14 July 16 - 22, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Together, they tell the story of Cafe Mo- mentum. Launched by Houser in 2015, the restaurant employs justice-involved youth aged 15-19 and creates opportunities for growth beyond the kitchen. Later this year, Cafe Momentum will leave downtown. The nonprofit is relocating its flagship to a new campus in East Dallas’ Wilson Historic District, just north of Deep Ellum. From there, Houser says, the non- profit will look to expand its reach nationally into a conversation about how communities can do better for their young people. “This is what the next 10, 15, 20 years of impact is going to look like. So I am beyond excited, but I’m not naive or ignorant to not know what the bet is that we’re placing, and I take it very serious and very personal,” Houser says. Biscuits The menu at this lauded restaurant (the kitchen stands on its own), they explain, turns over every couple of months as new ingredients come into season. While rota- tion can be favorably looked on by critics in fine dining, it is especially important in a kitchen that doubles as a teaching environ- ment for its interns. But even as last season’s entrees make way for new additions, two features remain fixed. The first, the Momentum Salad, is made with mixed greens, radish and vinaigrette. The second, smoked chicken and biscuits, is prob- ably the one thing Houser will never touch. First, the dish outsells every other entree by at least a 2-1 ratio. The crispy, gold- en-fried chicken sits on a bed of creamy po- tatoes with a smack of collard greens on the side. But the main feature is likely Cafe Mo- mentum’s pillowy buttermilk biscuits. They are based on a recipe from Houser’s late friend, chef Randall Copeland, who was an early advocate and mentor at Cafe Momentum. “It’s kind of a beautiful homage to Ran- dall,” Houser says. “Like, his legacy goes into all of our locations through his biscuits.” Moving As with the menu, Cafe Momentum has kept the ball rolling in its evolution. What started as impromptu pop-up dinners at Dallas restaurants now unfolds at a dedi- cated downtown flagship with an attached high school. The concept has since expanded: a Pitts- burgh restaurant opened in 2023; followed by Atlanta in 2025; and a Denver location is expected to open by 2027. National atten- tion has followed. Good Morning America hosts presented the founder with a $10,000 check in 2023. Interns met celebrities at a Super Bowl pop-up in 2025. Houser re- ceived a humanitarian award from the James Beard Foundation that same year. Just this year, he was named a Vision- ary by Time magazine. As they so often do, awards and recognition follow results. To date, over 1,700 interns have graduated from its four-tiered internship program nationwide, which runs for roughly one year. Education is required; 100% of interns leave with a bank account (compared with 22% entering the program), and 77% receive mental health counseling. Houser gives the credit for those numbers to the interns, who he says have done more to change the narrative than anyone else. “Twelve years ago, 13 years ago, 14 years ago, I was answering questions around, ‘What are you going to do when the kids stab each other in the kitchen?’” Houser says. “Now, it’s not. The questions are ‘When do you open and how can I help?’ Which tells me that our kids have suc- ceeded in changing the way the world talks about them.” Elevate Like Cafe Momentum, Anton says he’s ready to move forward, although it is a bittersweet proposition. He says he came to Cafe Momentum af- ter making a series of poor choices while spending time with “not the right people,” adding that working on the floor and inter- acting with customers came easily to him as well. Working in the program and meeting customers broadened his perspective. “I was raising a good household, but my environment was still toxic,” he says. “So I just kind of soaked it up, and then made a mistake, and realized, ‘Oh, this is not really me.’ Now I’ve just stuck to myself and sepa- rated my crowd.” As all interns do, Anton works each sta- tion of the kitchen. The dishpit is where he collects his thoughts, while pastry work is something he especially enjoys. He also works the dining room floor as a server, where his easy-going and ebullient earnest- ness is plain to see. It’s also where he says his perspective has broadened the most. “We only know what we were taught,” he says. “The fact that we have people here, and also customers that have done other things, or know people that did things — we’re vulnerable to other things now that we never even thought of. Or stuff that we wanted to do, and it wasn’t in our reach.” Anton is the youngest brother in his fam- ily, but has enjoyed the impact as one of the older teens in the program. There are four tiers over 12-months. The first tier, stabiliza- tion, addresses basic needs interns may have and allows staff to build relationships with them. The second and third tiers, workforce development, offer counseling and confi- dence-building. The capstone tier ends with a presentation to other interns on their jour- ney at Cafe Momentum. Each intern chooses the format of the presentation. For his capstone, Anton went with a Steve Har- vey game show approach. Now set to leave Cafe Momentum before the flagship’s completion, Anton says he is ready for his next chapter but doesn’t know if he’s ready to shut the book on his last. Fi- nancial literacy workshops have stimulated an interest in cryptocurrency and stocks. He also completed welding training as an in- tern, and now he wants to return to learn the electrical trade, with the goal of opening his own one-stop shop. His enrollment in busi- ness school will probably help with that. “It’s almost like you don’t want to leave,” he says. “In a year you’ll be so surprised how much you grow, and it’s like when you’re around just great people that just show you and influence you to do great stuff, you don’t really want to leave.” “But we have to elevate, and one day I will come back, maybe work here with the staff, or maybe donate. The Space “Casting a wider net,” as Houser puts it, is one way Cafe Momentum can develop at its new East Dallas location. Enrichment pro- grams at Cafe Momentum run past paid shifts at the restaurant. In addition to men- tal health support, case managers address housing instability, food insecurity, and legal THIS WAS ALWAYS A PART OF ME, I JUST NEEDED TO BE EXPOSED. Founder Chad Houser in the kitchen with intern Anton, who will soon graduate the program. A moveable feast from p13
