Eight Row Flint, 3501 Harrisburg, opened February 20 in Houston’s Second Ward. It’s the second location of the popular bar and hangout from Agricole Hospitality. The modern ice house first opened in 2015 in the Heights at 1039 Yale.
Agricole owners Ryan Pera, Vincent Huynh and Morgan Weber have worked closely with three longtime staff members to expand the concept into the East End. Taking the helm as Eight Row Flint Concept Manager will be General Manager Christina Ramey who has been with Eight Row Flint since the beginning. She will now oversee both concepts.
Christian Garza will be promoted from his former role as Assistant General Manager at the Heights location to General Manager at the new Harrisburg spot. Marcelo Garcia will take on the role of Executive Chef, leading food operations at both locations.
While much of Eight Row Flint’s original focus on innovative cocktails will still be in place, the new location will have a more tightly curated and unique cocktail list showcasing whiskey and agave spirits. There is also an expanded food menu offering Gulf seafood plus Mexican fare like empanadas. For fans, the Brussels Sprouts Taco will be on the menu at the new location as well.
One of the highlights of the new location will be the large rooftop patio with seating for 80 plus plenty of mingling room. Indoors, there is space for 200 guests with an inviting atmosphere of rustic, salvaged wood and playful art, including a mural painted by Garza and his young daughter.
1751 Sea & Bar, 191 Heights Boulevard, will have its last day of service March 4, 2023. The announcement was made last week by Sambrooks Management Company, which also owns and operates The Pit Room, The Patio and Candente. The press release cited the restaurant group’s focus on its upcoming steakhouse, Andiron, and a much-anticipated second location of its barbecue concept, The Pit Room, as the reason for closing the seafood restaurant and cocktail bar plus the fact that the lease on the Heights space will be ending soon.
Owner and Founder Michael Sambrooks said, “We certainly hope to bring this concept back to life at a later date but for now we would like to thank our customers who enjoyed 1751’s progressive small plate dining experience for a great run.” Sambrooks added that the expansion of the company’s new ventures means that all of the employees at 1751 will be offered jobs at existing or upcoming concepts.
One of those employees is Executive Chef Matt Young, who will now take on the role of Corporate Chef for Sambrooks Management which will entail helping open Andiron in addition to adding his culinary expertise to existing and future restaurants.
Sambrooks added, “We hope our loyal customers and fans will come out for one final meal in our remaining two weeks of service.” Reservations may be made on 1751’s website.
Buttermilk Baby, 600 N. Shepherd, will open at M-K-T Heights this fall, September 2023 if all goes to plan. One of several new concepts coming from Berg Hospitality Group this year, Buttermilk Baby will be a reimagining of the American soda fountain, giving a modern aesthetic to a vintage part of American culture.
Part of that history is Carvel, the ice cream franchise known for its soft serve and ice cream cakes. Buttermilk Baby is partnering with Carvel to include its soft serve ice cream at the new concept. It will feature the iconic brand’s Carvelanche with toppings such as Oreo Cookies, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and M&Ms. Fans of its specialty Celebration Cakes will be able to purchase a Fudgie the Whale or Cookie Puss at the new fast casual eatery and treatery.
Besides ice cream treats, there will be Southern-inspired foods including fried chicken sandwiches, flaky buttermilk biscuits and breakfast platters. There will also be salads and burgers.
The space itself is being designed by ICRAVE, a New York-based design firm. With 3,100 square feet of space, Buttermilk Baby will be bright and modern with Instagrammable designs for wannabe influencers and selfie enthusiasts.
For Benjamin Berg, owner and founder of Berg Hospitality Group, the new restaurant is meant to be a gathering place for families and a place for socializing. He says, ” Our goal is to ceate an experience-driven concept that evokes happy childhood memories for adults and that they can now share with their kids.” Berg, a native New Yorker, adds, “With the brand being from the Northeast, I am happy to bring it to my new home. And everyone should try a Fudgie the Whale Cake at least once in their life!”
The concept was announced on the heels of recent Berg Hospitality news that the restaurant group, known for its fine dining and glamorous hot spots, plans to open two new ventures in April 2023 along the Washington Corridor. The concepts, Benny Chows and Canopy Social, have received some critical blowback, according to the Houston Chronicle: Benny Chows for its seemingly cultural appropriation regarding the Asian community and Canopy Social for its British-Caribbean theme, which some find problematic because of the British Colonialism of the Caribbean Islands.
Layne’s Chicken Fingers, 3008 Ella Boulevard, will host its grand opening on February 25, 2023. The new Garden Oaks/Oak Forest location is the second Houston-area outpost for the franchise, owned by local restaurateur Masroor Fatany. The first opened in Katy in 2021. There will be a ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m. followed by an official opening at 11 a.m. Attendees can enjoy giveaways and samples plus a DJ providing music until 2 p.m.
The new location is walk-up and drive thru service only with no in-store dining but that doesn’t matter to its loyal fans who crave the chicken tenders that Layne’s boasts are “Born and Breaded in Texas since 1994”. Preceding one of its closest competitors, Raising Cane’s, by two years, the iconic College Station restaurant has deep ties to Texas A&M University, where it first opened its doors. It soon developed a devoted following with hungry college students, faculty and locals enjoying the on-site marinated and breaded crispy tenders. It has since expanded to three locations in College Station plus restaurants in Lewisville, Frisco, Allen and Roanoke plus the Katy and GOOF locations in the Houston area.
