Tel Aviv Vibes: Inside Rice Village’s Brightly Modern New Hamsa

Kirsten Gilliam
Tel Aviv Vibes: Inside Rice Village’s Brightly Modern New Hamsa

Grilled branzino

When it’s hot, you crave lighter fare, served in a breezy environment. Nothing too rich but humming instead with bright flavors and healthfulness. So modern Hamsa in Rice Village, a lovely modern setup with a hip soundtrack of Tel Aviv pop, is right on time this summer. Emanating from the Israeli masterminds of Doris Metropolitan steakhouse and Badolina bakery, it joins an exciting foodie scene emerging in the neighborhood also home to year-old Gratify, the beloved and newly expanded Sweet Paris Creperie & Café and, coming soon, Navy Blue from Aaron Bludorn and wife Victoria Pappas.


Lovers of Middle Eastern cuisine will find many of the gastronomic touchstones they expect on Hamsa chefs Sash Kurgan and Yotam Dolev’s compact menu — hummus, skewers — but with twists. Hummus, for example, may come Shakshuka-style, topped with an egg soft-poached in spicy tomato sauce. Or, then again, it may arrive piled with caramelized onions, pine nuts and cubes of roasted lamb. Other shareable starters include beef tartare with pomegranates, runny egg yolk and aioli — and the utterly guiltless cauliflower couscous with cranberries and almonds offered up on a plate lined with creamy, tangier-than-yogurt labneh.

Mains include the most appealing chicken shawarma ever — chunks of juicy chicken thighs cooked in lamb fat, which you mix with pickled veggies and tahini and stuff into fluffy fresh-baked pita — and grilled branzino, which is butterflied, grilled till the skin is crispy and delicious, and served atop a snappy, sweetly herbaceous fennel salad. Desserts are beautiful, as in the pink-hued, architectural, lightly rosewater-infused Basboosa Malabi cake, and the grilled pear served in a cardamom-scented syrup made from its own cooking liquids.

Basboosa Malabi cake

The bar

Falafel

Flatbread

Gin and Tonic

Shakshuka Hummus

Food

A CHANGE OF scenery is good for the soul. And Thompson hotel’s newest location overlooking Houston’s Buffalo Bayou Park has plenty to offer those in need of checking in and chilling out. This is the brand’s fourth luxury boutique Texas property since Hyatt acquired it and expanded its reach.

Keep Reading Show less
Style

East River 9 and Riverhouse Houston

IMAGINE EVERY RESIDENT being able to get most everything via a 15-minute-or-less walk, in a neighborhood convenient to major employment areas of Houston. That’s the vision for the fast-emerging East End district’s new multiuse development called The Plant/Second Ward, created by Concept Neighborhood, a Houston real estate investment, development and management company. Concept Neighborhood is focused on creating walkable communities combining accessible housing with innovative retail and creative maker space.

Keep Reading Show less
People + Places