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International Cuisine at La Riviera
By Nika Hancock

Menus, prices, and hours are available at www.lariviera-bcs.com

On a Wednesday night, you will find every table full at La Riviera Restaurant & Bakery, including groups celebrating birthdays or other occasions, showing that this new restaurant is doing well since its opening in December 2007. Chef and Owner, Alfonso Gonzalez, says they are already looking into expanding because they need more room. Chef Gonzalez is happy to own his first restaurant after 25 years of working in other people’s kitchens, including the local Hilton and Christopher’s World Grille. His resume includes an accomplished list of Executive Chef positions, certification through the American Culinary Federation, and awards from the Brazos Valley Chefs Association. The group awarded Gonzales with “Chef of the Year” in 2002 and 2007 and “Pastry Chef of the Year” for 2006 and 2007. Gonzales says about the awards, “It feels good—I mean, it feels like you’re doing something right.”

La Riviera’s name was inspired by the restaurant’s menu of international cuisine. “There is the La Riviera Maya in Mexico, the French Riviera and the Italian Riviera, so everybody knows La Riviera,” explains Gonzales. The restaurant’s dishes were influenced by French, Italian, Mexican, Thai and American food. According to the owner, popular dishes include the La Riviera House Filet, Shrimp Enchiladas and the desserts. Gonzales enjoys making desserts, and his favorite part of the restaurant is his European patisserie.

Art King, a local real estate broker and auctioneer, says that La Riviera is his favorite restaurant. His wife saw that it had opened and picked up a menu. “We went back and ate that night; we went back two or three times within that week, we ate lunch there, we ate dinner there, we went by there one Sunday morning on the way to church,” says King. “I’d recommend it to anybody.” King especially enjoys the white tablecloths, more formal atmosphere, good food and friendly staff.

Since opening, Gonzalez has taken his place on the line as well as cooking the food and running the restaurant. At his other jobs, he generally attended meetings, did paperwork, and oversaw the running of the restaurant while letting other people do the cooking. But this smaller establishment is a place where he can do both. His family is also involved as his wife helps in the business and his two daughters spend time at the restaurant. “We are basically doing this as a whole family,” says Gonzales, which was something they did not have the opportunity to do when Gonzalez was working for other people.
La Riviera plans to host several special occasion buffets throughout the year. Their last minute Easter buffet was a surprising success. “We filled the restaurant two and half times,” says the chef. The next buffet is slated for Mother’s Day, coming up on Sunday, May 11th. A Thanksgiving buffet is also in the works.