Meet Jena Hoenes
Entrepreneur. Mother of Five. Storyteller. Founder of The Houstonian Table.
The Houstonian Table is more than a magazine. It is the next chapter in a journey shaped by entrepreneurship, family, reinvention, and a love for creating meaningful experiences.
A life of many chapters
My name is Jena Hoenes, and I am the founder and creator of The Houstonian Table.
I’m a serial entrepreneur, a wife of 20 years, and a mother of five—four biological children and one who became mine through family. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to find professional success in several different industries, but entrepreneurship has taught me something far more valuable than how to build a business: sometimes a closing door is really an invitation to become someone new.
I like to think of entrepreneurship as a phoenix.
There have been seasons of my life when I have completely burned out—personally, professionally, or both. And somehow, each time, something new has risen from the ashes. A new business. A new idea. A new purpose. A new version of myself.
Burnout became rebirth.
I was born in Iowa and raised in a small Midwestern town, surrounded by Amish communities and the traditions that come with that part of the country—family, hard work, home cooking, and making something beautiful out of what you have.
I was also an athlete. By ninth grade, I was playing varsity volleyball and basketball and starting on the varsity volleyball team. Sports brought out a competitive side of me that has never really gone away.
Some of that drive came from growing up in a lower-middle-class household with a single mother. As a kid, I imagined sports might be my way into a different life. That wasn’t ultimately my path.
Instead, I started a family very young.
And in a strange way, that changed the definition of success for me.
Entrepreneurship gave me the opportunity to pursue a career while still being a full-time, stay-at-home mother. It allowed me to build businesses around my family instead of building my family around a career. Through every reinvention, motherhood has remained at the center of my life.
Now, I am beginning another one.
The Houstonian Table is my next chapter.
I have always loved reading and writing. I love music, food, entertaining, decorating, discovering new places, and creating experiences for the people I love. This magazine gives me a place to bring all of those things together—and, more importantly, to share them with other Houston-area families.
I want to show you how to host a beautiful party without pretending someone else’s perfectly styled life is the standard.
I want to cook and bake real food with real ingredients you can actually find at your local grocery store.
I want to visit real Houston-area restaurants, businesses, events, and hidden gems.
I want to help you figure out where to take your children—from babies to teenagers—and include options for different interests and different budgets.
And I want to talk about motherhood as it actually looks.
Because I don’t believe being a good mother is always aesthetically pleasing.
Sometimes the kitchen is beautiful and the table is perfectly set. Sometimes there are dishes in the sink, a toddler under your feet, someone asking what’s for dinner, and you’re trying to remember whether you ever moved the laundry to the dryer.
Both can be a beautiful life.
The Houstonian Table isn’t about creating perfection. It’s about creating memories—around our tables, inside our homes, with our children, and throughout the city we call home.
This is Houston as I experience it: real families, real food, real places, and a beautiful life that doesn’t have to be perfect to be worth celebrating.
Welcome to The Houstonian Table.
— Jena Hoenes
Founder & Creator