Matcha, bagels, new Aga’s location: Meet 17 of Houston’s new restaurants<\/a><\/p>\nDo\u00f1a Leti\u2019s famed egg rolls are available too, though here they\u2019re stuffed with carnitas or chorizo-potato-cheese instead of birria or surf-and-turf.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have, of course, all of these Hispanic influences,\u201d Kalli said. \u201cBut also, just like with Do\u00f1a Leti\u2019s, a lot of our stuff is also with our own twist.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chocoflan]()
![\"The]()
<\/p>\n
Left: Chocoflan pancakes. Right: The El Presidente plate.<\/p>\n
Top: Chocoflan pancakes. Bottom: The El Presidente plate.<\/p>\n
Kalli also learned from Do\u00f1a Leti\u2019s in designing the bar menu. This spring, after seeing soft serve margaritas online, the Lozanos put the drink on the menu at the dinner restaurant. It took off so\u00a0stratospherically that Kalli added a soft serve mimosa to Buenos Dias\u2019 offerings.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
Like the food, many of the other cocktails lean playful: watermelon margaritas with tamarind tequila, frozen\u00a0mangonada mimosas. Others are familiar to all: espresso martinis, Bloody Marys.<\/p>\n
And on the non-alcoholic side, customers can sip Salvadoran fruit punch, atol de elote and champurrado, or opt for coffee from the cafe de\u00a0olla cart making its rounds around the dining room.<\/p>\n
![\"Buenos]()
<\/p>\n
Buenos Dias owners Julio Lozano, his wife Kalli and his sister Marcela pose\u00a0in the new Hispanic-inspired breakfast spot.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
As much as the Lozanos love breakfast, opening a breakfast restaurant wasn’t part of the plan. For that matter, neither was turning Do\u00f1a Leti’s into a two-location restaurant that went viral on social media.<\/p>\n
Around 2003, when Marcela, Julio and Carlos were kids, they started knocking on doors to hawk their mom\u2019s mixed fruit cups out of an Igloo cooler. Demand grew, so the family expanded to the back of a pick-up truck. Then a small trailer. A proper food truck. One restaurant, and then another.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery growth step we’ve ever taken,\u201d Kalli said, \u201chas really just been out of necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buenos Dias emerged from necessity, too, as the Lozanos faced a utilitarian and very Houston problem: parking.<\/p>\n
![\"Buenos]()
<\/p>\n
Buenos Dias, a new Hispanic-inspired breakfast spot, is the latest step in a long line of growth for the Lozano family. Their old food truck\u00a0sits in the restaurant’s parking lot.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Do\u00f1a Leti\u2019s on Washington, across from Buenos Dias, offers limited spots for customers to park. Since it opened, customers have stationed their cars at the Denny\u2019s across the street. At first, the Lozanos said, the cars would be towed. Later on, the Lozanos struck a deal to let their customers use the spots.<\/p>\n
But then the Denny\u2019s announced its closure. The Lozanos didn\u2019t know what would happen to their parking spots.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cWe literally couldn\u2019t lose it,\u201d Kalli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So about a year ago, the family took over the Denny’s building without a definite plan for how to use it. They came up with ideas: A late-night spot? No, those hours would overlap too much with\u00a0Do\u00f1a Leti\u2019s. Breakfast it was.<\/p>\n
![\"Cemita]()
![\"Pambazo]()
<\/p>\n
Left: The cemita, with beef milanesa and Oaxaca cheese. Right: The chorizo-potato pambazo.<\/p>\n
Top: The cemita, with beef milanesa and Oaxaca cheese. Bottom: The chorizo-potato pambazo.<\/p>\n
They brainstormed a menu and redesigned the space. The days before grand opening became a frantic flurry of training as they ironed out the details of their new brand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know what a Do\u00f1a Leti\u2019s works like and what it is,\u201d Marcela said. \u201cSince this is a whole new concept, I think that\u2019s what makes us a little nervous. But we\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Starting Friday, Buenos Dias will be open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. It will be closed Mondays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pambazo sandwich at Buenos Dias, a new Hispanic-inspired breakfast spot in Houston. Elizabeth Conley\/Houston Chronicle A Salvadoran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-367029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}