Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu
By Kin, Jūn, and Third Place | Houston, TX
September 2025
Evelyn Garcia, a Houston native with Salvadoran and Mexican heritage, got her start working in family restaurants before moving to New York at 17. There, she worked her way through celebrated kitchens like Spice Market and Kin Shop, honing her voice through sauce-building and storytelling. Henry Lu, a Bronx-born Chinese-American chef, started his career in fast-paced New York restaurants like Pearl & Ash, Babu Ji, and Llama Inn after culinary school. Garcia and Lu met while working at Kin Shop and bonded over their shared love for wok cooking and fermentation. Garcia eventually relocated to Houston, and in 2021, Lu followed suit to join forces with her and help expand her pop-up and product line, By Kin.
Together, they went on to build their Houston Heights restaurant, Jūn, from the ground up. Designed with the help of friends and adorned with handmade ceramics and vintage art from Garcia’s own collection, Jūn reflects their mission: to create a warm and inviting space bathed in light and intention. The restaurant opened in early 2023, with dishes like tteokbokki coated in fermented yellow bean béchamel and brisket braised in peanut curry, representing the patchwork of Houston’s bold, blurring spectrum of flavors and cuisines. In spring 2025, Garcia and Lu opened their latest concept—a daytime café called Third Place—which operates out of the current Jūn space.
Garcia and Lu champion equity in hospitality through their work with I’ll Have What She’s Having and No Kid Hungry. Together, they’ve cultivated restaurants that are as much about the mission as they are about the food and drink— inviting guests to trust, taste, and lean into the familiar and the unknown alike, and inspiring their staff to take a shot at leadership opportunities they haven't been given before.
