Ninfa's

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation is a popular Mexican restaurant located at 2704 Navigation Boulevard in Houston, Texas. The restaurant serves both Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine. The Original Ninfa's was started by Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, a Mexican-American woman, in a tortilla factory. Ninfa Laurenzo became a full-time restaurateur and the tortilla factory closed. Mama Ninfa is widely credited with popularizing the fajita among Houstonians.

Dai Huynh of the Houston Chronicle said that the Ninfa's locations opened after the first two restaurants "failed to attract the following of earlier restaurants."[1] Tom Laurenzo said that the Laurenzo family never became very wealthy while it controlled the Ninfa's restaurants. He said "Everything was put back into the business."[1] When the Laurenzo family controlled the restaurant chain, it was managed by Ninfa's Inc., which became a subsidiary of the Laurenzo-controlled holding company RioStar Corp.[2]

History

1970s

In 1973, Ninfa Laurenzo, a widow with five children,[1] established Ninfa's, then a taco stand, as a side business due to financial troubles with her original core business, a tortilla factory.[3] Laurenzo's factory was losing money, and she needed to update her equipment in order to comply with new regulations. When Laurenzo decided to establish a restaurant, she applied for loans at several banks. The banks turned her down, so a friend in Mexico City loaned her several thousand dollars. Laurenzo divided the factory facility in half. The back of the factory continued to act as a tortilla factory, while the front had ten tables and 40 chairs. Laurenzo used discarded second hand furniture and pots and pans from her kitchen in the restaurant. The Ninfa's restaurant opened in July of that year. The cuisine at Ninfa's differed from the cuisine of Tex Mex restaurants at the time.[1] The restaurant almost closed after a fire struck one week after its initial opening.

Cuisine

Ninfa's historically specialized in Tex-Mex and Norteño style Mexican dishes.[25] Ninfa Laurenzo drew inspiration from the cooking of her mother, who was a Mexican, and from Laurenzo's own travels to Mexico City.[1] The food had an Italian influence because Laurenzo's deceased husband, Domenic Thomas Laurenzo, was an Italian American. Mozzarella, olive oil, and parmesan were used as ingredients.[25]

The signature dish was "tacos al carbon," which later became called "fajitas." The Ninfa's fajitas included chopped, char-grilled beef fillets placed in handmade flour tortillas.[1] Ninfa's used a smoky marinade in the beef fajitas.[26] The restaurant popularized fajitas in the Houston area.

External links

Ninfa's in Baton Rouge
Legacy Restaurants
"Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo Papers, 1971-2001." University of Houston Libraries.
"The Original Ninfa's." Houston Chronicle (Dining Guide)
Mama Ninfa's (Archive)

References

Huynh, Dai. "Restaurateur Mama Ninfa dies." Houston Chronicle. Monday June 18, 2001. A1. Retrieved on February 5, 2012.^
D and B Million Dollar Directory, Volume 2. Dun & Bradstreet, 1997. 3378. Retrieved from Google Books on February 6, 2012. "NINFAS INC (TX) (Suby ol RIOSTAR CORP) 2MN Nagle St, Houston, TX 77003-1 543"^

1980s

In 1980 Ninfa's had seven restaurants. Roland Laurenzo, the head of Ninfa's parent company, decided to expand the number of locations. In 1980 and 1981 Ninfa's opened four restaurants in Dallas.[9] In 1981 the chain grossed $30 million. In 1982 the chain had 13 restaurants.[10] Because of problems with the business, Ninfa's ultimately had to close three of the four new Dallas locations.[9] At later points in the 1980s Ninfa's closed another Dallas location and a San Antonio location. Greg Hassel of the Houston Chronicle said that expanding Ninfa's "has not always been easy."[4]

In the early 1980s there were nine Ninfa's. The profits from the original two restaurants were used to open the other seven.[1] By 1983 Ninfa's became the largest Hispanic-owned business in Houston.[4] In 1987 there were nine Ninfa's locations in Greater Houston. In September 1987 the chain celebrated its tenth anniversary of the Westheimer restaurant, with a weeklong schedule of festivities.[11]

