Tina Knowles Stops by Bun B’s Trill Burgers During Houston Rodeo Visit

A celebrated chef closes a chapter at an iconic Houston restaurant — and more intel

Tina Knowles, affectionately known as “Ms. Tina,” stopped by Trill Burgers this week during a visit to the Houston Rodeo, whose season formally ends Sunday, March 17. The mother of native Houstonians and celebrated musicians Beyoncé and Solange described the rapper and restaurateur’s lauded smash burger as “the best” she’d ever had while donning a cowboy hat emblazoned with the Texas lone star. She joins a host of well-known friends of Bun B’s who regularly frequent the burger shop, including Drake, who recently joined the lineup of Bun B’s All-American Takeover.

Lauded Austin bar Nickel City opens in Houston

Highly anticipated bar Nickel City opened its doors in Houston’s East End this week. Owner Travis Tober brought the bar’s revered, unpretentious atmosphere to the Bayou City, alongside the highballs, bar snacks, and meals that turned Nickel City into one of Austin’s most essential bars after its opening in 2017. For today’s grand opening event in Houston, the bar will offer 99 cent Jim Beam highballs and Delray sliders (from Nickel City’s Delray Cafe food truck), alongside an exhaustive menu inclusive of painstakingly-crafted cocktails, frozen drinks, and wings.

Courtesy of Nickel City Bar

Longtime chef Alex Padilla departs Ninfa’s on Navigation

After nearly two decades of leading culinary operations at the Original Ninfa’s on Navigation, which popularized fajitas in Houston and across the United States, executive chef Alex Padilla announced plans to step down and pursue other opportunities. “As I’m getting older, I’m looking to slow down and refocus on the things that made me want to be a chef in the first place — like travel and cultural inspiration,” Padilla in a press statement.

Padilla knew the storied restaurant’s founder, Mama Ninfa Laurenzo, as a child. He was the only professionally trained executive chef leading both kitchens in the original Navigation Boulevard location, as well as the location in Uptown Houston.

In a release, Ninfa’s leadership team applauded the chef’s contributions to the organization. “Alex has been with us since the beginning of our effort to build something great on the base of this amazing little place on Navigation Boulevard that Mama Ninfa left behind,” Legacy Restaurants managing partner Neil Morgan said in the statement. “He’s done an outstanding job, and I will always be grateful.”