Houston's Haunted Tables

Old restaurants are haunted the way old houses are — they've fed too many people, in buildings that were something else first, to stay entirely empty when the lights go down. This tasteful drive links a handful of Houston's most storied tables, leading with the real history of each building and, where it lives, the ghost lore diners have traded for years. You'll pass a 1929 mansion that survived a hurricane-night fire, a downtown institution born in a 30-seat café, and a grand 1912 warehouse that housed a beloved restaurant for decades before flooding closed it. Some of these places are still serving; some are gone or changed, and we'll say so plainly rather than pretend otherwise. Come hungry if you like — several stops are working restaurants — but come mostly curious about the buildings and the people who filled them.