Lung Ly woke up on January 21 to a couple of missed calls from his alarm company. In a panic, he looked at the cameras of his Montrose restaurant, 93 'Til, and spotted something no owner wants to see: two intruders dressed in hoodies and face coverings. So, while everyone else was enjoying the rare winter snow and sledding at Hermann Park, Ly was cleaning up shards of glass.

“It was disappointing, because I wanted to make snow angels,” Ly says. “They kind of just took the joy of it.”

In Houston, it’s a story that many restaurant owners are all too familiar with. Although it may seem like there’s been an uptick in restaurant break-ins from the looks of your social media feed, the incidents have decreased slightly over the past couple years. According to the Houston Police Department, there were a total of 937 restaurant burglaries in 2022, 816 in 2023, and as of September 2024, there were 678 burglaries last year.

The decrease is no less of a pain for restaurant owners who are affected. Sandy Nguyen, cofounder of Sunday Press in the Heights, was looking forward to taking her kids to school on their first day back after winter break, but that all came to a halt when she got a call from one of the restaurant’s drivers, who notified her of a break-in.

Naturally, she rushed over there. After assessing the damage, which was minimal and contained to the restaurant’s side door, she realized the perpetrator went straight for the safe, taking roughly $1,000 in cash, employees’ checks, and the business’s checkbook.

“I mean literally, [they] were out in maybe under two minutes,” Nguyen says. “It was so quick.”

This wasn’t Sunday Press’s first go around. In early 2024, the restaurant was the target of another break-in, which was worse than the recent one. Someone used a sledgehammer to break all the cash registers, leaving behind about $4,000 in damages.

“It’s unfortunate,” Nguyen says. “We’ve been in business for quite some time, so we feel that it’s part of the pains of owning any type of business. You run that risk.”

As a precaution, Nguyen actually instructs her staff to leave the cash registers open when the restaurant is closed, because they are often more valuable than the actual money left inside. At 93 'Til in January, the intruders used a crowbar to break in through the restaurant’s dining room windows. After scoping out the place, they broke into the cash register and stole a few hundred dollars, but the material damage cost Ly more than what they walked away with.

“It’s more of a hassle than anything,” Ly says. “They normally don’t take a whole lot of stuff. It’s just the aftermath we have to deal with.”

The owners of FegesBBQ have also been victims of burglary at their Spring Branch location. Erin Smith, co-owner of the restaurant, says she and her husband, Patrick, have both been in the industry long enough to know that every business is at risk throughout Houston, regardless of the neighborhood. Like at Sunday Press, the perpetrator at Feges BBQ went for the safe. Smith assumes this is because they were looking for quick cash.

“What’s frustrating for us, and probably anybody that this happens to, is when you break glass or break the door, all of the repairs and maintenance that have to be done to replace those windows and replace those broken items is significantly more expensive and higher value than the contents of what is in the safe,” Smith says.

The price for repairs at Feges BBQ totaled about $7,000. This included the replacement of the glass and the cost to replace the custom-built front door. Smith jokes that had they known they’d be a target, they would’ve just left an envelope outside with some money in it.

Cash isn’t the only thing burglars are after. When KP’s Kitchen was broken into in August 2024, the intruder busted through the window and front door, and went for the liquor. “They stole the cheap stuff,” says owner Kerry Pauly.

Pauly says the expenses for fixing his restaurant weren’t nearly as steep as for other places that have been broken into. The glass company he used gave him reasonable pricing and spoke to him about the different types of glass he could purchase for the restaurant, which is something Pauly thinks every restaurant owner should know.

There are two different types of glass they can get: tempered and laminate. The latter is better, as it has an extra layer of plastic, creating a barrier that makes it almost impossible to get through. If a burglar were to try to strike again, Pauly says they’d have to take the entire door down to get through. Now he tries to educate people on the types of glass and has helped other victims get in touch with the company he used.

One piece of advice Nguyen wants to give other business owners: File a police report. Even though it might not lead to charges or a solid answer, she says it still allows the city to know if a certain area is being targeted more than others.

Restaurant owners are also contemplating how to minimize being targeted. Nguyen says they’re considering going cashless at Sunday Press, a strategy many operators have used to deter break-ins. At Feges BBQ, Smith says they already have a good alarm system and the Spring Branch location is heavily patrolled by a security team. At the end of the day, despite measures taken, she warns it can still happen to anyone.

If anything, they can always count on Houston diners’ support. Smith, Nguyen, Pauly, and Ly all used social media to spread awareness of what happened. Nguyen says the announcement of her most recent break-in got more than 800 likes. And with each post, the community made sure to show their love for the restaurants.

“So many people came in that we hadn’t seen before,” Nguyen says. “It was kind of like a fresh start for us that entire week, really, to be able to gain new loyal customers.”