Houston’s original Pappasito’s is closing — Sito’s #1 after 43 years

Houston life · September 9, 2026

Sito’s #1 — Richmond at Hillcroft, the first Pappasito’s. Opened 1983. Last meal Sunday, September 13, 2026.

Sunday night, the original Pappasito’s Cantina at Richmond and Hillcroft serves its last fajitas. Staff and regulars call it Sito’s #1. It opened in 1983. I have been walking through that door for almost 30 years.

That is not a restaurant I recommend from a list. That is my place. I already wrote the longer family story — the brands, and a pile of photos from my own tables — on my Pappas Restaurants page. This one is the original patio. And that patio is closing.

What Pappas said

Christina Pappas, the company’s chief marketing officer, confirmed it to KHOU and the Houston Chronicle. Last meal is Sunday, September 13, at 6445 Richmond Avenue. The decision, she said, came down to the long-term outlook for that location — not a sudden closing, not a lease they lost.

Pappas owns the property. Plans for the site are still being evaluated. No final decision has been announced. Every employee at Sito’s #1 has been offered a job at another Pappas restaurant.

“When Harris, Chris, and Greg Pappas first opened this location, it quickly became a favorite, known for sizzling fajitas, flowing margaritas, and the lively atmosphere that came to define Pappasitos,” she said. “From Sito’s #1 grew a legacy that now includes more than 20 Pappasitos locations.”

The rest of the Houston lineup stays open — including Little Pappasito’s on Richmond near Kirby, and the Memorial City location. Nobody is shutting Tex-Mex down in this town. They are shutting the first one.

Almost 30 years on that patio

I found Pappasito’s the way a lot of Houstonians did: somebody took me, the skillet hit the table, and I never really looked for another Tex-Mex flagship after that. Clients, friends, family — if you have spent any time around me, you have probably been to one. The original is the one I measure the others against.

The patio was always the priority. At Sito’s #1 we tried for the same little private one — small, a little tucked away, and the reason I kept coming back.

Marjon and I lived right around the corner for years. We were in there multiple times a week, almost always on that patio. I have boxes of pictures from it — birthdays, ordinary Tuesdays, her mother at the table, friends who became regulars the same way we did. The shots below are the full circle: the two of us, years ago; Marjon and her mother on that same patio; and Marjon and Nasim there this year.

From my own visits — the skillet, the frozen margarita, a combo plate done right. Photos: Eddie Weir. More of these live on the Pappas page.

The corner, not just the menu

Richmond at Hillcroft is not a cute Main Street. It is a working Houston corner west of the Galleria — traffic, parking lot, the kind of building you have driven past a thousand times without thinking about who owns it. Pappas does. That is the part that matters if you read closings the way I do.

A restaurant that leases can get squeezed by a landlord. A restaurant that owns the dirt and still decides the long-term outlook is not there is telling you something about the site, not about the brand. They have not said what comes next. I am not going to invent a mixed-use story or a teardown. We will know when they know.

For people who live and buy around that stretch — Westchase, the Galleria side, the Hillcroft corridor — it is one less landmark that has been in the same place since before a lot of the nearby housing was. The fajitas will still be on the menu at the other Pappasito’s. That little patio will not.

What I am doing

I am going once more before Sunday. I do not need a special occasion. That was never the point of that restaurant.

If you have a Sito’s #1 story, Pappas asked people to send it through pappasitos.com. I have about 30 years of them.