KATY

Snappy’s new owner hopes to honor restaurant's legacy

By R. Hans Miller, News Editor
Posted 6/8/21

Bobby Katsabas and his wife Effie Katsabas, who started Snappy’s Café & Grill on Highway 90 in downtown Katy nearly 20 years ago are retiring. As they move into retirement, the …

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KATY

Snappy’s new owner hopes to honor restaurant's legacy

Posted

Bobby Katsabas and his wife Effie Katsabas and Effie's brother Alex Tsounakas, who bought Snappy’s Café & Grill on Highway 90 in downtown Katy nearly 20 years ago are retiring. As they move into retirement, the restaurant is being taken over by Anna Liu, an entrepreneur with restaurant experience who says she wants to honor the legacy Bobby and Effie and Tsounakas established for the eatery.

“This place has been around for almost 20 years,” Liu said. “People like this place, so I expected people to not want to have any changes, and I don’t plan on making any changes.”

Liu said she understands that Snappy’s is an institution in the community and that people have come to love it just as Tsounakas and the Katsabases have made it – a hometown café with waitstaff that know their customers by name and service from friends they’ve known for years.

Tsounakas said one of his favorite things about Snappy’s is that running the restaurant has connected him with lifelong friends that he will keep in touch with even as he moves into retirement.

“I’m proud of the community. They’ve stayed behind us with all the disasters we’ve had – the good times and the bad times – and all of the hard work of our employees,” Tsounakas said. “They stuck with us as well through bad times and my gratitude to them is significant.”

Liu said her background as a restaurateur with another restaurant in the Woodlands prepared her for the business side of running Snappy’s, but she was surprised by just how friendly Katy has been. She said she’d expected long-time Snappy’s regulars to be a bit suspicious of her and worried about changes to their beloved home-away-from-home. However, she said she received the exact opposite welcome from what she’d expected.

“I didn’t expect people to welcome me with open arms. I am new to Katy, but the community has shown me a lot of love, and that just motivates me to take care of the community even more,” Liu said.

Liu said she had heard about Snappy’s through friends she had in common with Bobby and Effie. She got the opportunity to meet them and look at the restaurant and decided right away that she was interested in the restaurant, especially after she and Tsounakas and the Katsabases “clicked” as friends. After Liu showed interest in purchasing the restaurant, she said she persuaded the family to retire and let her purchase the business from them.

Bobby said the family agreed to the deal because they believed they had found someone that would take care of the business they’d worked hard to develop and the community of customers who have become a big part of their lives. He was especially concerned that the employees that have become part of their family in many ways be taken care of, he said.

“I’m hoping she carries the same (way we did), you know? Especially with the employees, because that’s the face of Snappy’s,” Bobby said.

Tsounakas agreed with Bobby and emphasized that many of the staff have been with the restaurant for a long time.

“Most of the employees, they came here over 10 years (ago),” Tsounakas said. “Some have been with us over 18 years – and even in the bad times they were around helping us to rebuild this place (after Hurricane Harvey). … And I hope they stay to help Anna succeed as well.”

Liu says that’s exactly what she intends to do. She said she bought the restaurant because it is successful as-is without the need for any changes. With the support Snappy’s has in the community and its tradition of being a hub of long-time Katy residents coming together for meals, she wants to carry on and maintain that support and continue the Snappy's tradition of supporting the community.

Liu said she’s been talking with her boyfriend about bringing a Boys and Girls Club to the Katy area. He runs multiple locations throughout Greater Houston and that’s one way she can give back to a community that has welcomed her with open arms. Additionally, she wants to hold onto the tradition of supporting community sports teams like the Katy Tigers – of which there is a host of memorabilia on Snappy’s walls.

“I’m still learning all the traditions, but I would love to really hold onto this legacy and just, you know, be able to honor everything they've built. … I’m still learning all the dynamics here and what exactly they do. (Snappy’s) seems like it’s just a little diner, but they do so much more than that.”

Bobby says he and Effie will still be around Snappy’s regularly. They live just a few blocks away and are excited about getting to spend more time with their children and grandchildren, he said, but Snappy’s has become as much a home as a job over the years and he expects he’ll be a regular himself in his retirement. He even jokes that he may see if Liu will hire him part-time to keep him busy. Still, he said he and Effie are looking forward to retirement, starting with a vacation to his home country.

“I’ll be here for a month, then I’m going to Greece for another month,” Bobby said.

Tsounakas said he is looking forward to traveling and playing golf during his retirement, though he’ll still stop by Snappy’s regularly for breakfast and coffee on the way to the golf course. He’ll also be traveling to Greece, where all three of the family members are from.

“And I’m going to go back to the old country,” Tsounakas said. “And this time I will stay more than three weeks – maybe a couple of months until I get tired of it and come back.”

Snappy’s will keep the same menu and staff in place, Liu said.

“Everyone’s trying to slip in suggestions that could be beneficial to them,” Liu said. “People are trying to make a lot of suggestions, so it’s interesting, but I don’t want to change what’s not broken. It took years for them to establish this system and I think they’ve been very successful.”

Correction:  Alex Tsounakas co-purchased Snappy's with the Katsabases and was an owner of the restaurant until it was sold to Liu. We apologize for the error. We have conducted a follow-up interview with Tsounakas and his comments have been incorporated throughout.

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