Restaurants / Openings

New Coffee Bar Brings Authentic Greek Food and European Brews to Kirby

Anonymous Cafe is Already Starting to Develop a Name in Houston's Foodie World

BY // 09.20.19

A newly rebooted Sugar Land coffee bar and cafe is giving Greek eats and specialty European coffee a good name — and, at the same time, no name at all — in Houston.

Anonymous Cafe, dreamed up by husband-and-wife duo Patricia and Tasos Pantazopoulos, left the suburbs behind and reopened on the corner of Kirby and Richmond in the heart of Houston. It brings cappuccinos and lattes galore, along with authentic Greek dishes, to 3701 Kirby.

The mom-and-pop production earned a Buzzfeed nod back in 2017 as “The Best Bakery in Texas” for Patricia’s signature Ekmek Kataifi. The delicately layered dessert is a blend of shredded phyllo dough, vanilla custard, toasted almonds and whipped cream. But it’s not the only head-turner.

Despite those kudos, Anonymous Cafe has largely flown under the radar, aside from a loyal cult following out in Sugar Land. Those devoted regulars are now still going to the recently opened new locale, and people in the area are starting to take notice, too.

“People, especially from the neighborhoods around us, are slowing starting to find out about us,” Patricia says.

The couple first opened Anonymous Cafe in 2016. They’d been kicking the idea around for awhile, but in all that time, they just couldn’t find common ground when it came to a meaningful moniker.

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“We were finally getting ready to open, and he said ‘Let’s just not give it a name, let’s just call it Anonymous,’ ” Patricia laughs.

The name does smell just as sweet, thanks to the freshly baked scratch-made desserts, like the traditional baklava, French mille-feuilles an array of tarts and even passion fruit mousse with hazelnut.

The desserts are the perfect pairings with the cafe’s imported European coffee.

“Illy is one of the top coffee roasters in Italy. It brings another type of coffee to the community, to the area. The fact that we’re from Greece and European, we just thought we’d bring that small touch to the city to make us a little bit different,” Patricia notes.

But Anonymous Cafe goes beyond caffeine and cookies, even if its first customers were drawn in by the promise of a cappuccino and a study break.

“They come in and hang with us for a several hours, starting off with a coffee. And then they get something to eat after that,” Patricia says. They just can’t stop themselves.

And why should they, with Greek lasagna, spanakopita, pita wraps and the Daily Special on tap? The special’s always a surprise, but you can count on it to be satisfying. The moussaka, or eggplant lasagna, is a customer favorite.

Greek Wine Delights

The couple’s launching a beer and wine menu soon, with plans for a curated list with roughly 80 percent Greek wines, plus maybe a Californian bottle thrown in here and there.

Details are TBD, but some nights Anonymous Cafe will stay open a little later and introduce meat and cheese plates, plus some Greek tapas such as octopus dishes.

“It’s stuff for people to nibble on and hang out,” Patricia says.

That’s how she envisions Anonymous Cafe: a place where you feel like you’re at a friend or family member’s house, taking in a really good home-cooked meal. “A spot for people, a neighborhood hangout,” she says.

Patricia tackles food outside Anonymous Cafe as well, hosting a Greek cooking show currently airing in Europe titled Go Greek with Patricia Vasos. It’s not the kind of show where ingredients are measured out by the teaspoon or cup — it’s Greek food in different Greek towns.

But if you really want a taste of Greece, you don’t need to go any farther than Anonymous Cafe.

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