Citizens Coffee & Wine Cafe, Hempstead, TX - Part Art Gallery, Part Restaurant
- takinthebackroads
- Jul 8
- 6 min read
Kenneth and Kimberly Pilcher have been married since 1993. They raised a family, spent years in meaningful careers in business and law, traveled, and had the opportunity to taste some of the world’s finest foods and wines. When they started looking for a place to retire and give back after their years of blessings, they settled on Hempstead, Texas, just far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Houston. While Hempstead is full of history, charm, and potential, they noticed it was not full of one thing - dining options.
In 2020, the Pilchers purchased the old Citizens Bank in Hempstead knowing they wanted to invest in the community in some way, but without a real vision at the time.
That’s when the pandemic hit. To distance themselves from the Houston area, they started using the Citizens building as their office, and at the end of the workday, they would walk out the front door, look at each other, and be stumped on what to grab for dinner. There weren’t many options to choose from, without heading back towards Houston. At the time, their daughter was a college student living in Washington D.C., and when they would go visit her, they’d spend their time together visiting local coffee shops. Citizens Coffee and Wine Cafe was born of a love of the vibe of community coffee shops, and the necessity of dinner restaurants in town.
The old Citizens Bank building, located on 12th Street in downtown Hempstead, Texas, was built in 1948. A building full of stories, but, as Kenneth would soon find out, also problems. While renovating, they discovered that this historic building had a tunnel under it. A tunnel that had collapsed under its own weight years ago, which they would have to repair before the rest of the building could be completed. Long hours were put into the renovations, trying to honor its past while bringing it up to today’s standards. One piece they were able to keep was the vault, only now it’s an intimate dining room.
The name, Citizens Coffee and Wine Cafe, while a nod to the building’s origins is also a flag in the land stating clearly that it’s a place of inclusion. A place to join old friends and meet new ones.
The decor is a trip back to the roaring 20s, fresh cut flowers as you enter, leather, rich, dark colors, gold finishes, everything down to the smallest detail was hand-picked and exquisitely chosen. Citizens is as much an art gallery as it is a scratch kitchen; from the atmosphere itself being a piece of art to the one-off paintings, sculptures, and more at every turn.
Kenneth describes them as art collectors, but as he described the ways that they help young people in the community experience art, I feel it is so much more than just a collection for them. It’s a calling.
The decor and the art aren’t the only highly curated pieces of this puzzle. They carry over 125 wine labels and have a sommelier on staff to make sure that their selection is always on point. As with their meats and produce, the coffee is locally sourced. They use a roaster in Cypress, spending their dollars with small, locally owned businesses whenever possible.
This restaurant is as much decadence for the eyes, as it is for the tastebuds.
This wasn’t a typical blog visit for me, because there were so many beautiful dishes, far too many to taste and describe each. My photographer and foodie hearts were at war with one another. Should I photograph the beauty or devour it without a second glance?
I had to find balance.
So I photographed until my eyes and heart were full of beautiful images. Then came the tasting!
I should start by saying that everything was beyond incredible. Fine dining, created by classically trained chefs; everything was impeccable, the visual presentation, the flavors, the textures, it was all literal perfection. I’m not a trained food critic by any means (just a girl from Bryan, TX), but this is the kind of restaurant that my dreams are made of. I decided, for the sake of not turning this into a novel, I should only talk about my top five dishes - okay, well, make that top seven because I just couldn’t cut any more out.
So, without hesitation, I went in for the desserts first.
The Flourless Chocolate Mousse Cake with raspberry coulis and chantilly had a layer of cake
at the bottom, a layer of silky, whipped chocolate mousse, then it was all wrapped with a firm chocolate cream layer. It had a chantilly cream on top and raspberry coulis drizzled on the plate. The flavor of this cake was so rich that it’d make Elon feel poor. Thankfully, I’d ordered a cappuccino to balance the decadence, and it was a match made in heaven.
The Carrot Cake was soft, moist, and iced with a thick layer of fluffy, not-too-sweet icing. It had a perfect subtle spice and sat atop a Grand Marnier orange sauce drizzle that perfectly complemented the flavor of the cake.
The Keylime Pie with blackberry and raspberry coulis drizzle on the plate and chantilly pillows on top was smooth and refreshing. It was a lighter and brighter counterpart to the flourless mousse cake, but just as irresistible.
My first lunch entree to try was the Citizens burger. Because it’s a tri-blend beef patty, it had a phenomenally rich, beefy flavor. Cooked to medium, with a perfect sear on the outside. It sat a top of a housemade bun and butter lettuce. Then layers of smoked cheddar cheese, crisp bacon, caramelized onions, tomato relish, and compound butter. The layers and complexities of flavors on this burger were astounding; fresh, deep, decadent, juicy, umami; this ain’t your Uncle Bob’s backyard burger for sure.
I moved on to the Vodka Pasta dish. Wide, flat house-made pasta tossed in a smooth, creamy vodka sauce, rich with tomato and garlic flavors. All tossed with sweet heirloom tomatoes and topped with fresh mozzarella balls that had been lightly charred. Nestled next to the pasta was a chicken leg quarter seasoned and roasted to juicy perfection.
Chicken Fried Steak is one of my favorite meals; it reminds me of some of my best childhood memories, so I love it when I can find one that is just the way I like it. Tender steak, hand-battered, fried to a crispy, golden crust, without leaving a grease puddle on the plate. Paired with their mashed potatoes and a savory cream gravy.
It was like every bite just kept getting better and better.
Sometimes the simplest things are what catch you off guard. For me, that was the ham and cheese croissant. Something like this, among all of the amazing dishes that came to the table, usually wouldn’t make my top five seven list, but this was no average ham and cheese
croissant. To start, it was huge! I didn’t whip out a measuring tape or anything, but my best guess, probably about 4’x5’. The ham was a thin slice, but there was a ton of it, along with a ton of melty Swiss cheese wrapped in layers and layers of flaky, buttery croissant.
As much as I loved every single dish, the beauty, simplicity, and perfection of this croissant is what truly won my heart.
Give me one of those, one of their cappuccinos, and a patio with the birds chipping at sunrise. That’s pure magic.
If you’re looking for fine dining flavors and quality off the beaten path, then you need to take the backroads on over to Citizens Coffee & Wine Cafe in Hempstead, Texas. Tell Kenneth, Kimberly, and the crew I said hi, and make sure to drink some wine, order dessert, and always get pastries to go for breakfast.
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📍 841 12th Street Hempstead, Texas 77445
As always, be sure to check their hours before you head over there.
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