A late-night pizza chain that first landed in Katy earlier this year is now setting up shop deep inside Houston's inner loop, with takeout-only storefronts headed for Montrose and The Heights. Zio Al's Pizza & Pasta has filed plans for locations at 106 Westheimer Road and 250 W. 19th St., Suite E, marking the brand's first push into the city's dense, walkable core after testing the broader Houston market from the suburbs.
The Montrose store, according to Community Impact, is set to be the first of the two to open, with an estimated completion date of August 31, 2026. State filings describe it as a $250,000 renovation of a 1,460-square-foot tenant space, and Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records identify Kuvo Architects as the designer and Bayou Bend Capital as the property owner behind the buildout, registered under project TABS2026017046. The strip center sits near Bagby Street on Lower Westheimer, a stretch that previously housed businesses like iPC Repair and pet supply retailer The Kitty Bodega, according to Carbon-izer.
Construction on the Westheimer Road site began in April 2026, per the same state filings cited by Community Impact. The Heights location, by contrast, only broke ground in July 2026 and carries a longer timeline, with an estimated completion date of January 31, 2027.
What's Moving Into The Heights Storefront
The Heights location will take over 1,150 square feet at 250 W. 19th St., a suite previously leased by dessert shop Sweet Bribery by Craft Creamery, according to a Houston Area Information Forum discussion of the property. The estimated project cost is $200,000, registered under property entity AP 250 W 19th St with Kuvo Architects again handling design work, per state licensing records.
The retail strip itself has a longer commercial history. Houston-based developer Braun Enterprises converted the site from Chippendale Eastlake Antiques into a multi-tenant boutique retail strip near Yale Street in 2017 and 2018, according to CultureMap Houston. The property is now owned by Asana Partners and counts neighbors including Alice Blue, Boomtown Coffee, and Cutthroat Barbers along the same block.
A Takeout-First Model For High-Rent Blocks
Both inner-loop locations are being built specifically as takeout-only storefronts, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings reviewed for both projects. That format cuts down on seating and overhead in two of Houston's priciest retail corridors while still serving Zio Al's signature late-night crowd, since the chain's stores stay open until 3 a.m. It's a structural bet that fits a broader pattern of delivery-and-takeout pizza brands pushing directly into dense nightlife corridors like Montrose and Greater Heights rather than opening full-service dining rooms.
Zio Al's was founded in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex by Alex Frijat, who started out as a pizza delivery driver before growing the brand to more than a dozen North Texas locations, according to the company's own account on its website. The business model, built around late-night hours and delivery for shift workers and night owls, expanded south into Greater Houston earlier in 2026 with its first regional store at 1522 W. Grand Parkway South in Katy, which operates daily from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. offering takeout, delivery, and late-night pickup.
The Houston expansion follows continued growth back in North Texas, where Zio Al's opened a new late-night location at 3750 Long Prairie Road in Flower Mound in December 2025, part of an effort to expand its late-night pizza coverage in Denton County, as Hoodline reported on the Flower Mound opening. Hoodline also covered an earlier Zio Al's opening in Plano back in 2019, underscoring how long the chain has been building out its North Texas footprint before eyeing Houston's urban core.
What's On The Menu, Including Halal Options
Per Community Impact's reporting on the chain's offerings, Zio Al's menu spans specialty pizzas, wings, pasta, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, and desserts, with customers able to build their own pizza by choosing size, crust, cheese, and toppings across small, medium, and large options. Specialty pies include a Gyro Lovers Pizza with tzatziki sauce, gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, black olives, and mozzarella; a Chicken Pesto Pizza with pesto sauce, diced chicken, tomato, black olives, and mozzarella; and a Samba Pizza topped with turkey ham, breakfast bacon, and corn. The broader menu also features cheese manicotti, shrimp fettuccine alfredo, lasagna, stuffed jalapeños, halal wings, and chocolate mousse cake.
Zio Al's menu includes partial halal offerings, including halal wings and halal pepperoni, but local food reviewers note that customers have to explicitly request halal meats when ordering, according to a video posted by You Had Me At Halal. Non-halal meat is served by default across the chain's Texas locations unless a customer specifies otherwise, the account's coverage notes.
It remains to be seen how the takeout-only format will handle late-night parking and pickup logistics along two of the inner loop's busier streets, Westheimer Road and West 19th Street, both known for tight parking and heavy foot traffic during evening and weekend hours. With the Montrose store on track for an August 31 completion and the Heights location trailing into early 2027, Houston's late-night pizza scene is about to get a lot more crowded closer to downtown.
