These Pandemic ‘Pivot’ Foods Are Still Being Made Today
The pouched cocktails at Tacos A Go Go are still going strong after the pandemic.
Image: Courtesy Tacos A Go Go
Few words were used more in the early COVID-19 days than “pivot.” As the pandemic crept through the country and upended our lives, business owners had to adapt to a changing landscape. The hospitality industry was uniquely affected, with restaurants shutting down and plans for new ones put on hold indefinitely. Out of the chaos, ingenuity flourished. Many Houston chefs and food professionals rushed to make packaged goods, which became lifelines that supported them all the way through to the other side of the health crisis. Most of these pivot foods are long gone, but, luckily for us, a handful were so successful that they are still being made today. Here are some of our favorites.
Booze
To-go cocktails, made possible by Texas relaxing its alcohol takeout laws to help businesses weather the pandemic, became a necessity for many restaurants during quarantine. Those cute plastic pouches are still being sold today, such as Tacos A Go Go’s 16-ounce margaritas and palomas. “The popularity has stayed strong even after the pandemic,” says owner Sharon Haynes. The local chain also sells cocktails by the half-gallon, and, if you’re feeding a crowd, Molina’s Cantina is still offering its margaritas by the gallon.
Chef Evelyn Garcia has continued her food line, Kin, even after the success of her new restaurant, Jūn.
Image: Amy Kinkead
Southeast Asian snacks
Now acclaimed for her new Heights restaurant Jūn and making it to the Top Chef finals, Evelyn Garcia had to navigate the pandemic first. When the Politan Row food hall, home to her Kin counter, closed, Garcia and business partner Henry Lu decided to create Kin HTX, a line of Southeast Asian condiments and other food products. Sauces like five spice BBQ, sweet chile, soy and sour, and garlic chile oil are Kin HTX’s signature items, rounded out by snacks like spiced peanuts and several spice rubs. Find them at Jūn, Henderson & Kane, and farmers markets like Urban Harvest.
The most special item of Craft Pita is its extra-virgin olive oil, which is made from olives grown on Rafael Nas's family’s farm in the Koura region of Lebanon.
Image: Courtesy Rebekah Flores
Mediterranean condiments
While Craft Pita was already well set up for takeout, chef and owner Rafael Nasr went a step further during the pandemic by offering more packaged goods to his customers. The most special item is Craft Pita’s extra-virgin olive oil, which is made from olives grown on his family’s farm in the Koura region of Lebanon. Craft Pita also still sells spices like a za’atar blend and falafel and shawarma seasonings, a hot sauce, and a pomegranate vinaigrette, all available at the two restaurant locations and for nationwide shipping online.
Houston restaurants Bludorn and Lucille's both make hot sauces you can buy retail.
Hot sauces
Naturally for Houston, locally made hot sauce was perhaps one of the most popular “pivot foods.” Bludorn still makes its Eight Zero Seven Taft Houston hot sauce, named after the restaurant’s address in Fourth Ward. Fermented for one month in the Bludorn kitchen, the condiment is made with ingredients sourced locally, including Carolina reaper and habanero peppers and dried mango. Lucille’s 1913, the nonprofit arm of Chris Williams’s restaurant Lucille’s, began a fermentation lab during the pandemic to make nonperishable pantry staples, including a habanero-based hot sauce that’s now sold at Williams’s new Rado Market in the Eldorado Ballroom.
Chef Victoria Elizondo makes salsas, totopos, and more under the Cochinita & Co. retail line.
Image: Amy Kinkead
Mexican staples
Before Victoria Elizondo opened her Cochinita & Co. brick-and-mortar in the East End―the one that would make her a 2023 James Beard semifinalist―she had a stall at Politan Row and a catering company whose business suddenly evaporated at the beginning of the pandemic. The resourceful chef kick-started a line of packaged products under the Cochinita brand, including tostaditas, totopos, tamales, Trail-Mex, salsa machis, and red habanero and green jalapeño salsas. “We were actually delivering them to people’s homes at some point,” she says. Today, you can find them at farmers markets around town, in stores like Henderson & Kane and the Asch Building, and on-site at Cochinita on Lawndale. They’re also available for nationwide shipping through the online store.
