Photograph by Katherine Bish
When locals discuss dining options, the last criterion is often “Let’s go somewhere with white tablecloths, but without all the fuss. You know, a place like Almond’s.” We asked Tony and Kelli Almond how they dominated this “inexpensive-but-elegant” niche for the last 13 years and, more important, why they have so little competition. Their second venture, the aptly named Latitude 26—Where Tex Meets Mex, opened in the former Chuy Arzola’s space in early June. Several weeks prior, SLM asked the dining duo to describe it. We should have guessed the answer: “You know, a place like Almond’s.”
Almond’s seemed successful from the outset. Is that the way it happened? Kelli: It was once Tony started cooking full time. It’s been very steady, very unchanging. We just put in our first flat-screen TV a short time ago.Tony: Yeah, that only took us 13 years. Kelli: But it really made sense the day we realized that both owners need to be here all the time.
Do you bring the restaurant home with you? Tony: When we’re at home, we don’t talk much about the restaurant. Kelli: It’s too easy to get enmeshed in this business; you have to set boundaries. We don’t socialize off-site with our employees, and they don’t stay here and drink. It has to be that way or it’s too consuming. It’s my business and my passion…but it doesn’t have to be my life. Other restaurant people lose that boundary.
I’ve long admired your formula: a small menu that’s reasonably priced. Tony: In the kitchen, it’s me and one other guy. I pay him well, rather than have a kitchen full of $9 [per hour] people working at half-speed. Other kitchens have layers of overhead and salaries. You have to sell $28 entrees all night long to cover yourself.
And not all of them are working. Tony: When a menu is done by two guys, it affects menu prices drastically. My one guy works harder and is more loyal than any guy I’ll ever find at $9 [per hour]. When that guy gets offered $9.50 [per hour], he’s gone, always chasing the next 50 cents, and then you’re training a new guy. I just hire really good people and pay them more money.
It seems the public is always asking about and seeking out places like yours. Why aren’t there more of them? Tony: I don’t know. It’s common sense to me. Kelli: Tony couldn’t charge $25 for chicken… It’s chicken. Tony: I know a guy who was almost proud of the millions he spent on his place. Good luck with that.
How will you personally handle juggling the two places? Tony: Our staff takes control when we’re not there. People say we need a food manager, a beverage manager, a front-of-the-house manager, and somebody to manage all the managers... Kelli: No, we’re the managers, because we’re the owners. Tony: If you hire the right people and pay them well, then you get a manager’s work at less than half a manager’s pay. Ever see a manager that you say, “Man, that manager is worth $40,000 a year?” No, they don’t do shit. They stand around and wait for something to happen so they can react—it’s a waste.
It didn’t concern you that Chuy’s failed after so many years? Tony: There was a misconception that their numbers had dropped. They had not. It did need a facelift; there was disrepair. We saw an opportunity to improve it and, by buying the building, to improve our position.
It’s a different deal when you own the building. Kelli: If we were to sell Almond’s, it would be, “Hey, you wanna buy my chairs? You wanna buy my last name?” I doubt it. Almond’s is us. In the new place, we have something to sell that’s not so much Tony and I. Tony: First, it was a good real-estate investment. I was hoping that before I had to really start doing something with it that somebody would come along and pay me more than I paid for it. Kelli: [smiling] That hasn’t happened yet.
You put on an expensive new storefront, upping your costs. Was that necessary? Tony: By the time we priced retrofitting what was there, we realized it was smarter just to do a new, flat storefront. So it looks like we spent a fortune, but it’ll prove to be a bargain.
Demolition always leads to discoveries. Did you come across anything interesting? Tony: It was an Art Deco building with lots of jet-black, inch-thick Vitrolite [a structural pigmented glass], hidden behind plaster walls. We cut it up and used it around the fireplace. We were thinking of granite until we discovered the Vitrolite. They say it’s good luck to use some of the old when building the new. Plus, it’d be ridiculously expensive to have that stuff fabricated now.
What’s your criticism of local Mexican or Tex-Mex food? Tony: Nobody cooks anymore. People are buying canned beans, canned tomatillo sauce, canned salsa… Check out the line at Restaurant Depot: cans, cans, cans. I’m thinking, “Hey, there’s a huge produce section over there. Why don’t you just make it yourself?” At Almond’s, it took us months to convince people that gumbo doesn’t automatically come from some can.
Tex-Mex, at its core, is basic food. Tony: Right. Its origins are from cooking what was available over campfires: meat, beans, hot peppers, vegetables, limes… There weren’t a lot of fajita seasonings in plastic bottles, and I’d wager not a lot of sour cream.
How will it be different than the myriad of local Mexican places? Tony: There are so many recipes and ways to do Tex-Mex… My philosophy has always been to do what you like and hopefully enough people will agree with you. The 14-year experiment at Almond’s taught me there are a lot of people who like what I like.
Specifically, how is what you like different? Tony: Take fajitas—that meat has to be properly marinated, not just thrown on the grill with dry fajita seasoning. Or the con queso—it’s surprisingly simple but homemade. You won’t see any microwaved, premade blocks from Sysco. To do it the right way takes longer… Call us purists.
Will it have Almond’s price structure? Tony: Same formula. My goal is to never give customers—especially the neighbor—a reason not to come back all the time. We will never own a special-occasion place.
Any pet peeves? Tony: When servers take too long to get to a table. They’ll say it’s only been five minutes. I say, “Right, five minutes of the 45 those guys have for lunch just got wasted on you.”
Any different items, things we might not see anywhere else? Tony: We make our gorditas with mashed potatoes and masa flour; they’re sautéed to order and topped with everything from beans to guac to different meats. We’ll have tacos and burritos made with beef brisket…few places take the time or spend the money to do that.
Will you make your own tortillas? Tony: No, way too labor-intensive. That’s a whole other business. There's a local company that makes excellent tortillas daily and will customize them if need be. We could never do it as well—or as cheaply—as they do it.
Is there any way to make Tex-Mex healthy? Tony: Lay off the chips—I know Kelli and I are good for two baskets wherever we go. We do plan to cook some items in lard, however.
Excuse me? Tony: Lard’s gotten a bad rap. There’s less saturated fat, calories, and cholesterol in lard than in butter. It just sounds worse. Potatoes fried in bacon grease taste a whole lot better than fried in butter. Our charro beans are charred in a little bacon fat, which adds a layer of flavor.
Any secrets to good guacamole? Tony: It lies somewhere between the avocado/kosher salt/squeeze of lime recipe and the 10-ingredient, eyeballs-to-toenails-to-pigtails monstrosities you see out there.
How will you handle the “heat” factor? It’s so subjective. Tony: Heat should be there as a layer of flavor—not blow away the other flavors we worked so hard to put in. For those who insist on more heat, we’ll have a little pepper pot that’s practically straight capsaicin. Then all the disagreements over heat will be at the table, not in the kitchen.
Will you get into trends like “Margatinis”? Kelli: We don’t flow with the fads—too many kinds of liquor to keep up with. Tony: But some trendy drinks don’t require much, like The Sully, named after the pilot who ditched that plane in the Hudson. Two shots of Grey Goose and a splash of water—now we could make that one.
