Inside My Table #94 | Excerpt
Noteworthy Openings
99 RANCH MARKET, 1005 Blalock at I-10, 713-932-8899, www.99ranch.com. The old Fiesta store lives again, now with an Asian accent rather than Hispanic, and if you like the nearby Super H-Mart, you’ll probably like 99 Ranch Market, too. This California-based supermarket chain (founded in 1984) has completely revamped the Fiesta floor plan so it’s hardly recognizable. What you’ll want to know about is the outstanding seafood counter – live, fresh, frozen and dried fish – plus noodles, bean curd, produce (we bought shiitakes for $2.69 per pound), tea and condiments. There are also a pastry shop and food court within the store. Though it began as a Chinese market, 99 Ranch now caters to a pan-Asian population, including Indian.
BRANCH WATER TAVERN, 510 Shepherd south of Washington Ave., 713-863-7777. There has been lots of buzz about this new place, mostly owing to the resumes of the executive chef David Grossman (formerly with Reef and Gravitas in Houston, plus Gotham Bar & Grill in New York City) and beverage director Evan Turner (formerly with A+ at the Alden Hotel and Gravitas.) Their mission: a “tavern” with fine food and carefully wrought drinks. Given its name, you might not be surprised to learn that this newcomer has announced it will have the broadest and deepest selection of American whiskeys in town. The opening menu includes aged New York Strip with arugula marrow and seared diver scallops. Most wines will be $60 or less, promises Turner.
CIAO BELLA, 5161 San Felipe at Sage Rd., 713-960-0333, www.ciaobellohouston.com. Father/son team Tony and Jeff Vallone took over the old Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood & Chop House (before that it was La Strada) and have created a casual Italian spot. See Restaurant Reviews, page 54 in the magazine.
EDDIE V’S, 12848 Queensbury Lane in CityCentre, 832-200-2380, www.eddiev.com. Inner-Loopers, wipe that smirk off your faces: This is one of the sexiest and most delicious restaurants we’ve been to in a long time and, yes, it’s in CityCenter, the West-side development we still call Town & Country. Bill Greenwood, who spent the past year at the Eddie V’s in Fort Worth, is the executive chef. (This is the Scottsdale-based group’s fifth edition of Eddie V’s.) Chuck Criswell, son of retired Houston Chronicle food editor Ann Criswell, is GM. The interior is gorgeous, and there’s an adjacent lounge with live jazz every evening. We visited on a Thursday evening, and the place was packed. The specialty here is seafood – order the parmesan-crusted lemon sole – and it’s already earning raves for its raw bar. Dinner only.
EL PACIFICO SEAFOOD RESTAURANT, 5800 Bellaire Blvd. bet. Chimney Rock & Hillcroft, 713-218-0701. A banner hangs on this new restaurant with “Miyako” on it so that you will connect it with that chainlet of old-timer Japanese restaurants. The ownership is the same, but it’s hard to believe. This pan-Pacific spot – sushi, Mexican-style seafood, a few Vietnamese choices – underwhelmed us at a recent lunch. We tried two kinds of Mexican seafood cocktails, a Japanese noodle soup, “empanadas fusion” and a platter of shrimp and noodles. Yawn. One objection was the crummy little frozen shrimp. A friend whose palate we trust had a better experience another day. Maybe we just didn’t order right.
GEORGIA’S FARM 2 MARKET, 12171 Katy Freeway, 281-940-0990, www.georgiasmarket.com. On September 1, Sandy’s Produce became Georgia’s Farm 2 Market. Owners Georgia and Rick Bost are well-known in the local farmers’ market scene for their Georgia’s Grass Fed Meats, Village Botanica and Rancher’s Meats. The revamped Georgia’s Market features produce, the grass-fed meats, dairy, cheese, juices, spices, vitamins and teas, but some of Sandy’s quirkier touches (like the masseuse and crystals) are gone. The Bosts’ goal, they say, is to have a majority of locally grown and produced items for sale in the store within a year.
HEARSAY, 218 Travis at Congress, 713-225-8079, www.hearsayhouston.com. Remember the 12 Spot, Peter Garcia’s downtown lounge? It was housed in Houston’s second oldest commercial building, once a derelict structure but charmingly regentrified. Alas, the 12 Spot didn’t make it, and the space again stood empty for several years. It’s finally been revived, this time by Larry Martin and team. (They operate Grille 5115 in Saks Fifth Avenue in The Galleria.) Hearsay, a “gastro lounge” emphasizes food, spirits and wine pretty much equally. There’s even a tribute to Garcia via The Twelve Spot cocktail. The debut menu, organized by Grille 5115’s Pedro Silva, is small – a burger, sesame-crusted tuna, beef tenderloin, smoke salmon crostini – as the kitchen works through start-up kinks. Open for lunch and dinner, this is a good choice for a bite before the theatre. Britton Douglass is mixologist and bar manager.
