Wrapped round a stay oak tree simply off Richmond Avenue, Houston’s Hobbit Cafe is likely one of the metropolis’s favourite haunts. The Lord of the Rings–impressed restaurant is a craft beer bar, burger joint, and haven for vegetarians multi functional constructing. This spring, it celebrates a half century of service. However because the Hobbit Cafe reaches fifty, it proves it transcends its theme.
When the restaurant opened in 1972, a couple of blocks away from its present location below the unique title Hobbit Gap Cafe, J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels had been well-liked amongst younger folks and counterculture actions however weren’t the worldwide power they’re at the moment. The primary paperback copies of Lord of the Rings had come out in 1965 (and had been, amazingly, pirated). Leonard Nimoy had recorded the “Ballad of Bilbo Baggins,” however the animated Hobbit movie hadn’t been made but. The Tolkien household didn’t hesitate to provide permission to a small Houston restaurant that needed to place “Hobbit” in its title.
Proprietor and cofounder Raymond Edmonds says he’d learn and loved Tolkien’s novels, however that the Hobbit Gap Cafe was extra impressed by the Shire’s resemblance to the hippie camaraderie of Seventies Austin.
“It was an thrilling time with the countercultural and health-food actions,” Edmonds says. “We had no expertise within the restaurant trade in any respect. We had been finance and accounting majors. We weren’t attempting to [create an Austin-like feel] consciously at first, but it surely turned out that approach as a result of we had been so impressed by Austin.”
The founders—all College of Texas graduates—reworked a two-story 1917 home. They employed an artist to color an elaborate Lord of the Rings–impressed mural on one wall. Over time, the Hobbit Gap added memorabilia: unique paintings and work; posters and different gadgets from the 1977 animated film; and finally nods to the live-action films, together with a life-size cutout of Ian McKellen as Gandalf and a New Zealand flag on the porch.
It could be straightforward to stroll into the restaurant at the moment and assume it’s a novelty enterprise like Rainforest Cafe, however that’s not completely correct. The Hobbit Cafe was main a pattern, not following it—plus, the meals and drinks are ok to face on their very own with out the decor. The unique theme, in reality, was vegetarianism: for the primary decade, there was no meat on the menu. Edmonds and his companions solely relented when rival eating places started including vegetarian choices to their menus.
“We determined to begin providing meat as a substitute for our diners, so vegetarians may carry their meat-eating pals,” he explains, in a pleasant inversion of the same old system. Now, the Hobbit Cafe is greatest identified for hefty burgers with names like “the Balrog,” a monster with two beef patties, two cheese slices, bacon, and avocado, “skewered with an Orc Popper.” The unique sandwiches are nonetheless out there, together with the restaurant’s unique best-seller, the Gandalf, with sautéed mushrooms, jack cheese, and an unlimited quantity of avocado.
Edmonds can recall seemingly each occasion within the Hobbit Cafe’s historical past, from the primary day’s gross sales complete (seventeen {dollars}) to the best way his group developed smoothie recipes by throwing an “all-night smoothie get together.” Each of the restaurant’s areas—it moved in 1998, dropping “Gap” from the title—had been restored previous homes, and each householders returned and had dinners of their previous bedrooms. Edmonds can title an infinite path of celeb friends: ZZ Prime, Governor John Connally, Mama Cass, Neil Younger, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Woody Harrelson, for his fortieth party.
Surrealist pop artist Peter Max visited Houston for an exhibition within the cafe’s early days. As a vegan, he didn’t have many eating places to select from. A neighborhood newspaper snapped images of Max eating on the Hobbit Gap, and that’s when issues started to alter. “Earlier than that it was Volkswagens and bicycles within the car parking zone,” Edmonds says. “And after that it was Mercedes, Volkswagens, and bicycles.”
Seemingly everybody who has lived in Houston for any period of time has a narrative or two concerning the Hobbit Cafe. Paul Gruber and Jen Schmidt might take prime prize for together with the restaurant of their marriage ceremony plans. The couple met in Ohio, however when Schmidt, a Houston native, instructed Gruber there was a Lord of the Rings–themed vegetarian restaurant in her hometown, he demanded to go as quickly as potential.
“The primary time, Jen couldn’t get me to take a seat down and eat,” he remembers. “I used to be like, ‘I need to go go searching.’ ”
Gruber and Schmidt settled in Houston after faculty and have become regulars. Once they obtained married in 2017, that they had their rehearsal dinner on the Hobbit Cafe’s patio.
“We simply needed a spot to hang around with our greatest pals,” Schmidt says. “Nearly everybody was coming in from out of city and we needed them to only be capable of chill out. And all these different locations had been like, ‘We’ll have a catered menu!’ We simply needed a spot that felt like our relationship.”
Gruber agrees: “That is going to be tremendous corny, but it surely actually did really feel prefer it was the dwarven dinner from The Hobbit.”
On condition that the Hobbit Cafe is a first-date mecca, this isn’t the restaurant’s solely romance story. “There are such a lot of little Hobbit love tales,” says John Edmonds, the overall supervisor and Raymond’s son. “Individuals come again for his or her anniversaries. I’ve individuals who labored collectively who’re married now. It’s a particular place, man.”
John, who began on the smoothie station at age 13, has begun making delicate adjustments across the restaurant. He’s given most of the dishes and drinks Tolkien-themed names—beforehand solely the unique sandwiches had them—however the more-surprising change is his growth of the cafe’s mead program, which he hopes will quickly be North America’s largest. He sees mead as a rising area; the drink is gluten-free, and John says clients have come from out of city for the Hobbit Cafe’s choice.
“I’m not attempting to stay to only a theme restaurant,” John says. “I need folks to know that our meals is legit too.”
And it’s. Gruber recommends the Dwalin, a curried rooster salad sandwich, however Schmidt suggests the Thorin Oakenshield—a sandwich of tabbouleh, mushrooms, and cheese—and giving it the “Hobbiton improve,” which provides a hyperlink of smoked boudin and jalapeños. “It’s like Texas creole and hippie-dippie had a child,” she says.
In the course of the first full weekend of Might, the Hobbit Cafe will placed on three days of occasions to rejoice its fiftieth birthday, together with mead tastings and stay music. It’s been a Houston landmark for 5 a long time, however the restaurant remains to be drawing in newcomers. After I visited in February, two girls, each first-timers, learn over the menu and selected a novel approach of ordering meals. “Oh,” one in all them mentioned, “have they got something for Legolas?”
Schmidt has seen loads of clients order that approach. “Final time I used to be there, there was a dude actually wanting characters up on his telephone,” she says. “Two birds, one stone: making new nerds and having fun with good meals.”