We couldn’t be more thrilled to open another location in the Houston area,” says Matt O’Reilly of Layne’s Chicken Fingers. “With the massive success we’ve seen at our Katy location, we are excited to bring our chicken fingers inside city limits.”
Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken, 9660 Westheimer, is expected to open March 14 in Woodland Square, according to EaterHouston. It began as a collaboration in Las Vegas between O’Neal, JRS Hospitality and Authentic Brands Group. This will be the first Houston location for the brand.
Though our city seems to have more than enough chicken-centric restaurants to feed every Houstonian on a daily basis, restaurateurs and franchisees continue to view H-Town as a lucrative place for fried chicken tenders, nuggets, sandwiches and any other way one can serve the nation’s most popular fowl. So what does Big Chicken have to offer besides a Big Basketball Player’s name?
A look at the menu shows crispy fried chicken sandwiches, most served on brioche buns, except for the Crispy Chicken Grilled Cheese, which is made with rustic Italian bread. The Shaq Attack is made with pepper jack cheese, jalapeno slaw and spicy chipotle barbecue sauce while the Big Aristotle has Muenster cheese, crispy fried onions and Memphis barbecue sauce. Customers can also order tenders and popcorn chicken plus salads that only slightly resemble their green origins. There are sides such as BC Fries and sweet potato waffle fries plus its Lucille’s Mac which has a Cheez-It crust. There are also milkshakes and ice cream sandwiches.
You might need to have a 7-foot, one-inch frame like Shaq to metabolize all that.
Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors, 2400 Mid Lane, is morphing into an all-day cafe with an interior refresh and new items added to its existing menu of breakfast, lunch and dinner. First opened in October 2016, the cafe is from Adair Concepts, a locally-owned restaurant group from the Adair family. Its portfolio of brands includes Los Tios Mexican Restaurants, Adair Kitchen and Betsy’s at Evelyn’s Park. It still operates Skeeter’s Mesquite Grill which was first founded in 1988 by Gary Adair.
The restaurant is named for the paternal grandmother of siblings Nick Adair and Katie Barnhart, a no-nonsense Texas beauty that inspired the concept’s classic, yet unpretentious style. The updates to the interior includes added striped wallpaper to complement its signature green, floral wallpaper and an added green awning providing shade for its outdoor patio. The staff sport new yellow striped shirts and a vintage neon sign that spells out “Liquors” adds some whimsy to the mix.
Breakfast is served every morning with fare such as Chicken & Waffles, Horchata Toast and Salmon Hoppin’ John. In addition to favorites such as the Not Jennifer Anniston’s Salad and Venison Sausage, the restaurant is bringing back original Eloise Nichols menu items such as Betsy’s Favorite Pasta and Chicken & Dumplings.
In addition to its coffee menu, Eloise Nichols serves simple cocktails such as the Eloise G+T, Negroni and the Spirit Animal made with vodka, pineapple and lime.
With the refresh of Eloise Nichols, Adair Concepts is also planning to make updates and renovations to some of its other operations. The family-owned restaurant group will also open a sixth location of its Los Tios in West University this April, fingers crossed.
Fins Bar & Grill, 796 Tx-87, opens March 8 at Camp Margaritaville RV Resort Crystal Beach. The lively restaurant will offer all the energy of a resort escape with a wraparound patio and panoramic views. It will be open to both resort guests and the general public. There will also be scheduled live music events.
You don’t have to be a Parrot Head to indulge in a Fins Up Margarita or Landshark Lager but a sense of fun and a desire to chill out will put you in good company with resort regulars and Gulf Coast visitors. There are plenty of frozen concoctions to, as Jimmy Buffet sings, “help you hang on.”
There is also a food menu of chicken wings, salads, 10-inch pizzas, burgers, coconut shrimp and Wagyu hot dogs. And, of course, Key Lime Pie.
Hibachi Bros. Food Truck, 4501 Almeda, opened for lunch for the first time ever February 22 and also launched its new menu at the same time. Located in the Third Ward, Hibachi Bros. is Houston’s first Black-owned authentic Japanese-style hibachi food truck and co-owner Dempsey Robinson is excited to introduce the new noodle bowls and lunchtime hours.
Robinson says, “Opening for lunch has been a goal of ours since we opened but we didn’t want to launch 12-hour days until we were at the proper staffing levels to meet the lunch-hour demands and provide the best service straight through late night our guests are accustomed to.” The new hours are noon to midnight, Wednesday through Saturday and 1 p.m. through 10 p.m., Sunday.
Some of the new menu items include its Garlic Noodle Bowls, made with Yakisoba noodles stir-fried on the griddle then topped with hibachi-grilled vegetables. Customers can choose from filet mignon, shrimp, salmon or chicken for the protein. The food truck also has a number of vegetarian options plus five signature sauces, all made fresh daily.
Axlerad, 1517 Alabama, is pitting its expert mixologists against Chat GPT for an event called “Humans vs. Machines”, which will run March 1 through March 31. Axlerad will be the first bar in Texas to serve drinks generated by Chat GPT, an A.I. technology that this writer just doesn’t comprehend. Apparently, you give it an idea and see what it comes up with. Sort of like your lay-about brother.
For those who want to see if Artificial Intelligence reigns supreme in the cocktail world, half pours of drinks from Axlerad’s menu will be served and customers can make the determination about whether human ingenuity prevails or the bots are coming for our souls.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
