Canaviburg - East of Downtown Houston (AKA "Eado")

Canal Street, Navigation, and Harrisburg. And the surrounding area. Now known as Eado as in "east of downtown". But my preference, dating back many years is to call this area Canaviburg. Historically, a Hispanic area of town, centered around several Catholic churches including one of the oldest and most known, Our Lady of Guadalupe, on Navigation, close to Ninfa's original Mexican restaurant.

Over the years, I have explored this area, and tried various restaurants.

Harrisburg has several tortillerias, including Super Lopez. When you eat your chips at Pappasito's and many other places around town, know that they probably came from Super Lopez. Super Lopez also makes the special masa blend for Fiesta Loma Linda on Telephone Road that results in their famous puffy and crispy tacos, the tacos I love more than any others in Houston, and a restaurant that I champion any chance I get.

Here follow photos from trips to the Canaviburg area. On one trip, they were stripping away the side wall of a building for new construction, revealing a Bright and Early Coffee mural. Bright and Early, along with Maryland Club, were two local coffees made here in Houston in the 30's and 40's. The wall is now gone. And I am glad that I was able to capture a photo before it got destroyed.

Harrisburg is also the street for many of the bus terminals that go to Mexico and other places. Now, of course, there are terminals located around town for the various bus companies. But at one time, Harrisburg was the default.

Off of Wayside near Harrisburg is a wonderful Fiesta grocery store that went through a complete remodel a couple of years ago. It is a delight to shop there. Highly recommended.

And Harrisburg is also home to Maximus Coffee, a giant international company responsible for roasting coffee for many national brands and also for making the instant coffee for Starbucks.
And on Navigation is the other big coffee company, Farmer Brothers Coffee.

Navigation faces the Ship Channel. If you curve around East Navigation, you will blend into Broadway, leading to Hobby Airport by way of the Park Place and Glenbrook Valley and Gulfgate area where I grew up.

Here begin the photos:

The fabulous puffy and crispy tacos at Fiesta Loma Linda on Telephone Road:

And here is another historically significant Mexican restaurant on 76th Street, one that has been here for decades. Classic Tex-Mex and one of the ten, along with Loma Linda and others, that I have chosen for my article on Retro Tex-Mex.

On a recent return trip/explore, I discovered another eatery, just down the street on 76th from Don Carlos. Morales is a clean, inviting Mexican restaurant staffed by some delightful ladies who prepare more traditional Mexican food of, say, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. It is a menu like one might find in a little restaurant in Monterrey, for example. We sampled the house mole and the milanesa on this visit. Recommended. They open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 3 p.m., focusing on a breakfast and lunch clientele.

Canaviburg (CLICK on the individual photos to enlarge them on your computer):