Lucky's EaDo is gone. https://houston.culturemap.com/news...lJ24yQgfexUPlShopazEatsHBe-cOdaFl-xq9OW1gTVd4
They're looking for another location. 50/50 at this point. Oddly enough, one of the owners of this place was roommates with my friend who got screwed and was on American Greed.
After Pappa's bought in, they tinkered with the menu. Tried to "upscale it" a bit, at least in Austin. Prices went up and the food didn't improve. Not a good combination. I rarely ate at Luby's anyway, almost always when alone and I was more interested in reading a book than eating. With a bad back, their cushioned booths were appealing and one was close. We were getting take-out from time to time. Luby's losing the iced tea ladies and having the folks cleaning tables and hunting for tips to bring you tea or coffee refills was very irritating. That put an end to actually going there, at least for my significant other. Haven't picked up anything since we started to "shelter in place." Don't have a desire to. The quality of their food has consistently gone down over the last several years. I still remember going to Romana Cafeteria on Buffalo Speedway after it opened. The best cafeteria food (overall) in Houston, as far as I was concerned, except for certain dishes at certain cafeterias. It was a bit more expensive than other places (and looking back, how cheap it really was!), but worth it if you lived in the area, which I did.
I agree with you on the annoyance factor jumping up 11 levels with the Luby’s waitstaff hovering around you looking for tips. Much preferred the iced tea and water ladies with the cart. That has always bothered me since it began...it’s a freaking cafeteria. I carried my own food and my drink to my table. Leave me alone. As far as food quality, my entire life I’ve always had the same order (fried fish, Mac n cheese and green beans) and quality of those items never changed. But the prices did! pre-Covid I still ate there every few months for nostalgia purposes
Same here, although the past year or two, here in Austin, the quality of the fried fish, also my go-to dish, just isn't quite the same. It's bummed me out and is a major reason I almost brought my Luby's run to a complete stop. The macaroni and cheese is still great, though, as are the rolls. Here's a Luby's story. When our oldest was one or two years old, I was spending a lot of time at home looking after her. To relieve the monotony that often came with that, I took her to every Luby's in Austin on a rotating basis. This was well over 25 years ago, when they had good food and the iced tea ladies. The food at the locations was subtly different. So were the tea ladies. The iced tea ladies all came to know us, and absolutely loved my daughter. She was hilarious. She loved spinach! They had great steamed spinach at a couple of the cafeterias and she would grab a handful and just shove it into her mouth. Made a real mess! The tea ladies were astounded. Well, after about a year of doing this rotation about once a week, I met my significant other at a Luby's for lunch, daughter in tow. Two of the ladies rushed over and exclaimed, "she has a mother!" They thought I was a single parent, which I took as a compliment, being very good at what I was doing. My S.O. cracked up. She still tells that story to people that haven't heard it before. Ah, the joys of having the time to be a father at home with his tiny little kid. It took some juggling, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
They were starting to focus on off-premise sales at the end, but the UI on their online menu was ****. Whoever takes over could be successful with focusing more on off-premise/catering.
Dayum everyday more places are doing temp closes due to employees catching the Rona. It’s gonna be tough in these streets in 2 weeks.
