Antone's Market, Chef's Table, Philippe, and Russo's New York Coal-Fired Pizzeria

At Bistro Moderne, Chef Philippe Schmidt won many accolades for his take on French bistro food; when he left, the Houston food world was disappointed and wondered what he would do next. The Press was surprised to find him turn up at, of all places, the new Antone's Market (2311 W. Alabama). "This is a new concept for Antone's," says Schmidt. "It's a Mediterranean cafe and market where you can buy exclusive imported products not available anywhere else in Houston...Everything we make is made from scratch, like the roasted chicken and the leg of lamb with grilled polenta or the mussels."

Chris Harter, the president and CEO of Legacy Restaurants, which owns Antone's, told the Press the plan is to "get back to our gourmet roots with this new concept. We're still offering the classical po-boys that made us famous, but have added shrimp and oyster versions, for example. We're very excited to have Chef Philippe join us, and we're planning on opening a few of these."

There are other plans in the works, too. "We're just warming up," says Schmidt. "Soon we will be opening the Chef's Table, where it will be very intimate and very exclusive. Basically, I will be cooking for a private party every night. Then there will be my own restaurant, called Philippe." Can't wait...

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"Tony can make incredible food," says Adrian Hembree of New York Pizzeria, talking about Tony Russo, the founder of New York Pizzeria. "It's in his roots. He does everything the old-school way and doesn't compromise when it comes to ingredients." Adrian is the franchise owner of the first pizza restaurant in Houston to use a coal-fired oven: Russo's New York Coal-Fired Pizzeria (19817 Northwest Fwy., suite 100). Most pizza restaurants use gas or wood, but coal was the original fuel used by the Italian immigrants in New York to make pizza.

"Very few people know what real pizza tastes like, so we're bringing a little taste of New York to Houston," says Adrian. "We're baking all our pizzas, breads, stromboli and calzone in the coal-fired oven. We're making all the dough, sauces and sausages on the premises, importing our olive oil from Sicily and bringing our fresh mozzarella from a purveyor in Little Italy in New York City." What' so great about a coal-fired oven? "It's the only way to make real pizza," says Russo. "The oven gets up to 900 degrees, and the pizza cooks in only three or four minutes. The intense heat gives the crust lots of blisters and the coal gives it a fabulous, smoky flavor. I went up to the manufacturer of the oven to give it a test run and, man, is the pizza good."