The Hay Merchant officially opened on Wednesday of this week after a few days of friends-and-family service. Greg Morago at the Chronicle braved the crowds at the craft beer bar to sample chef Antoine Ware's menu of lamb sweetbread po-boys and blood sausage queso fundido.
A new Three Brothers Bakery in Memorial opened its doors earlier this week, in a new concept for the 63-year-old bakery. Now run by fifth-generation baker Bobby Jucker, the bakery's new digs don't look all that fancy from the outside but house a café with table service and wi-fi. According to the Chronicle, this will hopefully be the first of several expansions.
Speaking of Three Brothers Bakery, its sweet burger buns will be on full and glorious display at the brand-new JerryBuilt Homegrown Burgers when it has its grand opening tomorrow. The Houston-based burger joint is opening at 3501 W. Holcombe tomorrow, February 18, and features Three Brothers buns on all of its burgers and hot dogs. It also makes all of its fries and sweet potato fries fresh daily, grinds its Niman Ranch meat twice a day, uses mostly organic and local produce when available and supports local charities like Neighborhood Centers. What's not to love?
It looks like someone read our list of the worst restaurant names in Houston: Todai finally changed its name to KPOP Restaurant & Bar, according to B4-U-Eat. The rotisserie has been replaced with a 20-foot-long Argentinean grill, and the Chinese cuisine has been replaced with Korean. KPOP plans to have grand opening specials in place until March 31: On weekdays, lunch at the all-you-can-eat buffet is $12.95 and dinner $19.95. On the weekends, lunch is $14.95 and dinner $22.95.
Two temporary closures are in place right now: BB's Beef & Hot Dog, which has closed its location on West Airport in Stafford but plans to reopen soon in larger digs on Highway 6. And the Love Shack in Cypress, which B4-U-Eat reports "is temporarily closed again for the next two weeks to convert from a residential water well to a commercial well."
Finally, in closings, two old stalwarts have shut their doors: Wok Bo at 12270 Westheimer and Zorro's Buffet at 9501 Southwest Freeway. It seems that the only Zorro's left in Texas is now in Fort Worth, but don't be sad: There's better buffet food to be found here in Houston.
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