Ninfa's

The Original Ninfa's on Navigation is a popular Mexican restaurant located at 2704 Navigation Boulevard in Houston, Texas. The restaurant serves both Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine. The Original Ninfa's was started by Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, a Mexican-American woman, in a tortilla factory. Ninfa Laurenzo became a full-time restaurateur and the tortilla factory closed. Mama Ninfa is widely credited with popularizing the fajita among Houstonians.

Dai Huynh of the Houston Chronicle said that the Ninfa's locations opened after the first two restaurants "failed to attract the following of earlier restaurants." Tom Laurenzo said that the Laurenzo family never became very wealthy while it controlled the Ninfa's restaurants. He said "Everything was put back into the business." When the Laurenzo family controlled the restaurant chain, it was managed by Ninfa's Inc., which became a subsidiary of the Laurenzo-controlled holding company RioStar Corp.

In 1973, Ninfa Laurenzo, a widow with five children, established Ninfa's, then a taco stand, as a side business due to financial troubles with her original core business, a tortilla factory. Laurenzo's factory was losing money, and she needed to update her equipment in order to comply with new regulations. When Laurenzo decided to establish a restaurant, she applied for loans at several banks. The banks turned her down, so a friend in Mexico City loaned her several thousand dollars. Laurenzo divided the factory facility in half. The back of the factory continued to act as a tortilla factory, while the front had ten tables and 40 chairs. Laurenzo used discarded second hand furniture and pots and pans from her kitchen in the restaurant. The Ninfa's restaurant opened in July of that year. The cuisine at Ninfa's differed from the cuisine of Tex Mex restaurants at the time. The restaurant almost closed after a fire struck one week after its initial opening. Dai Huynh of the Houston Chronicle said "Word quickly spread about the East End restaurant with good, cheap food and an outgoing Mexican Mama who greeted diners with open arms."

Laurenzo tripled the space of the original Ninfa's and closed the tortilla-making operations. The restaurant became a family-owned corporation. Around 1976 the restaurant was becoming popular among many groups of people, including employees in Downtown Houston, area politicians, and other groups. Ninfa's became so popular that, in 1975, she opened a second location on Westheimer Road, one that was larger than the original. In 1977 Richard West of the Texas Monthly said "no other Texas restaurant dictates the dining-out habits of so many of its city's inhabitants" and that the restaurant is "a favorite topic of conversation among Mexican food fanciers not just in Houston but all over the state."

Around June 1977 the original Ninfa's on Navigation averaged 400 customers daily for lunch and 700 daily for dinner. During the same time the Ninfa's on Westheimer averaged 600 customers daily for lunch and 1,000 daily for dinner. The averages remained constant for all seven days of the week. In 1978 the restaurant chain had 500 employees, including 60 workers in the kitchens. Among the employees were members of Laurenzo's family. Laurenzo's five children, including four sons and one daughter, managed aspects of the Ninfa's business. Phyllis Mandola worked as the manager of the catering division. Jack Laurenzo, one son, and Ninfa Laurenzo held weekly cooking classes. Pilar Di Meo, Laurenzo's twin sister, worked in the restaurant's main office. Di Meo's son, Steve, worked as a personnel manager.

Workers and municipal employees who had discovered restaurant chain took family members there. Throughout the restaurant's history, many celebrities, including Aerosmith, George H. W. Bush, George Benson, Dyan Cannon, Michael Douglas, Crystal Gayle, Rock Hudson, Reba McEntire, John Travolta, Ben Vereen, and ZZ Top ate at Ninfa's. Travolta had a private corner at the Westheimer Ninfa's location while he filmed Urban Cowboy, and while flying in his private aircraft he often stopped in Houston to pick up Ninfa's food. Bill Schadewald of the Houston Business Journal said that eating at Ninfa's became an integral routine of tourists in the Houston area.

In 1980 Ninfa's had seven restaurants. Roland Laurenzo, the head of Ninfa's parent company, decided to expand the number of locations. In 1980 and 1981 Ninfa's opened four restaurants in Dallas. In 1981 the chain grossed $30 million. In 1982 the chain had 13 restaurants. Because of problems with the business, Ninfa's ultimately had to close three of the four new Dallas locations. At later points in the 1980s Ninfa's closed another Dallas location and a San Antonio location. Greg Hassel of the Houston Chronicle said that expanding Ninfa's "has not always been easy."

In the early 1980s there were nine Ninfa's. The profits from the original two restaurants were used to open the other seven. By 1983 Ninfa's became the largest Hispanic-owned business in Houston. In 1987 there were nine Ninfa's locations in Greater Houston. In September 1987 the chain celebrated its tenth anniversary of the Westheimer restaurant, with a weeklong schedule of festivities.