Tracy Vaught
Owner
Inducted into the Texas Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Hall of Honor in August 2020, Tracy Vaught came to the industry as a second career and is one of the most-respected restaurateurs in Houston and beyond. The geologist-turned-restaurateur decided to forsake the plotting of America’s geothermal energy fields for the potentially hot-and-cold restaurant field in Houston. The Houston native, educated at St. John’s School and the University of Texas, opened her first restaurant, Backstreet Cafe, in 1983 with her uncle in an old house on the edge of Houston’s River Oaks. It was the turning point of her career and life. She met and married Hugo Ortega, whom she hired to work at the restaurant as a dishwasher, and together – after he graduated from culinary school – they have opened Hugo’s (2002), Caracol (2013), Xochi (2017) and URBE (2021), and published two cookbooks: “Hugo Ortega’s Street Food of Mexico” (2012) and “Backstreet Kitchen: Seasonal Recipes from Our Neighborhood Cafe” (2013). Vaught is a four-time semi-finalist for Outstanding Restaurateur for the renowned James Beard Foundation Awards; named Outstanding Restaurateur of the Year by Texas Restaurant Association; and has been recognized by Houston Business Journal with a Most Admired CEO Award and Women Mean Business Award. She was also named Restaurateur of the Year at the Houston Culinary Awards and selected to serve on a special three-person “She Means Business” panel event sponsored by Facebook. Vaught is currently Greater Houston Chapter Chair of the Texas Restaurant Association, and a board member of the Houston Food Bank and Better Business Bureau.