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Lori Mu\u00f1oz works in her pottery studio in Houston. She’s an emerging pottery artist whose made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Lori\u00a0Mu\u00f1oz<\/a> is a server at Nobie\u2019s. She\u2019s also an emerging pottery artist who\u2019s created the plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n She’d made plates for Tatemo. Crudo bowls for\u00a0Aiko<\/a>. Flame-shaped birthday candle holders<\/a> for Baso. Soon, her work will appear at Angie\u2019s Pizza<\/a> when it opens in May.<\/p>\n It\u2019s her biggest restaurant client yet, asking for about 100 pieces from her that range from a flat pig-shaped plate for charcuterie to small pedestal bowls featuring sculpted crab claws on them.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “I’m kind of worried about people trying to steal them,” said Angelo Emiliani, Angie’s Pizza owner. “I think we wanted something that just felt a little sillier with our plate wear \u2014 a little more theater.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Olive bowls, crab plates and candle holders Lori Munoz made for Angie’s Pizza.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer, Staff Photographer<\/p>\n That’s the kind of work Mu\u00f1oz embraces, but doesn’t usually get to showcase for her restaurant clients. Her pottery side business has grown relatively fast thanks to the connections she\u2019s made as a server. It was at Nobie\u2019s that she met her best friend, who would marry comedian Mohammed \u201cMo\u201d Amer<\/a>. The couple offered to be her investors when the studio she was initially working at closed. They allowed her to build a custom studio that she\u2019s been in for the past three years in Sawyer Yards.<\/p>\n Mu\u00f1oz, who moved to Houston 14 years ago from San Antonio, had only got back into pottery in the wake of a\u00a0COVID shutdown. It was a passion she picked up in high school and pursued in college before dropping out due to the high costs of school.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n She\u2019s worked in the service industry since she was 21 years old. For the past seven years, Nobie\u2019s has been her home, which she says has been really supportive of her side business.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I dropped out of college and was just working in the industry, this just seemed like an unattainable goal, and it’s never lost on me what I’ve done to build this little business and just the connections I have,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said.<\/p>\n Lori Mu\u00f1oz is an emerging pottery artist whose made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz molds clay in her pottery studio in Houston.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz makes a vase in her pottery studio in Houston.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz works on the potters wheel her pottery studio in Houston, Monday, March 30, 2026. Mu\u00f1oz is an emerging pottery artist who\u2019s made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz works on the potters wheel her pottery studio in Houston, Monday, March 30, 2026. Mu\u00f1oz is an emerging pottery artist who\u2019s made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz works in her pottery studio in Houston. She’s an emerging pottery artist whose made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle Lori Mu\u00f1oz poses for a portrait in her pottery studio. She is an emerging pottery artist whose made plates served at a growing number of local restaurants.<\/p>\n Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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