Min Win's restaurant, Cafe T.H.

is a cozy little place near Houston's downtown, the kind of place that has regulars.

I mean real regulars.

Min names things on the menu for them.

There's J.D.'s Paleo Squamichelli, the Matt Vacado Bonn Me.

Just to pay a homage for certain individuals that have helped me tangibly and tangibly, you know,

and I have continuous friendships with a lot of them, and that's why they're on the menu.

Houston Press calls him the warmest, most affable front-of-house guy in town.

But of course, once you start naming things after your customers, there's a bit of pressure

to keep it up.

I mean, it's been a while since I've updated the menu, but even now, we were like, why?

You know, I come in and why haven't you put me on the menu?

Still, it's good to have that kind of devotion when the pandemic comes to town, which in

Houston happened in late March. All restaurants closed for dine-in service. And Min got through

it. He got PPP, and he did takeout. He didn't open his shop for diners again until June, well after he was allowed to, because he wanted to be cautious.

One week of diners.

And then you shut it down again.

And then I shut it down.

One week.

That was Min's reopening between the national shutdown and Houston's emergence as one of the

new epicenters of COVID-19. Now he's trying to adjust his model, starting with food for delivery,

which he's dropping off himself. And he's having a little bit of deja vu right now.

...