Angie’s Pizza in the Heights was among Houston’s most anticipated restaurant openings of the year.
Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle
Summer might be a slow time for restaurants, but Houston still saw long-anticipated pizza, steak and breakfast spots launch last month.
Angie’s Pizza, with its wood-fired creations, finally debuted in the Heights. Chef Austin Simmons — formerly of the restaurant Tris — got his new steakhouse Charolais started in The Woodlands. The people behind viral Mexican restaurant Doña Leti’s opened a breakfast spinoff called Buenos Dias.
LAST MONTH: Matcha, bagels, new Aga’s location: These 17 restaurants opened around Houston in June
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Here’s our list of 14 restaurants, bars and cafes that opened around Houston in July. Let us know what we missed.
If you plan to open a restaurant, cafe, bakery or bar soon, please reach out to aviva.bechky@houstonchronicle.com to let us know for a future roundup.
The Louie, Louie Pizza topped with Provolone, Mozzarella, Crushed Olives, Garlic Sausage and Miso Butter Onions sits on a table inside Angie’s Pizza, a new restaurant located in the Houston Heights, Tuesday, July 21, 2026.
Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle
Customers have followed chef Angelo Emiliani for six years, since he first began to serve pizzas like the Black Gold — a mushroom, Gouda and mozzarella creation — out of a pop-up. At last, they can dine on his pizzas in a sit-down restaurant. In the new Heights space, Emiliani bakes his pies in a massive wood-fired oven, combining ingredients like summer corn with salumi picante and chorizo with fennel. He also offers pastas: leek tortelloni, agnolotti del plin with braised Texas wagyu. Drew Bennett, formerly of Anvil, developed a spritz-forward cocktail menu, and sommelier Renato Bringas curated an Italian-focused list of wines. The moody Bar Angie, a separate concept, sits right upstairs.
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Atlas Cocktail Bar
Atlas Cocktail Bar has locations in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Atlas Cocktail Bar
Born in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Atlas, a global cocktail bar concept, just arrived in the Heights. Founder An Bui originally imagined it as a place to experience the spirit of travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specialty cocktails are labeled by city or country: You can get the Chicago Paper Plane, with bourbon, herbal liqueur, Aperol and lemon juice. Or the Oaxacan Old Fashioned, made with mezcal, agave, Xocolatl mole, angostura and orange bitters. The food, too, takes an international outlook, as with the bulgogi smash burger, carnitas tacos, Italian meatballs and poutine.
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Pambazo sandwich at Buenos Dias, a new Hispanic-inspired breakfast spot in Houston, photographed on Wednesday, July 8, 2026.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
The new Hispanic-inspired breakfast spot from the family behind Doña Leti’s drew lines around the building on opening day. The colorful, 110-seat restaurant serves a mix of Mexican morning classics and fusion treats of the Lozanos’ own creation: menudo and breakfast tacos, but also flan-topped pancakes and a chilaquiles burrito. Fusion egg rolls are so popular at Doña Leti’s that two variants are available at Buenos Dias, stuffed with carnitas or chorizo-potato-cheese. The drinks menu leans playful, too, with watermelon-tamarind margaritas and soft serve mimosas.
1900 Hughes Landing Blvd., Suite 350, The Woodlands
The restaurant includes an open kitchen, bar and outdoor patio.
Photography by Claudia Casbarian with Julie Soefer Photography, courtesy of Howard Hughes Communities
Chef Austin Simmons built a name for his steaks at Tris, but when he walked away from The Woodlands restaurant a year and a half ago, it unexpectedly closed. Now he’s back at Charolais, offering a selection of farm-to-table steaks. The beef comes straight from Chef & Rancher, the cattle breeding and processing project that Simmons and rancher Larry Ludeke oversee. Customers order the meat from those cows on custom steak boards, with the preparations and cuts of their choice.
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Eastwood Station
4109 McKinney, Building B
Eastwood Station serves Italian food out of a repurposed train caboose.
Amanda Mendez
This new Italian-inspired spot in EaDo lives in a repurposed train caboose — hence the name. Owners Amanda Mendez and Chris Zettlemoyer created a menu of fresh pastas and Roman-style pizzas, plus sandwiches like a chicken parm and a meatball hoagie. It’s primarily to-go and delivery, with picnic tables set up outside.
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A take on chofan, will be served at Flor y Miel in Houston on Tuesday, July 14, 2026.
Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle
This new restaurant from chef Florangel Polanco celebrates Caribbean cuisine and represents the fulfillment of a dream after Polanco spent years operating a food truck. Polanco recommends new customers sample the pepper steak, or else the mofongo, a green plantain mash served with the sauce and protein of the diner’s choice. Diners can also try crawfish empanadas, the Dominican fried rice dish chofan and a crispy snapper in coconut creole sauce.
Velocity Sim Racing Lounge is set to open a speakeasy within its Sawyer Yards outpost.
John Huang
This automobile-themed speakeasy opened last month, complete with racing simulators. It’s tucked inside Velocity Sim Racing Lounge, hidden behind a wall display of steering wheels from racing competitions. Customers can sip drinks like the Velocity GT (elderflower gin, St-Germain, lavender and Mediterranean tonic) and the Luxe Macallan Sour (Macallan 12-Year Double Cask, Aperol, lemon and egg white). To eat, they might get a charcuterie board, candied bacon with maple dipping sauce or seafood campechana.
Jeff’s Bagel Run, a Florida-based chain, sells New York-style bagels.
Jeff’s Bagel Run/Contributor
New York-style bagel chain Jeff’s is growing again, this time to Tanglewood. It serves up bagels in flavors classic and creative alike: onion, sesame, cacio e pepe, pepperjack everything. Cream cheese comes sweet (mango, mint-Oreo, banana pudding) and savory (roasted jalapeno, cucumber dill, lox).
Koyo Hand Roll Bar
Koyo Hand Roll Bar focuses on serving sushi rolls at its 26-seat location.
Becca Wright
Handrolls continue to spread with the opening of Koyo’s second Houston-area location, this time in the Heights. The rolls come vegetarian — asparagus, avocado, shiitake — or loaded with seafood: blue crab, truffle yellowtail, fatty tuna, brown butter lobster. Tables might order cucumber salad, edamame or a scallop crudo to start. Beers and sakes round out the menu at this 26-seat spot.
Merit Coffee
5115 Buffalo Speedway, Suite 100
This Texas-based coffee chain launched a location near West University Place last month, with an array of trendy drinks: cereal milk cold brew. A banana pudding latte. The iced Texas sunrise tonic, made with blood orange syrup. A latte made with hojicha — a roasted green tea — and strawberry. Customers can also pick up pastries, like kolaches, hot pockets, cinnamon rolls and egg cups.
Otium
This cocktail bar aims to create an upscale atmosphere with “Roman hospitality.”
Otium
This cocktail bar, which aims to blend “Roman hospitality” with “contemporary Italy,” offers Italian wines, Champagne, regional liqueurs and spirits. People might pick up a spritz with Select Aperitivo, white peach puree, prosecco and soda, or else the Giardino Verde, made from gin, basil, lemon, bianco vermouth and soda. For a little spectacle, they could get tableside martini service, presented from a frozen bottle in dry ice. The dress code — business casual, cocktail or upscale evening attire — is enforced, and customers must be at least 25 to visit.
Shaghf Cafe
29040 US-290 Suite A05, Cypress
Founded in the United Arab Emirates in 2018, this cafe chain just opened its third Houston area location in Cypress, following shops in Katy and Sugar Land. It aims to bring Gulf cafe culture to the U.S., with lattes in flavors like pistachio, red velvet, tiramisu, creamy peanut and hazelnut chocolate. It also sells matchas, flavored frappes and a lengthy list of desserts: carrot cake, Nutella croffles, cinnamon doughnut balls.
Uptown Sporting Club
1131 Uptown Park Blvd., Suite 1
Uptown Sporting Club debuted in the Uptown Park shopping center last month.
Abante Photography
This 5,000-square-foot sports bar aims for an upscale experience, offering food like fresh-cut truffle fries and double Wagyu smashburgers. Patrons can become members, getting priority seating, fast entry, better bottle pricing and access to a personal engraved locker for liquor. Cocktails, wines, beers and zero-proof drinks are all available. The bar, decorated with brass accents, also features eight large TVs and a 115-inch LED screen.
The Yemeni Bean
16803 Stuebner Airline, Suite B, Spring
Yemeni cafes continue to open around Houston. This one sells foamy lattes and matchas, with toppings like toasted marshmallows. Its food menu is long, too. Diners can get pancakes, waffles, chicken sandwiches, massive croissants and a case full of glossy desserts crafted to look just like fruit: an apple, a strawberry, a lemon.
