It was more the opportunity to restore a historic building than starting a business that was the initial inspiration for Hector Zavala when he saw a 1860s-era building in Downtown Brownsville.

Zavala was in his mid-20s at the time when spotting an old botica building on the corner of 11th and Washington streets. The over 160-year-old pharmacy building that also housed doctors’ offices and a clinic had been left vacant for years. Zavala, with an eye for construction but no experience in business, took on the challenge of bringing it back to life in 2018.

So began a five-year project to shear off the plaster and stucco that had papered over the true features of one of Brownsville’s historic buildings. In 2022, a gray and yellowish building no one noticed before was now a jewel with French doors, mini-balconies on the second floor and exposed original wood in full view in the interior of what was now billed as the Morning Glory. 

It’s New Orleans-style architecture and emblematic of the ties between the Crescent City and Brownsville in the mid-19th Century. The building’s restoration was also representative of the rise of Millennial entrepreneurs in Brownsville and their commitment to reviving a historic downtown.

“For me, the intriguing part was the historical renovations and what we could do more than opening a restaurant,” said Zavala, who owns two such businesses in Downtown Brownsville with his wife, Diana. “We tried to preserve as much of the character of the building as we could.”

Seeing The Potential

The Morning Glory is a stylish redo with the Zavalas’ other restaurant – the Main Street Deli – being a prime lunchtime destination for county government workers and others working downtown.

The latter is located at Brownsville’s Market Square, a plaza whose origins go back to the 1850s. Morning Glory is a brunch-oriented restaurant that one would think is primarily a place where Millennials enjoy their avocado toast and trendy lattes. They certainly do that but Zavala says his newer restaurant has a clientele that spans generations.

“Our first thought was to do a burger place,” Zavala said of the space that would become Morning Glory. “Then we looked around back then and saw that in Brownsville there was no place that emphasized brunch. So, we decided, ‘Let’s do brunch.’”

On a recent early Friday afternoon, the Morning Glory was in its last hours of its regular operating hours as Zavala looked back at opening his twin restaurants and how he saw opportunities before others did. A key calculation for him was the City of Brownsville spending over $3 million in 2017-2018 to renovate Market Square by adding landscaping, fountains and underground utilities to make the downtown area more walkable and relevant to the community. 

“I saw the potential. I didn’t think the city would invest that kind of money in Market Square and do nothing with it,” said Zavala, who recently turned 30. “I feel like we helped to open some eyes and roads for people to see what could be done downtown.”

No Impediments

Zavala has old bricks stacked up next door to Morning Glory as work is underway to expand the restaurant or open a separate business in that space.

Zavala and his wife are often in motion and on foot in covering the block-long distance between their restaurants. The deli opened in early 2020 and they got through the economic challenges of that tumultuous year with Zavala saying, “COVID didn’t really hurt us because we started small.”

Main Street Deli, he said, would “check a lot of boxes” in providing good food at affordable prices in a well-kept restaurant that in post-lunch hours became a popular place for family gatherings. The deli became “a community spot,” and even more so when the city began generating a series of monthly events that are staged at Market Square. Zavala is bullish on downtown and its continuing possibilities to improve and draw more local residents to the Market Square area.

“I really don’t see any impediments,” he said. “You hear that people struggle with parking, but yet we’re still busy, so for me it’s up to all of us to continue to create an awareness that downtown is now a place to visit.”