With Chuy's in the news recently for being bought by Darden Restaurants (in process, at least) I wanted to discuss their now-defunct 9350 Westheimer Road location. The earliest reference I can find is Pier 1 Imports buying the tract back in 1989 (though it's likely the address got transposed and was never recorded); but either way Louisiana-based seafood restaurant Ralph & Kacoo's opened in February 1991. The restaurant stayed open around until the end of 1996, even as the Riverboat Gamblers played jazz every Sunday at the restaurant.
The next restaurant, Water Street Seafood Co. opened in August 1997, a joint venture between Water Street Seafood of Corpus Christi and Luby's Cafeterias, Inc. of San Antonio. In less than a year it closed and was replaced by "El Mirage", a Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant. Between November 2001 and March 2002, El Mirage closed and The Sands opened, a Mediterranean buffet restaurant. The Sands operated at least through to the end of 2004. A reference to "Royal Super Buffet" appears in 2007 while Chuy's opened in the summer of 2009.
I remember the Chuy's was incredibly popular, I remember going to eat there with my cousins in the first month or so and had lines out the door. We ended up eating at a different Tex-Mex restaurant (somewhere beyond Woodlake, though I do remember large cut-out of recently-elected President Barack Obama in the restaurant).
Chuy's continued to operate for over a decade, outlasting every other restaurant that appeared before it; however it quietly closed in fall of 2022 without replacement. (This post is an expanded and updated version of the Westheimer Road page).
