Alison Cook previews the promised second location for Little Big’s — set to open “probably late spring” in Hermann Park. The home of tiny burgers will slide into a shack overlooking a new bridge on a portion of McGovern Lake, just north of the Zoo.
But chef Bryan Caswell’s attempt to operate food carts in the park have forced him to face a Houston food legend that dates from long before the age of the taco truck:
The promised Little Big’s cart service inside the park is turning out to be complicated, however. Houston health ordinances forbid the actual cooking of sliders on the carts, which means Caswell & company must come up with some new “park-themed” menu ideas. “The whole restricted versus non-restricted cart thing is amazing,” says Caswell.
The chef notes that during the research phase of the project, “we found some very interesting info on why Houston doesn’t have street food cart vendors like New York City or New Orleans. If I recall correctly, in the early 1900s, the original Market Square was littered with tamale carts. One busy hot summer day, a large group of people got sick and I think even a few died. The carts were all blamed and chased out of town. Ever since, the food cart has been a heavily restricted H-Town deal.”
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A couple of readers have written in to let us know that Hue Vietnamese Restaurant — otherwise known as the first but hopeful occupant of the revamped but still extremely lonely strip center at the southwest corner of Richmond and Kirby — has closed. One writes: 
