It’s August in Houston, a time when many of us stay in our homes as much as possible with the AC cranked up as high as our budget will allow. Some of us will venture out for the dreaded search for school supplies, others will be trying to squeeze in one last beach day before summer is through.
August is hot and it’s busy. Unfortunately, that’s not the case for many local restaurants. Whether it’s the arrival of summer credit card bills stating exactly how much that trip to Disney World cost, or just facing a drive in a car that takes 15 minutes to cool down, many diners just don’t venture out to dine as much in August.
That’s why, in 2003, the late Cleverley Stone founded Houston Restaurant Weeks. Stone was a local media personality and advocate for Houston’s diverse restaurants, but the mission went far beyond generating foot traffic for eateries. It also became the biggest fundraiser for Houston Food Bank, with a small donation from each meal sold going to the vastly important non-profit, which provides food for Houstonians in need, as well as to more than 18 surrounding counties.
After Stone’s death in 2020, her daughter Katie Stone created the Cleverley Stone Foundation which now continues the hard work of organizing participating restaurants for the month-long event, which this year is actually running from August 1 through September 7.
I have perused the menus online and they vary in value. Some places go all out, seeing HRW as a time to wow diners who could become potential regulars. Others seem to be phoning it in, but at least they’re participating. Some restaurants have branched out with their own versions of restaurant weeks. The internet is a grumbly beast and there are plenty of opinions out there, but we still think it’s an event that diners can take advantage of, while supporting hometown restaurants and fellow Texans in need.
When looking at the menus online (the website has gotten much better, BTW), I admit I got a bit overwhelmed. There were some awesome menus like at Bryan Caswell’s Latuli and my favorite HRW spot, Maison Pucha, but the drive into Houston from Cypress is a pain and I looked for closer spots for my friend and I to check out. Unfortunately, there were very few options in my neck of the woods and even fewer in her area of Kingwood.
Then I spotted Soto’s Cantina, a neighborhood Mexican restaurant that is much loved here in the suburbs. It didn’t seem to me to be a spot where I would want to have a three-course dinner, but a look at the photos online of its HRW dishes changed my mind. I called up Kingwood Kim and her one requirement was that there would be cocktails. I assured her there were not only cocktails, but some interesting choices, so she sped on over.
The interior of Soto’s is very cute and homey, but on an early Saturday night, it was packed and loud. Wondering if we had made a bad choice, we asked for a table outside despite the heat. There were other brave souls choosing humidity over noise, so we were not alone on the wrap-around covered porch. Thankfully, there were fans going and even a slight breeze in our corner spot.
Our smiling server seemed pleased when we said we were ordering from the HRW menu, which according to some online chatter, is not always the case. Some servers say that HRW is a terrible time for tips, while others are just happy that it generates business. For our server, I’m sure he was happy that we were ordering the $39 three-course menu rather than $15 enchiladas. He was also very knowledgeable about the whole HRW mission, explaining to us about the donation system. While I have covered HRW for a number of years now, I let him do the spiel.
We also solicited his advice about the cocktails and we settled on an avocado margarita and a spicy watermelon version. The avocado rita was on the thick side, which is to be expected, and definitely tasted of avocado. It seems to be a favorite of the suburbanites because we saw many of the bright green ritas being delivered to the outside tables. My watermelon margarita was quite sweet due to the melon juice, but I squeezed the juicy lime into it and happily munched on the little watermelon triangle garnish. There wasn’t a real kick of spice, but I could have remedied that by adding the red jalapeno garnish into my drink.
Our first course plates arrived quickly, but ended up being a disappointment. I could tell the squash empanadas were slightly undercooked even before biting into them. The homemade pastry would have been amazing had they been cooked a minute longer. The filling itself did not impress, either. The squash blossoms tasted like unseasoned cooked greens and there was no other vegetable to add a little vibrancy to them. Even a few peas would have kicked them up a notch. Or a tiny bit of queso fresco.
The grilled peach salad looked more promising and it would have been if the salad mix had not been doused in cheap oil. Why the oil was even there was a mystery to us. On the side was a tasty strawberry dressing to drizzle over the fresh peaches and berries. Without the oil, I would have scarfed it up. The cubes of panela cheese were chintzy compared to the online photos, but that could have been forgiven. Covering that beautiful salad in cooking oil cannot.
However, we fared better when it came to our main courses. My friend loves street tacos so she opted for the mole verde belly tacos. Online, the pork is listed as cochinita pibil, which these were not. There also wasn’t any avocado, per the online menu, and the mole verde could be more described as a tomatillo sauce, but the homemade corn tortillas were an elevated touch to these street tacos and my friend was satisfied. The online menu says two tacos, but our server told us they bumped it up to three because they decided it wasn’t enough. Good call.
My steak with pineapple mole was a better call. The flank steak was charred beautifully on the outside with enough reddish-pink interior that the steak was still juicy, with just a slight chew. The pineapple mole was light and fruity, sort of a Mexican twist on pineapple steak.
The side dish was quinoa potosina, a spectacular alternative to Mexican-style rice. It was slightly smoky with a punch of dill from the pickled green beans on top.
We delayed the third course for a while, watching the sunset turn the sky pink and orange as we sipped on a paloma and coconut martini. At least that was my view. I could turn toward Matzke Park, watching the sun do its thing. Kingwood Kim however said, “ And I get to watch it set over the pawn shop.” I offered to switch seats but she was determined to stay where a little breeze was drifting her way.
The dessert course would make any kid, young or old, happy. The mini chalupa split was a bowl-shaped bunuelo filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with sliced bananas, berries and sliced almonds. Again, I loved the freshness of the fruit but the bunuelo itself was a tad greasy.
The best bite, though, was the pan de elote. Sometimes simple is better and this dish felt like someone had been making this all their lives. The corn bread was like a grandma’s hug, comforting and sweet. The prickly pear jam was a nice addition, but the garnish had us picking seeds out of our teeth.
My friend is a huge fan of espresso martinis and the server-recommended Soto’s carajillo, a tequila version. It elicited a sigh of contentment so I knew King wood Kim was pleased. I was in my happy place as well with my coconut martini, a straight up pina colada made with vodka instead of rum. Most of the cocktails range from $11 to $14, so the ‘burbs can be a tiny bit cheaper than inner loop establishments.
Besides having a friendly waiter, we were checked on by both a manager and one of the owners. Which is probably why this little eatery, tucked away in an old house-like structure, has earned the neighborhood’s love.
So, for the HRW menu’s three courses, two out of three ain’t bad. A couple of tweaks to the appetizers and they could probably knock it out of the park instead of a bunt. The cocktails though? A home run.
Soto’s Cantina
10609 Grant
281-955-5667
