Tuesday is a “slow day” for Kenny & Ziggy’s in Houston’s Post Oak. You wouldn’t know it in its packed dining room where the wait for a table was 15 minutes (unless you sat at the bar).
The 27-year-old delicatessen, restaurant and bakery has been at 1743 Post Oak Blvd for fewer than five years. Yet even in its new, larger space, it’s serving more customers than ever before.
A graduate of culinary school in England with experience working in and running restaurants, Ziggy Gruber was no stranger to the culinary world—but Texas was new territory. Kenny Friedman’s father sought him out to bring a New York-style deli to Houston. They opened their namesake restaurant in 1999, combining traditional New York deli food with contemporary cuisine.
In 2022, Gruber and Friedman chose not to renew the lease on their original restaurant at 2327 Post Oak Blvd. because of plans to demolish the building. They moved the deli to a former Luby’s location about half a mile away—bringing that same Big Apple spirit to the new space with walls lined with Broadway playbills and celebrity caricatures.
With more than twice as much seating as the original outpost, along with a full-service bar, onsite bakery and soda fountain, the longtime deli has found a new purpose in its new space.
“The space itself? I like better. The other space was L-shaped, and we carved out a back room from another space, so it was a little broken up and tight. But when we came here, everything was open,” said Gruber, who has been the sole owner since Friedman left four years ago. “It’s almost like a social club, the new restaurant, where everyone knows each other: ‘Oh, there’s Charlie over there. Oh, there’s the mayor.’ Everyone sees everybody.”…