It’s been a bit of a back and forth with Arnaldo Richards’ Picos since its titular owner announced it was closing nearly a year ago. Timelines have shifted for the longtime Houston restaurant at 3601 Kirby Dr., but Tuesday afternoon, Richards announced his Mexican restaurant’s final day is in fact coming. It’ll be Aug. 30.
“After months of exploring every option to keep the Picos’ legacy moving forward, we now face the fact that a group planning to build a high-rise has acquired the property,” Richards said in a statement. “… Our goal has always been to continue Picos’ legacy in Houston. While this chapter is ending, we are actively searching for a new home and remain hopeful about Picos’ future in Houston.”
Richards insisted in his statement this is not a farewell for Picos, but a transition. He and his team are busy working to secure the next location for the restaurant. “Our goal was to move seamlessly to a new space without interruption; however, that timeline depends on securing and remodeling the right location,” he said.
The impending closing of Picos first came to light in August 2025 in an announcement by Richards. A month later, he said he would push back Picos’ closing date in an effort to help his staff ahead of the holiday season. The restaurant then remained open through the end of 2025. In January, Richards revealed the restaurant, instead of closing, would relocate to an undetermined location. What wasn’t said was how long the Kirby restaurant would continue operating.
There are a lot of longtime restaurants around Houston, but not many have had the sort of historical cache that Picos has carried since it first opened in 1984 in the Bellaire neighborhood (12 years ago it moved to the current Kirby Drive address). While it does do Tex-Mex, Richards’ restaurant has often been credited as a being a culinary ambassador for regional Mexican cooking. Similar restaurants have opened over the years, but Picos was one of the first movers of the genre, at least in Houston.