III FORKS, 1201 Fannin at Dallas, 713-658-9457, www.iiiforks.com. We’ve been waiting for this restaurant for about a century. Okay, we exaggerate, but it has been much-anticipated as an addition to the downtown Pavilions development. It’s a take on the classic steakhouse, finished in mahogany and marble in the main dining room, with a modern glass-enclosed wine cellar on both sides of the entry hallway. Beef dominates the menu – we liked a starter of beef croustades topped with blue cheese – but you’ll also find a “Fish Market” category. III Forks is a part of Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc., a Dallas-based company that operates restaurants in 12 states. Exec chef/GM Ozzie Rogers is a III Forks veteran since 1998; Jennifer Blades is the private dining manager.
LOLA, 1102 Yale at 11th St., 713-426-LOLA (5652), www.eatlola.com. Just what the neighborhood needs: This roomy, light-filled retro-diner from Ken Bridge (of Pink’s Pizza) serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Order at the counter – we were pleased by a cheeseburger, the hand-tossed fries and a goat cheese crisp salad – and your food is delivered tableside. Other non-breakfast possibilities include seared tuna salad, chicken-fried steak, meatloaf and shrimp alfredo. It is, perhaps, a little pricy for a place that makes you fetch your own drinks and flatware, with most entrees in the $9 to $16 range.
LUCKY STRIKES LANES & LOUNGE, 1201 San Jacinto at Dallas, 713-343-3300, www.bowlluckystrike.com. This isn’t your Uncle Frank’s bowling alley. This newcomer is chic (it regularly appears in InStyle, Star and The New York Post), has an art collection and serves some of the best bar food ever. When you need a break from gutter balls, try the corn hash (something like succotash) with grilled shrimp, tuna “Lollipops,” “midi” burgers, classic Cobb salad or cheese fries with seasoned ground beef. Did we mention they have a great bar, too? Lucky Strikes now has 21 locations around the country. There’s even a connection to The Big Lebowski, but you’ll have to visit their website to read about it. Chaunte Gooden is executive chef.
RUBY TEQUILA’S MEXICAN KITCHEN, 2616 Louisiana at McGowen 713-522-7829, www.rubytequilas.com. The second Houston location of the Amarillo-based chain opened in Midtown in early October. (The first, Willowbrook, opened in September.) Houstonians have many choices for Tex-Mex, but the shtick here is that all of the food is made fresh, with no freezer, microwave or can-opener on the premises. A tour of the kitchen seemed to confirm that claim. The food is good, if a little too salty, and the avocados in the made-tableside guacamole were a little under-ripe at our early visit. Stiff drinks, eager-to-please staff, flexible mix-and-match menu. We’re betting Ruby’s happy hour scene can get lively.
STRAITS, 800 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N., bet. I-10 and Queensbury Lane, in the Hotel Sorella, 713-365-9922, www.straitsrestaurants.com. Raise your hand if you know what Singaporean cuisine is. We’ve never been to Singapore, so we headed to Straits to sample the menu. We found many similarities to Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Indian, even Western food, all kind of deliciously worked together. You’ll find satay skewers, roti prata (griddled flatbread with curry dipping sauce), long-braised short rib rendang. The best dish of the evening: a whole striped bass, fried into a half-moon shape, glossed with chili sauce, and filled with Chinese broccoli. You’ll love the patio with draped cabanas. Chris Yeo is the owner/culinary director, and John Sikhattana is onsite chef.
TESAR’S MODERN STEAK & SEAFOOD, 1701 Lake Robbins Dr. across from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands, 281-465-0700, www.tesars.com. Lucky us: Owner/chef John Tesar has planted himself in our part of Texas since departing the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas earlier this year. The restaurant name pretty much says it all, and Tesar is working hard to develop a program for sustainable cuisine, which he advocates to customers and suppliers. The place is huge, and there’s an outdoor burger bar that will be fun during our mild months. Desserts are by his wife Tracy.
TWO SAINTS RESTAURANT, 12460 Memorial Dr. bet. Frostwood & Benignus, 713-465-8967. Nestled into the corner of Wick Lane Center, Two Saints has a comfortable neighborhood vibe with leather couches, comfy chairs and a lively chef’s table. The menu offers upscale comfort food, such as parmesan truffle onion rings, piquillo pepper jumbo lump crabcakes, a prime 16 oz. ribeye, Southern red snapper fillet and pan-seared boneless half chicken. Oh For The Love O Mac-n-Cheese is an elegant twist on the childhood favorite with a four-cheese sauce, fresh jalapeños, thick-cut bacon bits and crisp parmesan bread crumbs. Joe Rippey, owner of the nearby Vine Wine Room, and chef Justin Gasper are co-proprietors. (It makes sense, then, that Two Saints is BYOB.) Dinner only Tuesday through Saturday.
VALENTINO HOUSTON & VIN BAR, 2525 West Loop South at Westheimer in the Hotel Derek, 713-850-9200, www.valentinorestaurant.com. The Valentino Restaurant Group was founded in 1972 by restaurateur Piero Selvaggio, who has now taken over and revamped the old Bistro Moderne location. The ambition here is high (as are the prices), and what the restaurant is trying to do is unique for Houston: innovative modern Italian cuisine. Among the dishes we recommend: a tartare of marlin with grapefruit, tuna medallions coated with black truffles, tender pasta purses stuffed with lobster and 24-month-old prosciutto di San Daniele. The adjacent Vin Bar offers crudo (raw fish) and small plates, such as grilled pizza. Dress for dinner: This place is very stylish.
