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Trill Burgers opens third Houston-area location in Missouri City By Juhi Varma CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Trill Burgers, a restaurant chain co-founded by Houston rapper Bun B, last week opened its third Houston-area brick-and-mortar location in Missouri City. The new restaurant is located at 20220 Fort Bend Pkwy, Suite 140, in the Fort Bend Town Center II, about 20 miles southwest of downtown Houston. “Opening a Trill Burgers in Missouri City is especially meaningful,” Bun B said in a news release. “This part of Houston is near and dear to me, so bringing our hometown restaurant to such a special place means more than I could ever say. We love this city and are grateful for every opportunity to bring our burgers to more members of the community.” Local elected officials attended the opening ceremony, where a bright red ribbon was cut amid a flurry of camera flashes. “I had the vegan burger, and it was very delicious,” said Texas Rep. Ron Reynolds, who presented a proclamation to Bun B at the ceremony. “Our community travels far to go and patronize the other restaurants. I have a lot of constituents that have traveled there, and this is a popular request to have it here in Missouri City.” “I’ve watched this construction build-out for months waiting for it to happen,” said Fort Bend County Precinct 2 Commissioner Grady Prestage. “We’ve got a big community in Fort Bend County that travels all the way into Houston to have one of these burgers. So we’re always trying to make sure that we have things out here in the suburbs.” The 2,800-square-foot restaurant seats 92 guests. It features a mural by North Carolina artist JEKS ONE, honoring local rapper Z-Ro. Trill Burgers is known for its simple menu and signature smashed burgers. The OG Burger, named “Best Burger in America” by Good Morning America in 2022, features beef patties, pickles, caramelized onions, Trill Sauce and American cheese on a potato roll. Other menu items include the Vegan OG Burger, the triple-patty Triple OG and Triple Vegan OG Burgers, singlepatty Lil G and Vegan Lil G Burger kids’ meals, and seasoned fries. The Trill Burgers team also includes restaurateur Andy Nguyen, marketing expert Nick Scurfield, and chefs Mike Pham (Michael Pham) and Fernando Valladares. “We’re a restaurant group based out of California,” said Valladares, who recently moved to Katy. “Andy had an idea of doing smash burgers, bringing something new to Houston. “Coming from fine dining, we are obsessed with quality, right?” said Pham. “That’s what we bring to the burger. As chefs, you can go wild with a burger, introduce a bunch of ingredients, but we went with a nostalgic approach to create a burger where we imagined how burgers
SEE TRILL PAGE 5
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Four aggravated robbery suspects recaptured after jail escape now charged Staff Reports Four suspects in an aggravated robbery at a CVS location who were apprehended on Sunday but were able to escape from the Sugar Land jail after one of them assaulted a jailer and later recaptured made their first court appearance on Monday, according to authorities.
The four suspects are: Edmound Guillory, 19; Desean Dillard, 17; Devontae Simon, 18; and Clayton Johnson, 17. All four appeared in the 400th District Court on Monday afternoon. They are each charged with three counts of aggravated robbery, one count of engaging in organized criminal activity, escape with the threat of
a deadly weapon, and one count of aggravated assault against a public official, according to court records. At the request of prosecutors, all four are being held in the Fort Bend County Jail without bond, according to the Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office. Attorneys will be appointed to each suspect and no court dates are cur-
rently set, the office said. The robbery happened on Sunday, January 11 at approximately 1:56 a.m. when four young males entered the CVS located at 1410 Crabb River Rd, according to a press release from the Sugar Land Police Department.
SEE ROBBERY PAGE 2
HIGH SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS CLEAN SUGAR LAND’S HISTORIC SAN ISIDRO CEMETERY
Teens from the George Foundation Youth in Philanthropy Program joined members of the Exchange Club of Sugar Land and local elected officials on Saturday to clean up a historic Hispanic cemetery in Sugar Creek. Photo by Juhi Varma
By Juhi Varma CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Just beyond Sugar Creek Country Club, behind a tall, weathered wooden fence, lies San Isidro Cemetery – a lesser-known remnant of Sugar Land’s past. About 17 high school students spent their Saturday there, raking leaves and gently washing old head-
stones with soap and water. “This just shows the power volunteers – whether it’s Hurricane Harvey or Beryl or Winter Storm Uri, volunteers turn the tide, make things happen,” said former U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, who organized the cleanup effort along with other members of the Exchange Club of Sugar Land. “The San Isidro Cemetery is very historical and important to
the Mexican-American community,” said Sugar Land Mayor Carol McCutcheon, who joined the group during the morning cleanup. The teens are :service soldiers” from Youth in Philanthropy (YIP), a sought-after youth program focused on community service and volunteer work. “The program is very competitive, and they were selected based
on their leadership skills and also their interest in personal growth and community engagement,” said McCutcheon. “It teaches them the needs of Fort Bend County and how they can give back.” “We’ve also volunteered at Lunches of Love and Meals on Wheels,”
SEE VOLUNTEER PAGE 2
FBISD seeks public input on proposed school closures By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Fort Bend ISD is moving forward with the current round of rezoning – focusing on elementary schools – as the district this week releases an online survey to gather input from families before the initial proposed boundaries are released in late January for a final vote expected in March. At Monday’s agenda review meeting, the board of trustees heard from 30 members of the public speaking against the proposed closures or consolidations of several elementary schools that were first announced in a December 15 meeting. Those schools are Austin Parkway, Dulles, Fleming, Glover, Mission West, Ridgegate, and Sugar Mill. The proposed closings and consolidations are necessary, district officials and outside
consultants say, primarily because after peaking at around 80,000 students a couple of years ago, enrollment is now declining due to a number of factors, and there are areas of the district where schools are either surpassing capacity or are underutilized. According to the district’s hired demographer, the district’s declining enrollment follows trends that have been affecting public schools across the state, and even nationally, going back to the 2010s and were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and growing competition from charter schools and other education alternatives. At Monday’s agenda review meeting, board members heard from about 30 members of the public, all of them objecting to
SEE FBISD PAGE 2
Fort Bend ISD this week is sending out an online community survey on the proposed boundary planning, which includes the potential closings or closures of several elementary schools. A final board vote is expected in March. File photo
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