It was the Tuesday before Memorial Day Weekend, and Teresa Wilson’s restaurant was getting busy. The chef and owner of Sala & Betty had not expected the rush and needed a hand—so she called home. Wilson’s husband, Terry, and her 14-year-old son, Matthew, arrived a few minutes later, drying dishes, polishing glasses and doing whatever else needed to be done to help get through the rest of the night. It is not uncommon to see family around the restaurant—Wilson’s daughter, Diana Salazar, is the general manager—and the name of the Airport Boulevard spot exemplifies how important family is to the chef. When she opened in 2015, Wilson named the restaurant after herself—Betty—and her sister Toni—Sala. “Those were our childhood names when we were playing house as kids. Making mud pies for my brothers—we had a lot of fun doing that,” Wilson said. The menu is designed with busy families in mind—but those who do not want to sacrifice quality, either. Wilson ran Aquarelle, a fine dining restaurant downtown on Rio Grande Street for more than a decade between 2000 and 2011. Before that, she worked at Basil’s, an Italian restaurant, for 17 years. She wanted Sala & Betty to offer something different. “What I was trying to do was bring approachable food in the sense of something that’s casual, diner [fare], but using really good ingredients. Kind of like how I want to feed my family, so that was the concept,” she said. “I had done fine dining in the past, and I just wanted to do something that more people could enjoy.” Sala & Betty opened in the former location of the Stallion Grill, and in keeping with the restaurant’s “slow food fast” vibe Wilson decided not to close the drive-thru window. “It kind of spoke to what we wanted to do,” Wilson said. Sala & Betty is open six days a week for lunch and dinner and offers brunch on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m.- 2 p.m.