The restaurant, which helped introduce many Houstonians to regional Mexican dishes beyond Tex-Mex, quietly opened Saturday in a 191-seat space recently vacated by Cyclone Anaya’s Tex-Mex Kitchen at 3736 Westheimer Road. It will run limited hours until Thursday and will host a grand opening Sept. 24.
Owner Arnaldo Richards said he wants to keep the new Picos as similar as possible to the old one. The menu, he said, hasn’t changed at all: parilla plates, ceviches, filete al chipotle, cochinita pibil. And of course, customers can still get the shaker margaritas for which Picos is known.
“I want people to continue to experience the same things that they had experienced for the last 42 years,” Richards said.
Richards first opened Picos with his wife Janice Richards in 1984. The couple moved from their original hole in the wall on Bellaire Boulevard to a much bigger space at Richmond and Kirby in 2014, amassing regulars and memories along the way. Arnaldo Richards’ sister Claudia now runs catering; his daughter Angelica is the brand engagement manager.
Over the last few years, however, business slipped. In August 2025, facing an 18% year-over-year decrease in sales, Richards announced that Picos would close.
He proceeded to change his mind several times as he wrestled with giving up the restaurant he put his livelihood into. First, he delayed the closure. Then he said he’d downsize to a smaller location. Then he struggled to find a new lease and wondered whether he should reopen at all.
But at the 11th hour, Richards said he came to an agreement with Heritage Restaurant Group, which operates Cyclone Anaya’s. Rather than signing a conventional lease, he said he entered into a memorandum of understanding with the company.
They agreed to close Cyclone Anaya’s and relaunch the space as Picos. Richards will run day-to-day operations, and he’ll share profits and expenses with Heritage.
The new restaurant sports a more modern look than the last, with open rafters and geometric red lights over the bar. Most of the wooden tables and woven-back chairs came from Cyclone Anaya’s. But Richards and his team also brought over decorative touches from the old Picos: Talavera plates adorn the walls. Plants grow out of pots atop Milagro tequila barrels. A portrait of Richards’ brother Alex, who passed away a few years ago, looks out at the room.
The space is about two-thirds the size of the former restaurant, which had fit about 240 people inside, plus two patios. That makes the new restaurant a little larger than Richards first imagined — but, he hopes, small enough to overcome the empty-seats problem he ran into on Richmond.
“We’re going to finally go back to the days when people were waiting,” he said. “I hope that’s what’s going to happen.”