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When a new downtown park opens, it will have a café from by a familiar company.

La Vie de St Concepts, the owner of Tout Suite in East Downtown and Sweet in CityCentre, will operate a café tentatively called Tout Suite SoDo — SoDo being short for Southern Downtown. The café, along with the rest of the park, will break ground March 2020 and will open March 2021.

The park park will occupy three-fourths of a block bounded by Bell, San Jacinto, Leeland and Fannin streets in the southern portion of downtown Houston. The property currently is about three blocks northwest of the Toyota Center and two blocks southwest of the mixed-used development GreenStreet.

Last November, Houston’s Downtown Redevelopment Authority selected local firm Lauren Griffith Associates to lead the design of the park. Other companies working on the park include Gensler providing architectural services for the café, storage building and other structures; Gandy2 Lighting Design providing lighting services; Kuo & Associates providing civil engineering; and Waterscape Consultants providing water feature engineering. A contractor has not been selected yet.
Southern downtown park


Owner Anne Le describes the Tout Suite concept as an “European-style café and bakery.” The counter-service café serves coffee, pastries, food and desserts. Food will be similar to the original Tout Suite, with some more grab-and-go offerings.

Le and her team were chosen through a request for proposal process; nine total businesses applied to have a restaurant at the space.

“After a thorough RFP process, we are overjoyed to announce the selection of Tout Suite as the café operator for the new Southern Downtown Park,” Bob Eury, president of the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, which is developing the park, said in a release. “It was important to us to find a team adept at creating spaces that appeal to a wide range of customers, from students to professionals, from locals to out-of-towners. (Tout Suite's) unique vision, energy and menu, not to mention their mouth-watering macarons, will be catalytic to this emerging neighborhood.”

Tout Suite SoDo will be 2,400 square feet, with indoor seating for 56 guests and outdoor seating for 40 guests. Le estimates she will have a team of at least 20.

“We are in East Downtown right now, (and we’ll be) in the heart of downtown, blocks away from Toyota Center,” Le said. “To be a part of a park, a new park at that, was what was most exciting to us, I think.”

Angie Bertinot, director of marketing and communications with the DRA, said that a food and beverage option is desperately needed for the area, which is largely parking lots. Tout Suite SoDo will be open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. There will be no other businesses at the park.