The plaza's owner, buying some abutting tracts for parking, is in the process of scraping the former Momo's Italian Specialties and plans to rebuild the expanded site with a 4,804-sf freestanding restaurant for Cafe R&D. The 167,631-sf retail center, which historically runs at 100% occupancy, has four restaurants, with Houston's as the only freestanding model in the lineup. Momo's vacated in May 2005 when its lease expired and talks were underway with Houston's parent, confides Dennis Leibovitz, executive vice president for Dallas-based Retail Connection.

"I'd been tracking it for Houston's for three years," Leibovitz tells GlobeSt.com. "All restaurateurs would like to find a place in the plaza." He says the Beverly Hills, CA parent's MO is to secure trophy sites, then decide which concept gets the dirt.

Leibovitz says the restaurant chain's other considerations also would have been Texas firsts, Gulfstream or Bandera, but the three-year-old Cafe R&D got the nod for its first move outside California, where it has units in Newport Beach and Century City. Houston's year-after-year performance in the plaza since its fall 1998 opening drove its parent's decision to grab a second restaurant spot when something became available, the broker says.