Houston's Café Corridor out West

Eldrige Parkway is teeming with cafes; This tree-lined and landscaped West Houston boulevard might as well be called café row; and there are more of them yet on other streets in the neighborhood, like Memorial Drive and Dairy Ashford. But what is a café?  It's not the Central European variety, for that would limit the qualifying establishments pretty much to bakeries with coffee service, pastelerias, and Starbucks locations (with the notable exception of Bean's Cafe, which found it necessary to add "Coffee House" to its name without feeling redundant). 

Much rather, local cafés are full-fledged eateries - albeit small - offering a whole meal, not just a sweet snack with a cup of coffee to sip while people-watching or newspaper-reading; or catching up on the latest gossip with a friend. So, European visitors: Be not confused. If you are looking for the Viennese version of a cafe for a kaffeeklatsch, go to a Starbucks. That will be the closest approximation. For the appellation café here, even if part of an establishment's name that evokes the landscape, culture, language or food of another country or region -- such as France, Italy, or the Mediterranean -- is pretty much a synonym for a small restaurant; Some with table service, some not. Some with patio -- even street-side tables and chairs -- but not necessarily. Here is a selection of Energy Corridor cafés, some with location shown on the map:   

Cafe Express with patio seating in the parking lot, so to speak

Italian Cafe and Pizzeria

Petite Cafe on Eldridge (Middle Eastern/Lebanese cuisine)

Beans Cafe, which actually labels itself a Coffee House

Kim Son Vietnamese Cafe at Parkway Village Plaza on Eldridge near Crescent Circle

Bean's Cafe on Eldridge just South of Intersection with Enclave Pkwy in retail center

Cafe Taipei on Eldridge Parkway near Forkland
North of Briar Forest

Vietnamese Cafe - Kim Son Cafe

Pastelitos Cafe (with Venezuelian touch)

Cafe Benedicte on Memorial Drive

  

Benny's Mexican Cafe at The Commons retail center on Eldridge Parkway just North of Westheimer has gone out of business. The space was posted for re-leasing as of November 2012.