Lots of kids go through a phase in which they really want a tree house. As it turns out, some people never really grow out of it. Case in point: attorney and businessman Daniel Treviño, who created Los Troncos—one of the most unusual restaurants in Houston history. 

Los Troncos belonged to a wonderful era of restaurant design when owners seemed willing to pursue an idea all the way to its completely unreasonable conclusion. This fantastical three-story “treehouse” at 1516 Westheimer in Montrose, because of course it was, was built over several years from enormous tree trunks and heavy timbers—some reportedly weighing five tons. Los Troncos occupied the odd triangular site at Westheimer and Ridgewood that would decades later become home to Da Marco. Houston Press described the restaurant as “intentionally bizarre,” though it sounds freakin’ awesome. 

The structure featured balconies, tunnels, secluded dining nooks and tables perched as high as 22 feet above the floor. Old Houston diners remember the interior as being designed to resemble the inside of a tree, complete with tunnel-like passages patrons reportedly crawled through to reach some tables. Read that again. You crawled through the restaurant.

Try pitching that to a restaurant investor today:

“So what’s the concept?”

“Well, first, beef stroganoff. Then you're inside a tree.”

“Here, let me validate your parking.”

“Right. So I don’t get the money?”

“Absolutely not, we’re going to invest in another parking garage—but take the coffee with you.” 

During the 1960s and ’70s, diners came as much for the setting as the eclectic Mexican and international menu, which included huachinango a la Veracruzana, beef stroganoff and chicken curry, accompanied at times by Spanish guitarists. That’s right, baby. You could eat dinner in a tree while listening to Spanish guitar. Sometimes I really do think this city has gone downhill over the years. 

The matches are gone. The restaurant is gone. Even the Houston in which somebody thought crawling through tunnels on the way to dinner sounded perfectly reasonable is mostly gone. But this part of Los Troncos, a restaurant for which very little branded ephemera still exists, somehow survived.

Details

• Original Los Troncos restaurant matchbook cover

• Approximate era: 1960s

• Matches no longer present 

• Original Los Troncos branding

• Shows normal age-related wear

• Beef stroganoff served inside a tree not included

There are plenty of old Houston restaurants I wish I could visit—Los Troncos mostly so I could verify that I haven't misunderstood the whole thing. I guess until somebody invents that time machine to send me back to 1960s Montrose, this matchbook cover will have to do.