LOCAL Houston | The City Guide AUGUST 2015 | Page 56

Local August 2015_FINAL.qxp_002houston 7/27/15 12:19 PM Page 56

LOCAL ICON

TOM HORAN
Former Restaurateur + PR Man

AT 70, TOM HORAN may be without one of his legs,
but this former restaurateur and owner of his own
public relations firm isn’t letting that slow him
down. On the day I went to meet with Horan,
his wife Jeani was ever the gracious hostess, his daughter
Elizabeth and her three children
were there as well, and with a
glass of Old Tom Horan Whiskey
(named after him by Spec’s owner
John Rydman), Horan shared his
life story – full of laughs and
moments of holding back tears.
Born in Houston at St. Joseph
Hospital to an Italian mother and
Irish father, Horan’s life is seeped
in the restaurant business and
has left an indelible mark on the
city’s St. Patrick Day’s Parades.

What was your first job? “My first job was working at Foley Brother’s. I was a
cashier wrapper and packer. I lied; I was about 13 years old but I told them I
was older. (He asks his wife, ‘Jeani, get me a glass of water and a spoon,
please.’) I was making 50 cents an hour and I wanted 75 cents an hour, so I
went up to the director of public personnel, Jerry Moreland. I went up there and
said I need 25 cents more an hour. He had a glass of water and drinking his
coffee and had this spoon. He says, ‘Mr. Horan, right now this is you at Foley’s
(demonstrating with the spoon in a glass of water). When you leave that’s how
quick your space will be taken (pulling out the spoon from the glass of water).”
It hit home. So I says, ‘You know $.50 is really good pay, Mr. Moreland!’” From
there he worked as an usher at Loews Theater and then at River Oaks Theater.
He graduated St. Thomas High School in 1962.
When did you know what you wanted to do? “Let me explain something to you:
I always thought you should change careers after 10 years. So after I worked
at Walter Pye, I went to Birraporetti’s River Oaks in 1974 with my brother. I left
in 1976 and ran for city council in 1975.” Horan opened and ran various
joints including Danny Boy’s; then he opened the Allen House. Then a little deli
for about two years. “You’ll love this story,” Horan shares, laughing, “People
would come in and ask ‘what kind of bread do you have?’ I can’t pronounce
my r’s and people would come in just to hear me screw it up. I’d say we got
wheat, why, whole and pumwenickle! You know what we have!” Then they
took over Harrigan’s but after a few years Horan realized he wasn’t seeing his

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kids. So he just got tired of it. In about 1981, “I opened up my public relations
company, and God bless me, I was very lucky. My first client was the BlackEyed Pea.” Absolut Vodka, Jameson, Luther’s BBQ, Frank’s hotdogs. “And my
life turned around with the Shamrock Hotel. It was a labor of love for me. I did
their PR from 1980 until it closed in 1986.”
Who were your mentors? “Mr. Pye Sr. and Mr. Lou Hersk (a headman for
Walter Pye) were my mentors. They instilled in me a great philosophy of treat
people the way you want to be treated. I’ll never forget. I was like a coordinator
there after a while. A woman came in with a kid about this tall [about 4’] and
she had jeans for a kid about this tall [2’] and the woman wants me to give her
a pair of new jeans. And I said, ‘Ma’m, the kid’s outgrown them and they are
worn out!’ And I’m fighting her. Mr. Pye Sr. is watching and he comes over and
says, ‘May I see you?’ He asks how many pairs of jeans do we sell a year. I
say maybe 5,000. He says give her a new pair of jeans.”
On a whiskey named after him: “That’s better than being canonized a saint, for
an Irish guy!”
Greatest compliment: The greatest compliment I ever had: “Tommy, you are to
Saint Patrick’s Day what Santa Claus is to Christmas.”
You participated in the city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade for about 50 years.
When did you stop? Four years ago when I lost my leg. I can’t travel anymore.