Last Concert Cafe

History

Elena Lopez, known as Mama, opened Last Concert Cafe in 1949 at 1403 Nance Street and ran it through 1985 from a table in the dining room. A city landmark report says guests knocked twice at the red door so she could look them over through a curtained window, and that an outdoor stage was added in 1986. Dawn Fudge took over in the mid-1980s and kept the late-night music tradition in a complex that also includes 19th-century houses. The Houston Chronicle has described after-gig sets there, with Carolyn Wonderland and Little Joe among the regulars and an Umphrey's McGee show in 2004. Houston designated the cafe a protected landmark in 2011.