Cochinita & co.

Cochinita & Co. built its name on breakfast and lunch done with more precision than the category usually gets in Houston. Build-your-own breakfast tacos sound like a gimmick until you taste how well-sourced the components are — the cochinita pibil has real depth, the 44 Farms beef cheek barbacoa tastes like someone cared about the cow. Crispy chilaquiles and pan-seared tamales hold up against the heavier hitters on the menu, and the pastry case, conchas and guava tres leches especially, is not an afterthought bolted onto a taco counter.

The East End original earned enough of a following to justify a second location in Lindale Park, and that expansion hasn't diluted what made the first spot work. Both kitchens run the same rigor: composed plates, thoughtful sourcing, a menu that reads simple but isn't cooked that way.

Houston's food press has taken notice locally, and the recognition has traveled further than the neighborhood. Back-to-back James Beard semifinalist nods, Emerging Chef and then Best Chef Texas, aren't handed out for a good taco truck. This is a breakfast-and-lunch spot operating like it has something to prove, and it keeps proving it.