It’s that magical time of the year again in Houston when gourmands and gourmets bravely dash from air-conditioned homes to hotter-than-hell vehicles in order to venture out for a multi-course meal at one of the many restaurants participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks. Online menus are pored over and strategies are mapped out on vision boards to allow diners to make the best of the annual month-long event.
Houston Restaurant Weeks 2023 runs August 1 through September 4 and it just so happens to be its 20th anniversary, a milestone organizers hope to celebrate by reaching the 20 million dollar mark for the amount of money it will have raised since its inception in 2003. Thus far, the foodie fundraiser has made 18.8 million dollars for Houston Food Bank making it the largest fundraiser for the non-profit, which provides sustenance for not only food insecure people in the city, but also folks in neighboring counties.
Founded in 2003 by restaurant correspondent and local television and radio personality, Cleverley Stone, HRW serves a dual purpose of raising funds for Houston Food Bank and providing business for the local area restaurants in a month which is typically slower for the food and beverage industry. A third benefit is the deals it offers to Houstonians who have stretched their budgets to the limit for summer vacations and back-to-school gear. HRW helps to lure them back to local eateries with special menus.
Cleverley Stone was the face and voice of HRW until her death in 2020 from cancer at the age of 68. While the city mourned her passing along with her family and friends, Stone’s daughter, Katie Stone, was determined to fulfill her mother’s wish to keep HRW going in perpetuity. Katie Stone established The Cleverley Stone Foundation not long after her mother’s passing, taking on the role her mother first created. The foundation also added another event, Eat Drink HTX, which usually happens in February, after Valentine’s Day, which is another slow time for the restaurant industry. Last year, Eat Drink HTX raised money for both Houston Food Bank and Star of Hope mission.
Though HRW doesn’t start until August 1, The Cleverley Stone Foundation held a pre-launch party July 24, hosted by restaurateur Benjamin Berg at his uptown dining establishment, The Annie Cafe & Bar.
In attendance were a number of chefs and owners from restaurants and establishments participating in this year’s event. There were some first time faces such as Christina and Johann Stroh from The Butcher The Baker The Cheeseboard Maker in Pearland and returning participants, including the mother and son team of Nadereh Ahly and Iman Yarjani from Ember & Greens. Fox 26 reporter Ruben Dominguez, who often teams up with Katie Stone to report from various restaurants across Houston, was also there and Houstonians can expect to see a lot of the restaurant-roaming duo as HRW gets underway. Chef Kate McLean of Tony’s was taking advantage of her Monday night off while local personalities such as Ernie Manouse of Houston PBS and chef Kevin Bryant and wife / PR pro Marie Elgamal were spotted mingling in the crowd.
And it was quite a crowd. It was often hard to hear the speakers, which was unfortunate. Amy Ragan of Houston Food Bank made a comment about it being the time of year when “our pants get tighter and our wallets get lighter” which received laughs throughout the room. Though Katie Stone had confided in me beforehand that she was worried about crying, she made it through the presentation with a strength that would make her mother proud as the screen streamed a television food segment featuring Cleverley Stone and Chef Robert Del Grande from years before.
The crowd enjoyed passed hors d’oeuvres from The Annie, including bites of wagyu steak, lump crab tostadas, bacon beignets and chicken flautas. Two different wine distributors were giving out samples of their wines including the fun team at Dionysus Imports who were also working with several local restaurants to offer their varietals during HRW. Sam A. Jaoude of North American Wines & Spirits Importers was offering attendees a white wine and a red wine representing its wine program Wines From Lebanon which received 20 awards at Houston Rodeo Uncorked 2023, including three gold medals.
It was a joy-filled launch to a month of adventurous dining out.
This year, HRW’s meal prices are $25 for brunch and lunch and $39/$55 for dinner, depending on the restaurant and menu. For every brunch or lunch sold, $3 will go to HRW while $5 and $7 will be donated for each dinner sold, respectively.
The list of participating restaurants went live July 15 and there are hundreds of locations and menus from which to choose. While there are some chain restaurants like Saltgrass and P.F. Chang’s participating, most of the eateries are local and include a wide variety of cuisines, spanning the globe.
Just like planning a vacation, some of the fun is reading the multitude of menus and trying to make decisions on where to go. Whatever the choice, it’s an opportunity, as HRW reminds us, “to dine out and do good”.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
