Not too long after having a minor heart attack, Frank Piazza drove down Bissonett to eat some healthy food at Cleburne's, heeding the advice of the cardiologist who fixed him up. On his way there, at the intersection of Wakeforest, he eyed an available corner suite in a strip center that used to house a Philly Cheesesteak Connection. The space, with its prominent location, long profile, and spacious windows, immediately caught Frank's eye. Already an experienced restaurateur (he also runs The Italian Cafe down in Clear Lake), Frank envisioned a venue for his own paintings, or as he told us in a recent conversation, "where food meets art". So he snatched up the place and got to painting. A year later, the Bissonnett Grill is up and running, with oil paintings lining the walls, a cast of neighborhood regulars eating periodically, and a recent nod in the Houston Press to boot.
Apparently Piazza's brush with heart problems, while forcing him to drop smoking and follow his doctor's diet advice, did little to faze his already exuberant energy and ambition: "Once I found out about the operation, I started painting," he said. And he didn't choose a bad location for his works, either. Just as Frank envisioned out of the blue a year before, the paintings at the Bissonett Grill do stand out from the brightly-colored walls, even for the cars waiting at the traffic light. His eye for visual arts is well founded: a degree in architecture from U of H and experience in painting and photography have stuck around despite his decades in the food business.
Frank's dad ran a wholesale fish market here in town, and he would often ask his son to help out at the family business. It was there that Frank met Tony Chachere, who had contacted the elder Piazza to sell his now-famous creole spices at the market. Chachere became something of a mentor for Frank, and the creole influence can certainly be seen at the Bissonett Grill in such dishes as the the savory blackened chicken poboy or the wonderful fried oysters, prepared with a wasabi remoulade and an interesting and fresh batter. "It's got my special herbs...I don't let let anyone else mix them," explained Frank in a serious voice.
The other half of the culinary lineage you'll find at the Bissonett Grill is also pretty evident: Frank and his wife have already been running the Italian Cafe since the 80's. After Frank had established a loyal base of customers and shared with them stories of his visits to Italy (in his typically enthusiastic manner), some of them started pleading him to guide them around Italy himself. Thus began a lively new career as the leader of Italian food and wine tours. The idea turned out to be quite a hit--Frank found himself going back to Italy no less than four times a year for a good consecutive half decade.
Today the surgery and new restaurant have slowed his traveling down a bit--only a bit!--but Frank still indulged us with long talks on the Campo de' Fiori in Rome, giving the histories of the old butcher shops and restaurants around just that one square. When we were last at the Bissonett Grill, Frank's effusive discourse on Roman history and gastronomy was interrupted only by the likes of Wayne Dolcefino, who strolled in and gave a chatty, Brooklynite hello to Frank before ordering to-go for the guys back at Channel 13.
Just like we were saying, the Italian connection that lingers at the restaurant is evident, and (in our opinion) the buffalo and francesca panini are the best examples. With simple and traditional fresh ingredients such as Fontina cheese, basil, and roasted peppers, the panini surprised us with just how much they resembled the real stuff you can buy on an actual Roman street--not the overindulgant, Quiznosian beasts of excess you usually find around here.
Frank kept the menu open to other items that suited his fancy, however. He's got a roast beef sandwich, for example, as a nod to the location's previous tenants. "I wanted people to know that mine was made with the real stuff," he explained. "We use very very top sirloin and good bread." It indeed makes for an excellent sandwich, with wonderful mushrooms rounding it out, and (let's hope no Philadelphians are reading this, they can get defensive) it's so very much better than the last cheese steak we had in Philly.
But such competitive trifles aren't on Frank's mind as much as they are on ours. He's pretty happy being alive, trying this new venture, and finally getting a crack at his inner artist. There's already a queue of three people who have commissioned Frank to paint copies of one of his original oil paintings (the one pictured above). It seems a run-in with a heart attack only magnified his aspirations, but he still tries to keep it all in perspective: "When it's time for me to go, I'll go," he told us. "I've done a lot, I can move on to see what's next, but apparently I have more to do here."
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Bissonett Grill
2726 Bissonett St
713.529.0002
The Italian Cafe
4622 Nasa Rd 1
281.326.1618
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