Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
David Bowie's 1972 manifesto could be the theme music for the last few weeks on Houston's restaurant scene. It's been busy to say the least, as demonstrated by several resignations, hirings and announcements. Houstonist is here to round up the highs and the lows.
The newly-opened Americas in The Woodlands has lost both their head chef, Jonathan Jones, and their pastry chef, Plinio Sandalio. Jones was the original chef at Max's Wine Dive and Sandalio is currently a contender for My Table's Houston Culinary Award for Pastry Chef of the Year. Even though they've lost some major talent, at least the Cordua group has one of the twenty best steaks in the country with which they can console themselves.- Jonathan Jones will be moving to Beaver's on Sawyer, just off Washington Avenue, where he'll assume the head chef position from Dax McAnear. In the comments section at Alison Cook's posting on the news, Jones himself commented that it's "great to see all the positive energy. I am excited to be back home. Texas coastal cuisine is my thing and bbq is just another part of it."
- This, of course, leaves two questions: where will Dax McAnear go and will Bobby Heugel (Beaver's highly acclaimed mixmaster) remain at Beaver's with all these changes? The second answer first: Bobby Heugel has left Beaver's to open a new bar on lower Westheimer in the former location of the old Daiquiri Factory. The new bar will be called Anvil and Heugel is in the process of remodeling the building with his business partners, with an eye to opening in mid-November. In his article on Drink Dogma, Heugel says of Anvil, "In addition to great cocktails, Anvil will have a carefully stocked wine cellar built in an old loft positioned over the bar. Our beer list will include the best microbrews in the country, and we will offer alternative taps at all times that will change every week." If this pans out, it sounds like a more than welcome addition to the Montrose bar scene.
More news, after the jump...
So what about Dax McAnear? From Alison Cook, we find out that McAnear will be working with Scott Tycer at his new restaurant in the Heights, Textile. Located directly next to his bakery, Krafts'men Baking, in the century-old Oriental Textile Mill on West 22nd, the restaurant is the much-anticipated followup to Tycer's former restaurant, Aries. Houston food lovers went into mourning when Aries closed, and are expected to turn out in droves to Tycer's new venture, which will feature progressive French-American cuisine, a cozy eating environment, an affordable wine list and the same spirit that made Aries so popular.- Speaking of Scott Tycer ventures, we haven't forgotten about Plinio Sandalio. The pastry chef will now be working at Tycer-founded restaurant Gravitas with chef Jason Gould. Sandalio is looking forward to overhauling the dessert menu at Gravitas and will perhaps be working his magic at Textile alongside McAnear and Tycer, if all goes as planned. His excitement for both projects is palatable: "It would be a perfect balance of bistro desserts and modern desserts."
And keeping it in the Heights, another exciting restaurant is set to open soon: Robert Gadsby's signature operation, Bedford. Formerly of Noe (at the Galleria-area Omni Hotel) and Soma (the neo-sushi restaurant on Washington), Gadsby is building a two-story monument to progressive, experimental cuisine on 10th Street at Studewood, which is set to open at year's end. Between Bedford, Textile, Shade and Glass Wall, the predominantly residential Heights is poised to become the unlikely new destination for adventurous, high-end dining options, once again leaving poor downtown Houston out in the cold.
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Photos courtesy of Flickr users ladyk!, eschipul, and Delta Niner.
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Wow...really informative post. All news to me, thanks!
Someone once claimed that Houston doesn't have enough pretentious one-word-named restaurants. I found five in this post alone!
Hey, "Glass Wall" -- that's two. And "Max's Wine Dive" -- three. ;)
Welcome back, tinyhands!
Any restaurant that just has numbers for pricing is a bit pretentious. $5.00? no, its "5"
But restaurants that pretentious most likely wouldn't have anything costing just $5 on the menu. Except maybe iced tea. But it would be called something like "infusion of black and jasmine tea leaves over cubed ice."