In the wake of Hill Country flooding that claimed at least 139 lives last July, Lupita Corbeil and Dawn Lafreeda organized a Denny’s Mobile Relief Diner that provided 5,000 meals for families, first responders and volunteers in Kerrville — and promised to do more.
Eight months later, Corbeil and Lafreeda, leaders of Den-Tex Central, Inc., fulfilled their promise. Their mobile relief diner returned to Kerrville and served another 2,000 hot meals.
For their efforts, Corbeil and Lafreeda were named winners of the Carmelo Mauro Spirit of Generosity Award at the Texas Restaurant Awards Sunday night at the Tobin Center.
“The Texas Restaurant Association helped us and brought volunteers together,” said Corbeil, a San Antonian who owns 60 Denny’s restaurants across Texas with Lafreeda. “We brought our cooks, managers and servers out and together we fed the Kerrville community.”
Corbeil and Lafreeda were the only locals to emerge victorious at the Texas Restaurant Awards, which capped the first day of the 89th annual Texas Restaurant Show, held in San Antonio for the first time since 2024.
The restaurant show attracted an estimated 8,000-plus chefs, restaurateurs and industry professionals this weekend to the Henry B. González Convention Center. They hosted exhibitor booths, sold restaurant supplies, attended education sessions and provided food and drink samples.
Sunday’s featured event was the Lone Star Tapas Showdown on the Taste of Texas Culinary Stage. Houston chef David Guerrero won the showdown with “Brasa y Bruma,” a charcoal-grilled beef heart tapa with anticuchera cream, huacutay emulsion and quinoa caviar beneath aromatic smoke.
Garland chef Kadir Atkas finished second and Sofia Sada, a professor at Pearl’s Culinary Institute of America, finished third.
Guerrero advances to the Tapas of the Americas competition in Mexico. The top three finishers there advance to the World Tapas Competition in Spain.
Mixtli co-founder and chef Rico Torres once placed at the World Tapas Competition and served as one of five tasting judges for the showdown.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “This event has a special place in my heart. I was very honored to be asked to be here.”
Torres finished third at the World Tapas Competition in 2018. His “slice of life” tapa was named “most avant-gardist” or most innovative.
“It was a razor clam with brandy cream, smoky chili and jamon serrano that was all set in a wooden box that had a hidden button,” Torres said. “When you pressed the button you’d hear sounds of the ocean. And when you opened the box, the tapa was sitting inside moss and greens and rocks.”
At Sunday’s showdown, Atkas presented his tapa inside a smoke-filled jar. Guerrero finished his winning tapa with flames from a blowtorch.
Smoke and fire from the afternoon showdown preceded tearful and impassioned speeches at the evening awards ceremony.
Hall of Honor inductees Robert and Laurie Lozano recalled their journey from meeting at a Dairy Queen to owning one and building a company headquartered in McAllen. Today, F & P Brands operates more than 50 Dairy Queens, Schlotzky’s and Cinnabons in the Rio Grande Valley.
A video tribute included moving anecdotes about the Lozanos’ compassion and service to the community. One employee, Marcus Barbosa, recalled how a family tragedy placed him in a difficult situation soon after going to work for the Lozanos.
“I told (Robert), ‘I don’t know what to do’,” Barbosa said, his eyes welling. “‘I need my job but I need to take care of my family. I don’t’ know how long I’m going to be out.’ And Robert told me on the phone, ‘Marcus, you can take a month, you can take two months, you can take a year. Know that your job will be here the moment you get back. You take care of your family.’”
The most surprised person of the night was Corbeil. She arrived at the ceremony not knowing that she had been nominated for an award.
“This was totally unexpected,” said Corbeil, treasurer of the Texas Restaurant Association. “I had no idea.”
After the Hill Country flooding last summer, the Denny’s Mobile Relief Diner served hot meals in Kerrville’s Lowe’s parking lot for three days from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. The dedication of mobile servers impressed Center Point volunteer firefighter Travis Cranford.
“It’s amazing what these people are doing,” Cranford told the San Antonio Report last year.
Denny’s Mobile Relief Diner has been serving local communities in the aftermath of natural disasters since 2017.
“Whether it’s feeding people during a flood or a hurricane or tornadoes, that’s what restaurant owners across the state are used to doing,” Corbeil said. “They take care of their communities.”
