Almost immediately after a “for sale” sign went up at the northeast corner of Shepherd and Bissonnet, husband-and-wife developers Steve and Hilary Zaic Ybarra made an offer on the property. Within a few months, they had closed on the site, still unsure what they would do with it.

The Ybarras, who live in this area just north of Rice University, decided a restaurant with an outdoor patio would be an amenity residents would embrace…