Dozens of families and longtime friends celebrated New Year’s Day at a Houston staple.
At Cleburne’s Café, the family-owned Southern restaurant served its black-eyed peas, cabbage, collard greens and other traditional "good luck" foods to ring in 2024.
“Cleburne’s has stood the test of time,” one woman said as she waited to get dinner with a friend.
“After we reopened after our fire, we decided to be open New Year’s Day and offer the complimentary black-eyed peas that some of the restaurants in Houston, that are no longer with us, used to do,” owner George Mickelis told KHOU.
One of Mickelis' hopes for the new year is for good health and a good relationship with God.
“Hopefully we’re leaving war and pain behind and we’re going into health and prosperity, and love and kindness, that’s what I would hope for [in 2024],” Mickelis said as he greeted customers throughout the day.
Many shared their hopes for what they want to see in 2024.
“Hopefully, not to work as much as I do,” Maria Longhi from Katy said.
“I want for all of us in this country to have peace and to love each other,” Juani Longhi, Maria’s sister-in-law said.
Others say they experienced tremendous loss in 2023 and have difficult moments ahead. Patrice McNeil, who said she’s grown up going to Cleburne’s, said she is taking care of her dad who has late-stage dementia.
“It’s going to bring me a lot of closure…to now be here and walk in this day to day, with the long goodbye as they call it, it’s hard. But it’s rewarding because I get to spend this time with my dad,” McNeil said.
It’s a time of reflection for her, who is a longtime customer at Cleburne’s.
Offering people a sense of comfort is why Mickelis continues to keep his restaurant open on holidays.
“People say the holidays are one of the times where people get depressed the most or feel down, so at Cleburne’s we try to offer a sense of community, a sense of family,” Mickelis said.