It is not unusual for longtime restaurant industry professional Ronnie Curnan to put in 70 hours of work each week since he and his wife, Amanda, opened RC’s Tex-Mex Kitchen in late April 2017. Curnan can be found either greeting customers out front or cooking up orders in the kitchen. Tucked into the corner of a commercial retail center on Eldridge Road in Sugar Land, RC’s serves a blend of authentic Mexican street tacos and familiar Tex-Mex favorites, offering dishes made from fresh ingredients. “The thing I sell the most is fajitas—beef fajitas to be specific,” Curnan said. “[Also], breakfast tacos are always a big seller, and this community loves enchiladas.” The menu items are made primarily from scratch, and Curnan insists on frying his own chips, he said. A big influence in the dishes comes from Curnan’s 23 years working for the Pappas restaurant franchise and from visiting Nuevo Progreso, a small Mexican town on the U.S.-Mexican border. “There’s a little restaurant we like to go to, and they had the best street tacos ever,” Curnan said. “I’ve never really had anything like that at any restaurant here in Sugar Land, and I knew they’d be a hit.” Curnan begins his work day half an hour before opening RC’s at 8 a.m. attending to the breakfast crowd, some of whom are regular customers. “There’s one guy [who] sits in that chair every morning, Tuesday through Saturday, at 8:30,” Curnan said, referring to a table near the window. “He sits there every single morning and orders the same thing.” Many of Curnan’s customers come from talking with family, friends and neighbors who previously dined at RC’s, and even without the reliance on formal marketing campaigns, the high-quality food draws support from local residents, he said. By Curnan’s estimation, the restaurant sells 180-220 plates each day. “No matter what, no matter how hard you are to find, no matter how small you are, people will gravitate toward good food,” Curnan said. “The slogan that I initially came up with—that I still have here to this day—is: fresh, local and appetite-driven.”  

RC’s Tex-Mex Kitchen

939 Eldridge Road, Sugar Land 832-532-7378 www.rcstexmex.com Hours: Tue.-Sat. 8 a.m.-8 p.m., closed Sundays and Mondays