Photos by Samantha Jane Beatty
Styling by Kate Stukenberg
Grooming by Tonya Riner for Page Parkes Agency
Models Madison Johnston for Wallflower Management and Jake Atterberry for Page Parkes Agency
Photo assistance by John Lewis
Styling assistance by Molly Jodeit
Men’s styling consulting by Cody Sever
and Whitney Wiggins for M Penner
Shot on location at Hotel Alessandra in Downtown
Inside Buttermilk Baby (photo by Kirsten Gilliam)
Known for its portfolio of upscale and elegant restaurants, the concept represents a new path for Berg Hospitality Group: an all-day family-friendly hangout invested with equal parts Americana and modern-dining know-how. Think of it as a homage to vintage soda-shop ambiance with retro southern fare fit for Instagram fame!
"Buttermilk Baby is a fusion of our traditional fine dining with fast casual to create a new concept of dining I like to call ‘cool casual.’ It’s a place where kids of all ages can get home-cooked comfort food made from top-notch ingredients and just enjoy being a kid again,” says Benjamin Berg, founder and CEO of Berg Hospitality Group.
Buttermilk Baby is the Texas debut of Carvel, the cult classic ice cream brand founded in 1934. As the country’s first retail ice cream company, Carvel is best known for creating The Original Soft Serve, as well as for its iconic ice cream cakes and signature novelties. Carvel’s ice cream cakes, including the Fudgie the Whale character cake, along with 10 flavors of soft-serve and the brand’s fan-favorite Flying Saucer ice cream sandwiches are also on offer.
Chicken fingers at Buttermilk Baby (photo by Brian Kennedy)
Bailey's-and-Oreo boozy shake
Photo by Kirsten Gilliam
Carvel soft serve
Smashburger at Buttermilk Baby (photo by Brian Kennedy)
Start the day with a breakfast of champions: cinnamon rolls, buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy, buttermilk pancakes and biscuit sandwiches filled with eggs, honey ham and buttermilk-brined fried chicken. The menu also features Ben Berg’s favorite breakfast: an everything bagel with cream cheese and bacon, coined “Ben’s Biscuit.”
Roll up your sleeves for lunch and dinner signatures like diner-style smashburgers, patty melt, chicken finger basket, and a variety of chicken sandwiches (buttermilk, southern-fried, grilled, mushroom-swiss). Smashburgers, hot dogs and corn dogs are made with Texas wagyu beef.
New York-based design firm ICRAVE and longtime Berg collaborator Gail McCleese of sensitori teamed up to produce a dining wonderland where guests are greeted by pink cloud-shaped swings floating from a rainbow-colored arch entrance. You can’t miss the life-size carousel horse, the giant ice-cream-sundae statue (complete with rotating cherry on top), neon signage, and a pastel color palette running through the 50-seat dining room. The kid-friendly ice cream bar has seating for 10.
To drink, adults can sip on frozen frappes, coffee and a limited selection of beer and wine. Carvel’s soft serve ice cream is also incorporated into the menu through the concept’s “boozy shakes” in a variety of adults-only flavors including Espresso Shaketini, Bailey’s Oreo Cookie, and Piña Colada.
Cheers to that!
Molina and Thirumalaisamy
This year's commissions are from Lorena Molina and Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, who will both speak at an opening reception Wednesday evening (6-8pm). The artists were invited to create large-scale works to foster conversation and community over the course of the school year.
Molina, a former UH professor of photography and digital media, uses art to "explore questions of identity, intimacy, and social inequities." For the Tent Series, she created La Tierra Recuerda, a depiction of the lava fields of the San Salvador volcano; that geographic area was used during the Salvadoran Civil War as a place to abandon the bodies of civilian casualties. Molina acknowledges the far-reaching impacts and the dual tragedy of the land in her piece.
For her part, Thirumalaisamy is a current professor at Rice, where she teaches interdisciplinary arts courses that incorporate environmental and feminist issues. The Tent Series piece is a projected-video work called provision, which uses "culturally significant materials and fleeting glimpses of the human body as an investigation into narrative structures, untold stories, and the passage of time."
Molina's and Thirumalaisamy's art will be on view through July 31, 2025. Parking and walking directions for viewing their works are posted here.
Molina's 'LaTierra Recuerda'
Thirumalaisamy's 'provision'