Restaurants Offering Healthy Options to Kickstart 2021

Kirsten Gilliam
Restaurants Offering Healthy Options to Kickstart 2021

Hard Seltzer Cocktail at FM Kitchen & Bar

TWO LOCAL HOT spots are serving up new menu items to help Houstonians actuallyenjoy sticking to their resolutions.


Washington Ave's FM Kitchen & Bar, which is set to open a second location in Montrose in the spring, has refreshed its happy-hour offerings and has rolled out new rotating daily specials and a late-night menu. Lighter dishes now available for 25 percent off during happy-hour — weekdays from 3-6:30pm! — include jalapeno-pea hummus, crispy Brussels sprouts with bacon jam, and shrimp remoulade with housemade potato chips. Chef Bety Berrera has also added grilled salmon tacos and salsa-verde-topped flank steak to the main menu.

Shrimp remoulade with housemade potato chips at FM Kitchen & Bar

Low- and no-alcohol cocktails, while introduced during Dry January, will remain on the menu even as the calendar pages turn. Some are made with hard seltzer in lieu of liquor, like the low-ABV cosmo or mojito. And FM Kitchen is now pouring the non-alcoholic spirit brand Seedlip, as in the Bachata Barbara tiki cocktail made with Seedlip Grove 42, passion fruit, lemon and ginger beer.

Meanwhile, Bellagreen's seasonal menu touts two chef's specials, available during dinner only. The Paleo Prime Ribeye is topped with avocado-chimichurri sauce and served with bacon-jam-tossed Brussels sprouts. And the new seared almond-crusted snapper is plated atop lemon-cilantro mashed potatoes.

Other new menu items available all day include a broccoli-smoked-gouda soup, Paleo salmon tacos, and a pear-and-cranberry salad with roasted butternut squash and goat cheese. (Wash it all down with Bellagreen's full-bodied winter sangria!)

Food

Rachel Gardner with her flower necklaces and, at left, Calla Lilly necklace

ON SATURDAY JULY 27, Foltz Gallery presents Endless Summer, a lively, playful exhibit of works by a multi-generational group of 28 emerging and established Texas-based artists. Taking its name from the 1974 Beach Boys double-album, which compiled the group’s early 1960s hit singles, the show is a visual “mixtape” of colorful paintings, prints, photographs, wall-based installations, ceramics and sculptures, installed lovingly throughout Foltz’s spacious and sunlit galleries. Among the works in Endless Summer are several examples of handmade “sculptural jewelry” by artist Rachel Gardner — a series of wearable wildflowers and fruits, including olives and strawberries.

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Art + Entertainment

Aesha Scott, Jack Vielhauer, Courtney Scott

AFTERNOON SHOWERS DIDN'T stop a gorgeous gaggle of yo-pros and creatives from filling downtown’s Z on 23 rooftop lounge to meet Aesha Scott, the standout star of Bravo’s Below Deck reality show.

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