Chefs Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu (photo by JIA Media)
Those nerves of steel will come in handy with her recent debut of Jūn (420 E. 20th St., Ste A) in the Heights with co-founder Henry Lu featuring riffs on Southeast Asian cuisine. Jūn — a nod to June, the birth month of Lu’s sister and Garcia’s mother — is the first restaurant for both chefs.
The duo came together after both working gigs in New York kitchens. For native Houstonian Garcia, that meant honing her chops at top spots like Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Spice Market and Thai restaurant Kin Shop. After moving back to Houston, Garcia and Lu started catering company By Kin HTX, and worked in Rice Village’s Politan Row food hall until it shuttered. Since Bravo’s Top Chef, the two have been growing their business with well attended pop-up events around town.
Formerly the home of Steel City Pops, Jūn’s open-warehouse-like restaurant was originally a 1950s-era washeteria. It’s been reimagined into a sleek and intimate space by Gin Design Group boasting three distinct dining areas fashioned with tropical plants, natural distressed floors and eclectic pieces. Expect a homey, modern vibe with earthy touches including handmade ceramics from Oaxaca, Mexico, on which every dish is served.
All 15 or so “new Asian American” dishes are designed to be shared. Come hungry for taste adventures including Gulf shrimp with avocado and taro; raw oysters with fermented mango; and beef tartare with toasted rice. Whole branzino dusted with cinnamon, clove and guajillo; lamb in soulful curry with pistachios; and Thai chili fried chicken are a few of the recipes passed down from generations.
For a deliciously different dessert, consider the nuegados, a yuca-mochi-like donut finished with star anise, orange zest and pilonsillo syrup. Rather sip a cocktail to complement the fare? Try the beautiful, cool and refreshing sake-based “Thai One On!”
Jūn is open nightly for dinner at 5PM.
Interiors by Gin Braverman (Photo by Claudia Casbarian)
The bar at Jūn (Photo by Claudia Casbarian)
Jūn lamb in curry
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Lee Ellis
I’ve followed Lee’s career for many years, taking note of his rise to notoriety as the brainchild behind the BRC Gastropub — remember that big red rooster statue out front on Shepherd? — and Liberty Kitchen. The success of those concepts, which elevated “fun” food to haute cuisine, as did similarly novel restaurants like Max’s Wine Dive at the time, earned Lee the nickname I often used when writing about him — the Godfather of Comfort-Food Chic.
In 2015, as we were making plans to launch CityBook magazine the following year, my photographer friend Julie Soefer and I created a series of faux covers to use to promote the soon-to-be-announced new publication. Lee was so influential at the time — and, with his long, gray ZZ Top beard, so cool — he was among our subjects, along with the likes of Lynn Wyatt, rocker Kam Franklin and a bevy of top models. I’ve always loved that cover.
Lee’s approach to food reminded me a bit of Dolly Parton’s approach to style: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” He may have just been serving French fries, but by damn he was going to fry them in butter, as he did at one of his later concepts, Star Fish. And if you ordered gumbo at Liberty, it didn’t just come with rice; there was also a side of old-school, like-grandma-made potato salad, a nod to his Cajun roots in Lafayette, La.
Also at Liberty Kitchen, it wasn’t enough to serve a fabulous thick slice of red velvet cake for dessert. Lee also provided the option of tossing the whole thing into a vintage-looking drugstore mixer with premium ice cream and making it into a milkshake. Oh my, those were good.
At his State Fare, Frito pie was a delicacy. At Lee’s Fried Chicken and Donuts, two of every Southerner’s favorite dishes found themselves together at last. With a drive-through!
In his last years, Lee, a cancer survivor, broke ties will his former partners and no longer had a hand in the restaurants spawned by his whimsy and flair. Many of them are closed now; State Fare and Liberty Kitchen continue on under new ownership. It was rumored that Lee, a perfectionist deeply committed to his own clever ideas, could be challenging to work with at times.
He and wife Melissa Savarino, a jewelry designer and retailer, moved to Round Top, where, per reporting by the Houston Chronicle’s Greg Morago, he operated the Ellis Motel lounge and the Round Top Smokehouse barbecue joint. Lee seemed on his way to building another delicious empire in his new home base.
One of the great accomplishments of my life was when Lee came to my house for dinner and assessed that my homemade gumbo was pretty good. As personal triumphs go, little else can compare.
Restaurateur Lee Ellis appeared on a 2016 mock cover of ‘CityBook,' used to promote the magazine’s launch that year.
