Mama’s Cafe began in San Antonio in 1981, founded by restaurateur Cappy Lawton as a casual Texas-style neighborhood restaurant built around hearty, home-cooked comfort food. The concept became known for dishes such as chicken-fried steak, pot roast and its especially popular fried mushrooms, and during its heyday expanded beyond the original Nacogdoches Road restaurant to multiple locations in San Antonio and Houston. 

Lawton sold his interest in the operation in the late 1980s, and Mama’s continued for decades under other operators as the once-larger chain gradually contracted. In 2019, the Lawton family regained control of the original restaurant, closed it for an extensive renovation and reopened it in 2021, preserving many of the comfort-food favorites that had made Mama’s a Texas institution. Today, the original San Antonio location is the sole survivor of the former multi-city chain and is again operated by the Lawton family.

The Houston location? Not so lucky. Mama’s Cafe opened at 6019 Westheimer in 1982. It was good for a late-night meal before heading home after the bar or a civilized Sunday morning breakfast with the family; I’ve been there for both. And nobody was photographing their food before eating it on either occasion. Reviews were mixed. Some people thought it was overrated, but I found it a fun place with a dependable comfort menu. 

Like the rest of the locations, the Houston spot was not made for pretense. It was the sort of place where iced tea arrived in a glass large enough to irrigate a small watermelon farm in the Rio Grande Valley and nobody at the table used phrases like “locally sourced microgreens.” The huevos hoffbrau was my favorite: a huge plate of migas served with hash browns, refried beans and queso. If that didn’t soak up all of those Jagermeister shots from Sam’s Boat nothing would.  

Speaking of cigarette smoke, this original Mama’s Cafe flat matchbook is a true survivor. It’s a small, wonderfully ordinary artifact from the days when Houston restaurants advertised themselves on little pieces of cardboard containing actual fire. Which seems insane now that I type that out. But it worked for the time. The matches were manufactured at the Atlas Matchbook Company, which is still in business to this day.  

All of the matches in this matchbook are present, though visible wear is seen on the front of the matches where they meet the cover. One of the corners displays a noticeable wrinkle, and the “M” on the Mama’s logo has some slight rubbing, probably rubbing against a pack of someone’s Marlboro Lights inside their purse as they danced at Power Tools. 

Details

• Original Mama’s Cafe flat matchbook

• Manufactured by Atlas Match Corp

• Approximate era: 1980s–1990s

• Displays original Mama’s Cafe branding

• Normal age-related wear 

• Migas not included

A great addition to any true Houstonian bar, or breakfast bar, setup.