McFaddin Ventures

In 1985 Ninfa's established a joint venture with McFaddin Ventures, a nightclub operator, in order to reduce the family's risks in opening new restaurants. At the time opening a new restaurant would have a cost of $1.5 million.[12] In October of that year McFaddin paid Ninfa's $635,000 for the rights of the future use of the Ninfa's name, and Roland Laurenzo and another Ninfa's executive joined McFaddin; these actions began the joint venture. Roland became the senior vice president of the McFaddin restaurant group. McFaddin was required to pay a quarterly fee to Ninfa's based on the restaurant chain's sales. As part of the agreement, McFaddin was to open 12 Ninfa's locations by April 25, 1989. After the opening of the tenth restaurant, it was supposed to continually operate ten of the restaurants for a five-year period.[13]

Less than nine months after the agreement was signed, Roland Laurenzo and six other McFaddin employees were terminated, and McFaddin sued Ninfa's and the Laurenzo family.[12] In its suit, McFaddin said that Ninfa's and the Laurenzo family had threatened to picket the McFaddin restaurant and disrupt McFaddin restaurants, defamed McFaddin, and asked McFaddin employees to disrupt operations at the McFaddin restaurants. Ninfa's counter-sued McFaddin in the fall of 1986, saying that McFaddin changed the name of the Bandera division, an Austin, Texas-based home delivery Mexican food stores that opened and closed in 1986, in order to deprive Ninfa's of revenues.

2000s and present

Ninfa Laurenzo, the restaurant's founder, died of bone cancer at the age of 77, on Sunday June 17, 2001.[17]

In 2001 there were 55 Ninfa's locations controlled by Serrano's. The restaurants in Georgia and Louisiana were independent franchises.[1] In 2005 Ninfa's continued to have locations in Texas, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Shreveport, Louisiana, and Georgia.

In 2006,[18] Niel Morgan, the owner of the Antone's po boy chain,[19] started the new firm Legacy Restaurants,[18] then proceeded to make a deal with Serrano's. Morgan acquired the rights to the original Ninfa's and took direct control, while Serrano's began to license the Ninfa's name for eight other locations. After Morgan took control of the original restaurants, he proceeded to begin renovations, which added potted plants and a colonial Spanish-style bench. As part of Morgan's overhaul, a VIP parking service was added.[19] Morgan also had the restrooms upgraded and added an outdoor deck and a parking lot.[18]

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation has been owned and operated by Legacy Restaurants since mid-2006. The Executive Chef is Alex Padilla whose mother worked for Laurenzo when he was growing up in Houston. Legacy has made a number of improvements including a lighted parking lot and covered outdoor seating.

There are still "Ninfa's Mexican Restaurants" in Houston and elsewhere operated by independent owners who previously received licenses to use the name from the Laurenzo family. None of these are affiliated with the Original Ninfa's on Navigation. In 2008, there were 14 independently licensed Ninfa's locations.[18]

In 2012, several licensed Ninfa's locations were converted into "Maggie Rita's Tex-Mex Grill & Bar," a restaurant chain co-owned by Carlos Mencia. Katharine Shilcutt of the Houston Press rated the food at the new restaurants negatively and said that "[i]t represents a new nadir for a once-respected and beloved Houston Tex-Mex institution."[20] Shilcutt further added that the takeover caused an "uproar" in Houston and that "but to many longtime Houstonians (me included), the deal with interloper Maggie Rita's may as well have been a pact with the devil."[21]

In 2012 Shilcutt said that overall, "Ninfa's hadn't been that great in a long time".[21] She explained that the original location was "still reflective of the restaurant chain when it was in its prime," while the other locations "have varying levels of food and service, although most have fallen away significantly from the high-quality cuisine offered at the Original and last of the true Ninfa's empire."[21]

In November 2013 an enclosed patio opened at the original Ninfa's.[22]

In 2017, the original Ninfa's was featured on a Houston-based episode of the Travel Channel show Man v. Food, hosted by Casey Webb.[23]

The owners of the original Ninfa's plan to open another branch at BLVD Place in Uptown Houston in 2019.[24]

History

1970s

Cuisine

See also

Further reading

External links

References

1980s

McFaddin Ventures

McFaddin Ventures

1990s

Germany restaurant

Bankruptcy protection and settlement

Germany restaurant

Bankruptcy protection and settlement

2000s and present