On tonight’s episode of Restaurant Inpossible, Robert Irvine and his makeover team are in Houston, Texas to save Mexican restaurant Habanera and the Guero from total collapse.
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Owned by partners Ben Downing and Vanessa Lomeli, Habanera and the Guero started out life as Habanera and the Gringo, but in 2016, the pair were forced to change their original name after a local restaurant (Gringo’s Mexican Kitchen) slapped them with a trademark infringement lawsuit for their use of the name “Gringo.”
Ben is veteran of the United States Army and served in Iraq, while Vanessa attended culinary school, and worked in one of Houston’s top restaurants, gaining valuable experience.
According to the episode synopsis, Habanera and the Guero is buried in debt and on the verge of closing its doors. With infighting destroying the business, and a 3-year-old daughter stuck in the middle, Robert will have to convince the owner, Ben, to step back from the obsessive control of his partner and chef, Vanessa, and concentrate on the rest of the restaurant, or Ben will lose both his business and his family.
A Closer Look
- Here’s the Habanera and the Guero Facebook page, website, Instagram and Twitter page.
- Back in 2016, Gringo’s Mexican Kitchen filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Vanessa Lomeli and Ben Downing over the original name of their restaurant: Habanera and the Gringo.
- In 2016, the Habanera and the Guero made the Houston Chronicle’s Top 100 Restaurants List.
- You can check out post-makeover reviews of Habanera and the Guero via Google Reviews, Yelp, and Facebook.
Episode Sneak Peek
Who is tuning in tomorrow night for the All new episode of #RestaurantImpossible? 9p ET on @foodnetwork. pic.twitter.com/LEKAFfkgWC
— Robert Irvine (@RobertIrvine) May 20, 2020
Google Street View of Habanera and the Guero
Image – Google/Screengrab