The enduring legacy of Houston’s most authentic Cuban spot

Cafe Piquet serves a variety of Cuban sandwiches, oven-roasted meats and small bites.

Chyna Blackmon

The first thing I noticed at Cafe Piquet wasn’t the menu— it was the walls. Filled with faded photographs of Cuba and lined license plates from other countries, the Bellaire restaurant is just as much a relic as it is a place to eat. 

Nelly and Guido Piquet opened their namesake restaurant and cafe nearly 20 years ago. Today, the Piquets’ daughter is running the restaurant and said she’s committed to honoring the character of Cafe Piquet, keeping its menus and atmosphere just as they were since 1996.

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Cafe Piquet currently sits at 5757 Bissonnet St. but it originally opened in a tiny ten-table space a couple of blocks away. Nelly and Guido—who both grew up in their families’ kitchens, including Piquet Market where they served cantinas—built a following that eventually outgrew two smaller locations before anchoring their legacy at the restaurant’s current space.

Cafe Piquet is located at 5757 Bissonnet St.

Chyna Blackmon

“Nano [a nickname for Guido] was larger than life, and my mom had a heart that was bigger than Texas,” Cristina Benitez told Chron. “So just over the decade, they really just got people’s attention and became a part of the community all around. When I say part of the community, I’m not just talking about the Cuban community…with the community in general.”

Benitez has been working with Cafe Piquet since 2007. She took over all operations after her step-father and mother passed away.

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“…Just always having watched how hard they worked, it was hard to let it just disappear. And so that’s kind of how I have come into the business, and I’ve stayed in it, because now, even though she’s not here, there are people who are counting on Cafe Piquet,” Benitez said. 

“It’s kind of part of my responsibility for us to continue that and continue giving the memories that people have often come for generations coming over to eat our food and remember whether it was with their parents or their grandparents, and enjoy the food.”

Some of those memories make up the restaurant’s very walls. The license plates have all been gifted from Cafe Piquet customers.

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The dining room at Cafe Piquet.

Chyna Blackmon

“Somebody would mention they’re going out of the country, and she [her mother] would tell them, ‘Okay, you have to do me a favor. I need you to go ahead and bring me a license plate from wherever you’re going…I don’t want a brand new one. It needs to be old, ugly, beat up. I want it to have character,'” Benitez said.

“Every once in a while, somebody will walk in and be like, ‘I brought that license plate and I got it from so and so… and I remember giving it to your mom.’ And it really became kind of a very specific detail in the restaurant that showed how much the community was part of Cafe Piquet.”

Chyna Blackmon

Just like the collection of vintage license plates, Benitez has also kept much of the restaurant’s classic Cuban bites.

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“Food can bring back a memory … and it’s just really cool to be able to have that connection. That’s one of the things that’s really important to us, because preserving what has always been is necessary, because that’s part of history,” Benitez said. “If we just forget about it, then it disappears, but it’s a way for us to continue that tradition, but then try to find different things to play with moving forward. Of course, there are little changes that come up here and there, but the idea is not actually really changing the core authentic recipes.”

That includes their beef empanadas, ham croquetas, pernil oven-roasted pork topped with a specialty garlic sauce, and the most popular: ropa vieja, shredded beef slow cooked with onions, bell peppers and pimientos coated in tomato and wine sauce.

The pernil entree, made up of oven-roasted pork topped with specialty garlic sauce.

Chyna Blackmon

While they’ve added a few items, the majority of the restaurant’s menu has remained the same.  Though a lot of the dishes can be offered at other dining spots, Cafe Piquet’s versions stand out by their family’s specific recipes.

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“I think the interesting thing that’s been amazing for us is we’re kind of a different style of restaurant. Obviously, Houston is kind of a melting pot, and it’s got so many different restaurants, [so] we’ve been very fortunate to have opportunities of people come in and order our food,” Benitez told Chron. 

“More than anything, to just be part of the community around us, and always have people embrace our food … that’s really, really cool that they know they can come here and it’s comfort food. Just come as you are, be who you are, enjoy, look at some of the history of stuff that you can’t really see anymore in a country that many can’t actually go back to. It’s been an amazing journey to have been on.”

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The caramones enchilados entree, made up of sauteed shrimp creole with onion and green bell peppers. 

Chyna Blackmon