{"id":397615,"date":"2026-08-04T18:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397615\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:20:10","slug":"popular-houston-heights-mediterranean-eatery-announces-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/397615\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Houston Heights Mediterranean eatery announces closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fast-casual Mediterranean eatery<\/a> is exiting one of Houston’s most popular neighborhoods for restaurants.<\/p>\n

After five years, Al Quick Stop is closing its Heights<\/a> location at 518 W 11th St. Owner Mohamad Elsaadi shared the news on social media on Monday, revealing Al’s last day in business will be Aug. 23.<\/p>\n

“You blink and five years pass by like it\u2019s a dream. Back in 2021, I opened our Heights location with no idea where the journey would take me. It\u2019s been a good run, but after giving it a lot of thought, I\u2019ve decided not to renew our lease,” Elsaadi wrote.<\/p>\n

“Serving the Heights community has been an amazing experience, and I\u2019ve learned so much along the way. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and @alquickstop over the last five years.”<\/p>\n

While there are only a few weeks left for folks to visit Al Quick Stop in the Heights, Elsaadi said the restaurant’s flagship location in Montrose, located at 2002 Waugh Dr., will remain open and “isn’t going anywhere.”<\/p>\n

Toufic “Zak” Elsaadi opened Al’s as a convenience store and small restaurant in Montrose in 1991, focusing on “Mediterranean food with a Houston twist.” Mohammad took the reins of the restaurant 30 years later, adding a second location in the Heights. \u00a0Al’s menu features Mediterranean-Texas fusions, including falafel sandwiches, shawarma tacos and gyro nachos.<\/p>\n

Both Toufic and Mohammad had hopes of one day opening a third Houston-area location, according to the restaurant’s website.<\/p>\n

Elsaadi’s announcement didn’t specify why he decided not to renew the restaurant’s lease or whether there are plans to relocate or expand elsewhere. Chron has reached out for more information. We will update this story if and when we hear back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fast-casual Mediterranean eatery is exiting one of Houston’s most popular neighborhoods for restaurants. After five years, Al…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397616,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1703,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-397615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronfood","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397615","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=397615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}