For the first time in 34 years, one of the Mandola family-owned restaurants on West Dallas will now begin regular Sunday hours. Vincent’s, the second of Vincent and Mary Mandola’s trio of restaurants located in the 2800 block of West Dallas, will serve dinner 5 to 9 pm every Sunday as of April 3. The reason: The neighborhood has changed, and nearby closed-on-Sunday commercial businesses have given away to apartments and condos full of hungry Houstonians … Happy anniversary to the Raven Grill, which celebrated 13 years on Wednesday (March 23). Speaking of Raven Grill, its owner Rob Cromie emailed us to mention their newest spot: “We opened another great patio spot but we don’t do food there. It’s Liberty Station (2101 Washington Ave.), in a John Staub-designed old gas station. Lots of fun! Hubcap Grill and a few other trailers are doing the food end for us, which makes a nice change for us.”
The Roland Laurenzo family is celebrating the grand opening of their newest restaurant, Chispas Del Tiempo (1504 Airline Dr. at Patton) today (March 25) from 9 am to 9 pm. It’s a fast casual, counter-service, dine-in and take-out restaurant offering fajitas, jalapeño sausage, barbecued brisket and pork carnitas by the pound … J.P. Fleming is the new artisan bread maker at The Barbed Rose in Alvin … Guri do Sul, the Brazilian steakhouse in The Woodlands, is under new management. Veteran Joe Ettorre (previously at Morton’s, Hilton and Américas on Post Oak) was recently named GM … Restaurateur Marco Wiles has closed his #2 edition of Dolce Vita, the one in The Woodlands at 1701 Lake Robbins Dr. … Also recently closed: the charming Tart Cafe in the art gallery building at 4411 Montrose. Owner John Ray says he wants to devote time to his about-to-be-born baby boy.
Mai’s Restaurant, a landmark eatery that was gutted in a two-alarm fire in February 2010, will finally reopen next month. The family-run restaurant located in downtown Houston at 3403 Milam was destroyed on February 15, 2010, by a wok fire during a private employee breakfast celebrating the Lunar New Year. Fast forward through 14 months of detailed renovation, and Mai’s will re-open with a new look, a new menu and a new management team. “The words of support we received during that time were encouraging,” says Anna Pham, the restaurant’s new general manager and the third generation to operate the family business. “We dusted off our shoulders and went to work doing what needed to be done.” Mai’s grand reopening is set for April 16.