Since junior high school, Fred Sembera has wanted to be in the restaurant business. He opened Pecos Grilling Company in Tomball in 2004, and 12 years later, he said he still aims for better—better food, better service and a better experience.

“From day one until now, it’s changed a lot. To me, it’s gotten a lot better,” Fred said. “A lot of people say, ‘Why reinvent the wheel?’ If you don’t reinvent the wheel, it’s going to be made out of stone. Even if you’re the best, you always try to make it better.”

Pecos is known for its rib-eye steaks, Fred said, but the restaurant and bar has a varied menu with salads, sandwiches, seafood and chicken dishes. It also has daily specials and a gourmet special every Friday and Saturday night.

“[There is] something different every day,” he said. “It’s not like chopped steak every Monday, roast beef every Tuesday. We don’t even know until that day what it’s going to be.”

Pecos prides itself on the quality of its food, Fred said, because it’s all housemade.

“It’s just a hometown [restaurant],” Fred said. “Everything’s made from scratch. We just like the people to tell us if there’s something we can do better. Tell us, and we’ll try.”

Fred’s son, Eric, said the prices are reasonable—$8.99 for a lunch special and $18.99-$28.99 for the weekend dinner specials.

“People need to know it’s really not expensive for how good of quality of food you’re getting,” Eric said.

Pecos Grilling Company offers gourmet specials Fridays and Saturdays ($18.99-$28.99).[/caption]

All meats and cheeses served at the restaurant are grilled over a flame rather than in an oven to give them a smoked flavor, Fred said.

“We go a step or two further than the majority of other restaurants,” he said. “They won’t go for the extra time it takes to do all of this stuff.”

Fred has owned a security company and previously dabbled in the real estate and cattle industries. However, he said he opened Pecos because he enjoys cooking and he likes to talk with people.

“I didn’t have any retail businesses where I could sit down and talk to people, and I wanted something like that,” Fred said. “I made a lot of friends here [at Pecos who] I would not be friends with [otherwise]. When you’re in the restaurant business, people want to know the manager, a certain waiter [or] the owner. They bond with the customers. It’s different from all the other businesses.”

Fred said the opening of the Tomball Tollway in 2015 through the city initially hurt the restaurant’s business. At one time, 75 percent of the restaurant’s guests came from Magnolia. The restaurant’s location was also difficult to access after the recent flooding in the area.

“During the floods, we could tell a lot of our customers [come from Magnolia] because they couldn’t get here,” he said.

However, Fred said Pecos is starting to regain the business lost by the addition of the bypass.

“We’ve been here for 12 years, and hopefully we’re going to be here a lot longer,” he said.

28900 Tomball Parkway, Tomball 281-290-9200 www.pecosgrillingco.com Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m.