Updated: July 25 at 11:49 a.m.

Gulf Coast Cafe confirmed to Community Impact Newspaper on July 24 that the restaurant was permanently closed.

Posted July 12 at 3:10 a.m.

Mexican and Cajun cuisines are rarely paired, but to Wanda Garza, owner of Gulf Coast Cafe, they are perfectly compatible.

The fusion of the two cuisines represents Garza and her husband’s heritage—her family is from Northern Mexico, while her husband, Carson Menard, is from Louisiana. Garza said the blending works because the ingredients they use are similar.

For example, Mexican and Cajun cuisines each use sausage, and the cafe’s chicken burger and gumbo are prepared with Menard’s recipe for chicken jalapeno sausage. The fusion also shows in the seasoning: the hamburger includes a blend of Mexican and Cajun spices, and the restaurant offers both Cajun and jalapeno crab cakes.

Garza said her passion for cooking started at an early age. Some of her earliest childhood memories include helping her grandmothers in the kitchen. Menard also brings his grandmother’s influence into the restaurant by using her recipe for crawfish etouffee—a spicy, sauced dish served over rice.

But Garza said she has not always worked in the food business. Although she worked at different restaurants in her teens and 20s, after college she worked in the accounting field in the oil and gas sector until oil and gas prices plummeted and she and Menard lost their jobs.   

“Our friends have always encouraged us to open a restaurant,” Garza said. “When we both lost our jobs, we were like, ‘It’s time to sink or swim.’”

Gulf Coast Cafe opened in December 2016 near the driver’s license office on Spring Cypress Road. As a local who grew up in the area and graduated from Klein Oak High School, Garza said she knew Spring was the best option when deciding where to open her restaurant.

“[Spring] is family oriented, and families don’t have time to cook at home, so they go out to eat or pick something up,” Garza said. “We want people to feel like they are coming into our home and are our guests.”

Gulf Coast Cafe

4740 Spring Cypress Road, Ste. G, Spring
832-953-2197
www.facebook.com/gulfcoastcafe
Hours: Tue.-Thu. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. closed Mon.