The signage for LuLoo’s Day & Night may still hang at The Stomping Grounds in Houston’s Garden Oaks neighborhood, but another longtime local restaurant is already preparing to take over the old all-day sandwich shop and bakery space.
Although The Stomping Grounds has not yet announced the new tenant, Barnaby’s Cafe has already listed the Garden Oaks spot on its website alongside its other locations around Houston, describing it as “a place for neighbors, families and culture-seekers to gather and connect” for lunch and dinner service.
Barnaby’s Cafe opened its original location in the heart of Montrose at 604 Fairview St. in 1992. Since, the dog-friendly cafe—named after the owner’s beloved childhood Old English sheepdog—has expanded to Downtown, the Heights, Memorial, Midtown, Museum District and River Oaks.
Barnaby’s Cafe isn’t the only new addition coming to The Stomping Grounds’ restaurant and retail lineup. Pho Prime, which has locations in Alief and Pearland, recently announced it’s bringing slow-simmered broths, fresh ingredients, unlimited noodles and its other “signature Vietnamese favorites” to the popular Garden Oaks space. Coincidentally, it’ll be opening in what used to be Pho Fix, which closed in June.
“We have spent the past few years working to scale the brand, and we thought Garden Oaks was a great area to open a Pho Prime restaurant,” Kiet Duong of Mamba Hospitality Group recently told Houston Business Journal.
Official opening dates for Barnaby’s Cafe and Pho Prime have yet to be announced, but the Vietnamese restaurant’s team said it is expected to open this fall.