Peli Peli will retain 'End Hunger' motto on former Food Bank site

Peli Peli owners. Peli Peli owners. Photo: Peli Peli Restaurant Group Photo: Peli Peli Restaurant Group Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Peli Peli will retain 'End Hunger' motto on former Food Bank site 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

The Houston Food Bank has moved on from its longtime digs along Interstate 45, but its "End Hunger" message will live on as the Peli Peli restaurant group takes over the building that over the past decade became a colorful landmark for commuters just north of downtown.

The message, highly visible in green lettering, will stay on the building. Peli Peli may at some point put its stamp on the building with a some type of mural or artwork reflecting Houston's diverse culture, but does not plan on its name being a big component.

"I would like to follow the message they started, not only ending hunger, but something that would pay tribute to the diversity of Houston," said Thomas Nguyen, one of three partners in Peli Peli Restaurant Group.

"Our concept is about diversity of flavors and cultures and people. That's what Houston has become."

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Peli Peli took the keys to the 15,000-square-foot Mary Barden Keegan Center, 2445 North Freeway, this week after a year-plus search for a space to centralize food preparation for its five South African fusion restaurants in the area. The building will also house Peli Peli's growing catering operation, which was becoming difficult to manage from the kitchens inside its restaurants.

"If you have a catering job, it's hard to be able to do that and then handle the business we get at dinner and on the weekends," Nguyen said.

The meals will continue to be prepared on-site in the kitchens, which take up more than 20 percent of the space in each restaurant, Nguyen said.

Last year, Houston-based Virgata Property Co. purchased the building from the Houston Food Bank, which has since consolidated to 535 Portwall in east Houston.

Virgata cited the prominent location along the North Freeway as a selling point for potential tenants. Possible uses ranged from food-service or brew-pub operations to fitness concepts.

With the new deal, the kitchen that used to prepare 5,000 meals a day for the needy will remain intact. The leased location also will enable Peli Peli to expand production of its bottled spices and sauces, making them available for purchase in all of its restaurants, and possibly in grocery stores as it ramps up capacity. The spices and sauces are currently available at the Galleria location.

That includes piri piri pepper, also known as bird's-eye chili, which is used to flavor chicken and seafood and to rim martini glasses.

"We take it and mix it with different fruits and seasoning to kind of meet the heat so it's more of a flavorful spice than a hot spice," Nguyen said.

Peli Peli, which first opened in Vintage Park in northwest Houston in 2009, has other locations in the Galleria, LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch in Katy, the more casual Peli Peli Kitchen at 9090 Katy Freeway in Spring Branch, and Peli Deli, a pop-up in downtown's Esperson building. A location in Austin is upcoming.

The move to a central commissary will enable Peli Peli to save on both labor and food costs, and those savings could be passed on to customers, the company said. Peli Peli will get better pricing from distributor Sysco Corp. by purchasing products in larger quantities for delivery to one location.

Nguyen called the "End Hunger" message emblazoned on the new building "a very important message and a very important cause."

"We're not messing with it," he said. "If anything, we would like to enhance it later on."