A husband-and-wife team hoping to open a Cajun-and-comfort-food restaurant on San Antonio's Far Northside says a contractor allegedly swindled them out of roughly $200,000, leaving their build-out half-finished and their savings gone. Sharrah and John Lopez are the owners behind the upcoming Ginger's Bistro at 4250 TPC Pkwy, and they're now asking the community for help finishing what they started.
Sharrah Lopez told CultureMap San Antonio that the couple was swindled out of around $200,000 by their contractor, per her own account of the ordeal. She said she had given the builder money specifically for a vent hood and an HVAC unit, but as of the report, neither piece of equipment had arrived on site. The gap didn't surface all at once — Sharrah noticed something was wrong after the contractor claimed they'd received a fire marshal fine tied to a small party held in the restaurant space. When she followed up, the fire marshal told her he hadn't spoken to the contractor in months.
The financial hole is nearly the size of the restaurant's entire original budget. State filings reviewed by WhatNow San Antonio show the 3,609-square-foot finish-out, designed by Villa Park Architects, carried an initial estimated construction cost of $225,000 when it was filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in July 2025. An alleged loss of roughly $200,000, as Sharrah described it to CultureMap, would have wiped out nearly all of that starting capital.
A Veteran's Dream Stalled by Rent and Red Tape
John Lopez is a 22-year Army disabled combat veteran, and the couple has framed Ginger's Bistro as his dream project. The name itself is personal — John named the restaurant after his fondness for redheads, notably his wife. Sharrah, who grew up near the Louisiana border, left her career as a sonographer to run the restaurant full-time, according to the San Antonio Report, while John continues working full-time as superintendent for the Texas Center for Infectious Disease.
The Lopezes, who live in Cibolo Canyons, are still paying rent on the unfinished space, and Sharrah said she needs help covering the current month's payment. “We're not millionaires,” she said, adding that it's been difficult to secure business loans without proof of concept — a Catch-22 for a restaurant that can't open its doors to prove it can generate revenue. She described the restaurant as their biggest leap of faith and said the setback has made them feel like failures.
Family Launches Fundraiser to Finish the Build
To bridge the gap, Sharrah's daughter, Annika Lopez, launched a GoFundMe campaign called Support a Veteran's Dream: Ginger's Bistro on August 18th, aimed at raising money to complete the build-out. As of the CultureMap report, the campaign had brought in almost $4,000. Sharrah said the family plans to pursue every remaining avenue to get the restaurant open.
One of those avenues runs right next door. Sharrah has held recent conversations with the owners of Pan Dulce, a neighboring tenant at the same TPC Town Plaza II complex that Hoodline reported is opening a second San Antonio location there in 2026. Pan Dulce's own state permit filings listed a $225,000 interior finish-out for its 3,000-square-foot suite, comparable to what Ginger's Bistro budgeted for a slightly larger footprint. Sharrah said she hopes those conversations will produce some form of assistance as she looks for ways to keep the project alive.
Why the Corridor Carries High Stakes
The plaza sits in a corridor built for big spending. TPC Town Plaza was developed by MSL Investments to capture commercial demand from Cibolo Canyons and Encino Ranch, two of San Antonio's highest-income Far Northside neighborhoods, according to reporting from MySA. That backdrop helps explain why finish-out costs in the building run high — a nearby Fatburger location in the same plaza registered renovation expenses estimated at $150,375 with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, putting the Lopezes' original $225,000 budget, and their alleged $200,000 loss, in context.
John told the San Antonio Current last year that he chose the TPC Parkway location partly to give employees of the nearby JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa a local hangout in an area otherwise dominated by national chains. The couple envisioned a cozy neighborhood spot where people could relax, with a menu built around Sharrah's Cajun roots — gumbo, crawfish étouffée, meatloaf, hamburgers, and a Hawaiian-inspired Moco Loco dish with braised short rib, brown gravy, and a fried egg over rice, as previously detailed by Community Impact. The beverage program is being designed around high-end bourbons and the couple's favorite wines.
What Comes Next
Texas law offers several paths for recourse in cases of alleged contractor fraud, though it remains unknown whether any criminal charges or police reports have been filed in this case. Under Section 31.03 of the Texas Penal Code, theft of property valued between $150,000 and $300,000 is classified as a second-degree felony, carrying a punishment of 2 to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. Separately, the Texas Construction Trust Fund Act requires contractors to hold project funds in trust for labor and materials, and misapplying that money can trigger both civil liability and criminal prosecution, according to the Fasthoff Law Firm.
For now, the Lopezes are focused less on legal remedies and more on simply getting the doors open. Between the GoFundMe, conversations with Pan Dulce, and whatever other help the community can offer, Sharrah said the family intends to keep pushing until Ginger's Bistro becomes more than an unfinished storefront on TPC Parkway.
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