The plight of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack has now been added to the running list of grievances of similar folks along Houston’s busy bar and restaurant strip known as the Washington Avenue Corridor. To put it succinctly, it’s the Cusacks of the world versus the City of Houston.
Houston Police arrested Cusack May 7 at his pizzeria and bar at 2101 Washington Ave.. According to charging documents, officers alleged Cusack failed to “comply with local health or sanitary laws.” In an exclusive interview with CultureMap Houston, he said health inspectors dinged the restaurant with 20 to 25 different citations. The actual arrest stemmed from a food permit that was given to an LLC that was not the one operating Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and was previously reported missing since October.
Cusack’s story has been making the rounds on social media, and it eventually landed in the lap of Nathan Aguirre, co-owner of Rabbit’s Got the Gun, a bar 1.5 miles away. Aguirre has been vocal on his Near Northside bar’s Instagram page about what he perceives as Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s crackdown on the city’s nightlife businesses.
Tuesday, Aguirre posted an interview between himself and Cusack about the arrest. While nothing new came out of it, Aguirre framed Cusack’s conflict in that interview, and in speaking with Chron, as part of the bigger problems that food-and-beverage industry owners are having with the city, particularly the excessive nature of it all.
“You’re showing up at our businesses at prime time with 10 cops while we’re working,” Aguirre told Chron. “There’s a way to do things.”
Aguirre himself has run afoul of the City of Houston. In late March, health inspectors shut down Rabbit’s for attempting to host a crawfish boil without the proper permits. He said the bar has still not recouped the losses from that day.
“We’re going to unionize and come together and fight on the way we’re being handled,” Aguirre said in the Instagram video. “You need to respect the people you put in power to sell substances that you highly tax and you trust us with people’s lives. Instead of coming in and barging in and treating us like criminals, y’all need to come in and treat us with respect.”
Whitmire has been focused on cracking down on “reckless behavior” along Washington Avenue and other parts of the city since 2024. The plans have called for increased police presence and ensuring business owners were complying with local laws and ordinances. But the enforcement has come across as harassment and bullying from bar owners in those areas, and it coincides with inhospitable economic conditions that have forced many off the edge, including high rents and high costs of material goods and labor.
“Houston is a town known for hustle and entrepreneurship,” Aguirre said. “What do they have against the small guy?”
The City of Houston has yet to respond to Chron’s request for comment.