This Week's Food News: Happiest Hours, Piping-Hot Pizza, and More of Summer's Best 'Chow'
Jun. 28, 2023
WE'RE APPROACHING THE hottest time of the year (hard to believe, since the heat has already been on for weeks), so perhaps it's appropriate that not one but three of 2023's most hotly anticipated restaurants open this week. Read on for details, and more delicious food news!
Benny Chows
Two-pound lobster noodles at Benny Chows (photo by Norton Creative)
Ben Berg opens his 10th concept in Houston today. Located right next to his OG steakhouse on Washington Avenue, Benny Chows brings to mind Chinese restaurants in Berg's native New York, home to "some of my first and favorite dining memories," he says. With Chinese-born exec chef Shirong Mei at the helm, Benny Chows serves dishes both familiar — General Tso's chicken, dim sum, decadent Peking Duck — and uniquely Texan, a la the Smoked Brisket Egg Roll and the Holy Trinity Fried Rice, both starring Truth BBQ, another Wash Ave neighbor. Read here for more.
Elro Pizza and Crudo
Elro pizzas (photo by Julie Soefer)
Named after founder Terrence Gallivan’s children, Eleanor and Ronan, Elro marks the beloved chef's first return to the Houston dining scene since The Pass & Provisions shuttered almost five years ago. In addition to its namesake dishes — puffy, wood-fired pizzas and refreshing crudo — the Midtown bungalow also serves salads, elevated snacks and hoagies on housemade bread. Read here for more.
Pastore
This week also brings the grand opening of Underbelly Hospitality's latest, Pastore. The coastal-Italian concept bows off Allen Parkway, next to the group's Georgia James steakhouse. For more, click here.
Incanto
Paradisco cocktail at Incanto
The Heights is home to a whimsical new bar called Incanto, housed in a bungalow and pouring unique cocktails. Mixologist Alexis Mijares shaped the concept, which she says is designed to "mix high quality drink offerings with a bit of a more relaxed and playful theme was refreshing," according to a release, "and something I think people will really enjoy." Bright flowers hang from the ceiling, and equally vibrant furniture decorates the space, which is somewhat nondescript from the outside — just a quaint, white, typical Heights abode. The drinks utilize fresh herbs and other flavors from Mediterranean cuisine; the Race to Roma, for example, is a spirit-forward whiskey drink with Amaro Montenegro, bitters, sweet vermouth and Cynar 70. Expect other, shareable cocktails to be served in "festive vessels," like 10-inch disco balls and flamingo bowls.
Green Fork and Straw
Green Fork and Straw juice (photo by Elizabeth Dondis)
Hip, healthfood-savvy restaurant Green Fork and Straw opens its newest Houston outpost in July, on Westheimer at Edloe. (This will replace its Shepherd location.) With storefronts in the Heights and Tanglewood, Green Fork and Straw is a New Orleans import finding a major fan base in H-Town. Each one boasts a juice bar and grab-and-go items like "Cajun Girl" chicken salad, and a Paleo Brussels sprouts bowl. The light, bright new River Oaks restaurant opens Monday, July 10.
Picnik
Picnic (photo by Kimberly Davis)
The Montrose Collective newbie has light and fun summer fare, including the gluten-free Crispy Chicken Bowl, starring cage-free chicken cooked to crisp perfection without seed oils, and topped with no-sugar bacon, Cholula, raw bleu cheese and Green Goddess dressing. Perfect for National FriedChicken Day (July 6)!
Phat Eatery
Roti canai (photo by Kimberly Park)
The Katy-based Malaysian favorite turns five this week, and James Beard-nominated chef-owner Alex Au-Yeung is celebrating by gifting all dine-in customers with a free order of his delectable roti canai through July 2. He'll also be giving away a $100 gift card each day; all customers who dine in or place to-go orders this week, are automatically entered.
Rooftop Cinema Club
The Uptown movie experience debuts Wine Wednesday this week, with three additional dates throughout the summer season. Cohosted by BucketListers, the series includes screenings of the films Bridesmaids (June 28), 500 Days of Summer (July 12), Grease (July 19), and Love & Basketball (July 26), and each movie ticket purchased comes with a free glass of wine. Doors open at 6:15pm, and showtime is 7:15pm.
July 4th Specials
Check out Robin Barr Sussman's roundup of the best ways to ring in the Fourth of July.
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Choreographer Revisits His Childhood Home as Site for His Next Show, Premiering This Weekend
Jun. 27, 2023
THE GROUNDS AND gardens of Pilot Dance Project’s executive and artistic director Adam Castañeda’s childhood home are the site for The Delicate Space, a collaboration between Castañeda and choreographer and designer Ashley Horn. The Delicate Space is part of a collaborative, multi-year initiative between Castañeda and other artists and The Greater Northside Management District to produce new, multi-disciplinary projects inspired by the now rapidly gentrifying Near Northside neighborhood. The June 30 premiere is already sold out, but there are two more performances on July 1, and tickets are going fast.
“Like most Latin families, we were a multi-generational household,” says Castañeda, 37, who grew up living with his parents, two brothers, aunt, and paternal grandparents. Castañeda’s aunt still lives in and maintains his childhood home with great care, and only after a bit of trepidation, graciously allowed her nephew to host a new work on the property.
Growing up as a Jehovah’s Witness (an experience that inspired his 2021 production, Lazarus in the Promised Land), Castañeda and his family remained very isolated from the people in their neighborhood and anyone else outside of their church. But in 2011, Castañeda purchased a house 12 blocks away from his childhood home, and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, secured a full-time job as an English professor at Houston Community College. He attributes both events to the universe deciding to firmly root him in the neighborhood where he grew up and provide an opportunity to explore and venerate its history.
The roots of The Delicate Space began with Horn, who frequently sets work for Pilot Dance Project, and came to Castañeda last March with the concept of creating an evening-long duet, where just two dancers would carry the show. Castañeda describes the two leads in The Delicate Space as “lifelong friends” who are on a metaphysical journey to forgive their imperfections and find acceptance within themselves. The cast also includes an otherworldly trio, a sort of Greek chorus, whose movements, choreographed by Castañeda, speak to the duo’s internal dreams and regrets. The outdoor performance also features more than twenty-five costumes designed by Horn, and a soft sculpture by artist Tami Moschioni that resembles the blooms of an orchid and sits nicely with the flora of the production’s garden party atmosphere. For the audience, there will be folding chairs with ornate covers, like what you would see at a quinceañera banquet hall, handheld paper fans, and a variety of mismatched glasses and plates in various colors and patterns for drinks and food at the after-performance reception.
This fall, Castañeda and Moschioni have plans to set more works in Near Northside, a historic Latinx neighborhood Castañeda has come to appreciate and is grateful celebrate through his art. “Part of it is trying to make up for lost time and learn everything that I should have learned from the very beginning,” says Castañeda.
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