DINING FEATURE
BY GEORGE WIEBE
Three dishes to try
Calamari fritto ($14)
The Snapper Special (market price)
Peperoncino verde ($16)
Fried calamari is served in a roasted tomato sauce. (Photos by George Wiebe/Community Impact Newspaper) Prego Rice Village restaurant serves up a Houstonian kind of Italian E stablished in 1983, Prego has served as a bastion for local Italian food in Rice Village Penne pasta is served with tomato sauce, spinach and parmesan-crusted red snapper.
Jalapeno fettuccine is served with grilled chicken, tomato, black beans, cilantro and avocado.
“You would see families coming together with young kids, and now those young kids are living here and have their businesses and come back with their kids,” Cook said. “This restaurant wouldn’t be here without this community.” During the pandemic, Prego and several other restaurants in Rice Village took part in Fare for Care—a food drive donation partnering with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Herman Health Systems, Houston Methodist Hospital and St. Luke's Medical Center. Through that partnership, Prego delivered home- cooked meals to front-line workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook said. “I was driving those myself in my truck,” he said. “It really felt like
the right thing to do, and we stayed connected to the community that way.” Before the pandemic, Prego hosted monthly wine dinners in which sta chose a wine and a special menu itemmatching the cuisine of the wine’s origin. “I wanted to study language and culture, ... and wine and food was a lens to do that,” Cook said. Those wine dinners made a return April 25, Cook said, a move that he said indicates the beginning of a return to normalcy for Prego. “We’re really excited about the future, and we’re really working hard to keep these core dishes updated … but also adapting and featuring new things, new ideas,” Cook said.
for nearly 40 years. The restaurant features many Italian mainstays, such as spaghetti carbonara and mozzarella-stu ed ravioli, as well as a uniqueness spurred from its Houstonian roots. “[The menu] is really focused on Gulf seafood and interpreting that through the lens of Italian cuisine,” owner David Cook said. Cook has been with Prego since 2002, when he joined as a waiter for a summer job. In 2008, he became general manager, and took over as owner in 2020. Over that time, Cook said he has been able to watch generations of customers come through the doors.
Prego owner David Cook joined the restaurant in 2002 as a waiter.
Prego 2520 Amherst St., Houston 713-529-2420
RICE BLVD.
www.prego- houston.com Hours: noon- 9 p.m. daily
AMHERST ST.
UNIVERSITY BLVD.
N
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