04/09/2023
With my pizza oven in tow, I set out for Houston with dreams of serving my community tossed pies that reflected my experiences and culinary beliefs. Thus, Angie’s was born. From the outset, we were fortunate to have our friends at How to Survive on Land and Sea and 8th Wonder share their space for our popular Angie’s pop-ups. A big part of what made Angie’s so special was the grassroots nature of it all – cooking out of our wood-burning oven, building relationships with guests, and thanks to you, we would sell out time and time again. Slinging pizzas brought me insurmountable joy and served as the impetus for my coming home to Houston.
When Louie and I first arrived back home, our focus was to open a space to showcase her prowess as a pastry chef. The Houston community showed up for Louie – forming lines outside the door just to get a bite of her fresh-out-the-oven pastries – and welcomed Café Louie with open arms. With all the accolades and support, I know it came as a surprise when we made the difficult decision to rebrand as Louie’s Italian American. Simply put, Café Louie was difficult to sustain economically. We thought Italian American cuisine – one we were more intimately familiar with from our childhood – was the right path forward.
When Louie’s Italian American opened its doors, Houston – once again – showed us nothing but love and an overwhelming amount of support. And for that, we are eternally grateful, but I still found myself missing the days of slinging pizzas in the parking lot and being one with my community.
Café Louie was always supposed to be my sister Louie’s concept. I wanted to support her through the café’s opening, and always planned to eventually step away in pursuit of my own dream, which has always been Angie’s. However, we had engaged in a partnership that unfortunately did not pan out.
I am excited to announce that we have successfully dissolved the partnership to become majority stakeholders in our own business and are finally free to pursue the dreams we came back to Houston to fulfill.
This is a long-winded way of saying that we are rebranding once again, hoping third time’s a charm.
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