us has to be here to oversee everything.
My kids are all grown up now. Me and my husband are still in a good condition. I’m thinking we’ll be doing this for five more years, at least. Maybe up to 10 years, I’m not sure. When I come to work, I am very happy — happy to take care of my regular customers. We have generations of families that come to Fung’s Kitchen. I’ve seen little kids grow up, get married and have kids of their own that they bring here. That’s why I love my job.
Irma Gonzalez Galvan
Irma’s Original, 22 N. Chenevert, 713-222-0767; irmasoriginal.com
Years in the business: 27 Age: 74
What we’re known for: Chicken mole, poblano peppers, carne guisada, pork roast tamales (mole, chile ancho, tomatillo), chicken, beef, cheese, fresh mahi mahi and spinach enchiladas, tilapia fish tacos, mahi mahi fish tacos, chorizo con huevos tacos. My story: I was born in Brownsville. My mother had four children, and I was the oldest. She raised us as a single mom. We moved to Houston when I was 5 years old. I had to help support the family, so when I was 12 or 13 I started in a Mexican bakery, a panaderia, with my sister.
I learned to cook from my mother. The first thing I learned to make was el arroz, Mexican rice. I didn’t go to college. When I graduated from high school, I started working at the Purse & Co. wholesale furniture store located across the street from where my restaurant is now. I started as a receptionist and worked myself to sales on the floor. I worked there for 30 years. I got married while I was working there; I had four children while I was working there.
In 1981, my husband passed away. We had no insurance, so I became a single mom with four kids, stuck paying a mortgage. Eventually, Purse & Co. went out of business, and I had to find other work. A friend of mine, a welder, convinced me to take over his mom’s sandwich shop, which I named Irma’s.
It took me about eight years to get things going. I started out making sandwiches, but it was a sad business because I made very little money. Then I started selling tacos and began making better money. I hired a lady to make tortillas so we could have handmade flour and corn tortillas. Enron was very popular at the time, and they were giving us a lot of business. So I went from tacos to making plate lunches. My first dishes were carne guisada, enchiladas, chile rellenos, mole. Then I started having fish, shrimp, steaks.
I also began making deliveries to the courthouse. I had a lot of people supporting me — judges, attorneys, mayors, police chiefs, the sheriff’s department. I started accumulating friends, and when they came, they’d give me their business card and say, “In case you ever need anything, Irma, call me; here’s my card.” So I started putting their cards on the wall. And they’d say, “If you go to Irma’s, my card’s on the wall.”
These days, I get to work about 9 o’clock in the morning. I still go to Canino’s and buy everything fresh two to three times a week. The girls start in the kitchen at 8 a.m. because everything we make has got to be fresh, ready by 11 o’clock.
The minute I get here, I make sure everything is clean, then I go into the kitchen, make sure everything tastes good and has good presentation. I am in the kitchen from the minute I come in until we close because I also help my girls clean up the kitchen. I am the one that preps the plates. I make the guacamole. When we cook, we call it
como en su casa, or “just like home.” Nothing fancy. The people I hired, they are not chefs but housewives. They’ve been with me 17 years. As for why I still do what I do every day? I’m handson. I see things other people do not see. It’s important for me to be here because I want to give my customers the best that I can give.
Arpi Tcholakian
Arpi’s Phoenicia Deli, 12151 Westheimer, 281-558-0416; phoeniciafoods.com/locations/ arpis-deli
Years in the business: 33 Age: 72
What we’re known for: Shawarma (beef, chicken and lamb), falafel, kibbeh, hummus, tabouleh, cucumber salad, beet salad, muhammara dip
My story: Our family comes from Beirut, Lebanon, but we are Armenian. I was not cooking when we were in Beirut. I used to work in research in the endocrinology department at the American University Hospital in Lebanon. We moved to Houston in 1978 when I was pregnant with my first child because I had a cousin here.
My husband’s first job was as a draftsman for Bechtel Engineering, but it was the early ’80s, and the economy was bad. The oil prices came down, and Bechtel was laying off people, so we had to do something. They didn’t lay off my husband, but we were scared.
We opened Phoenicia Deli in 1983. We decided to specialize in shawarma because my husband’s family had a similar business in Lebanon. Wherever you go and you see meat on a spit — it can be called gyro, shawarma, doner kebab— it is the same, but a lot of places use frozen meat. We grew up with these things, so we knew what we wanted. We didn’t ask anybody how to do it. Me and my husband, we created the special spice mix for our meat. To this day, we still use the same recipe.
We started the deli with three spits — two chicken, one beef — and just a few groceries. Beyond the shawarma, we had falafel and some vegetarian dishes, a few cold cuts, po-boys and some of the side dishes we have now. At the time, my husband was in one corner doing the sandwiches, and I was in the other taking orders, working the cash register and controlling things. Little by little, we added more employees and we grew. In 1992, we needed more space, so we rented a place next door for storage, and it ended up becoming a retail store. This business later expanded across the street and became Phoenicia Specialty Foods in 2006.
My husband and my kids now take care of the retail store. I have always stayed in the deli. That’s why, when we opened this current location in 2010, we changed the name to Arpi’s Phoenicia Deli. This new location is much bigger and busier than before. We added more spits and started serving lamb. We have more than double the number of side dishes we used to have. All the food, they are my recipes.
The work is not easy, but I never complain, as if it’s my first day of work. I come with that attitude. My husband works the same hours, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. Every morning my husband and I drive to work together. He drops me off at the deli and goes to the store, then picks me up at 7 p.m., and we go home together.
When the kids were younger, I used to have Sundays off. The rest of the time, the kids would go to work with me. We had a special table and a special TV just for them. We take time off when we need to but never more than three days at a time.
Most of the customers, they are like family to me. Everybody that knows me, they come and give me a hug. If they don’t see me, the next time they say, “Where were you? We came, you were not here. Are you OK?” So it’s not that I don’t get tired, but my presence is felt, and I enjoy it.