Lately, we've been checking out new Houston happy hour places here at the Houston Press to find some drinking and dining deals for our readers. Oftentimes, my husband, Classic Rock Bob is my companion on these tough assignments. However, he was out of town this past week and my friend, Big Hair Kim, was his stand-in since she had conveniently taken off several days of work for the July Fourth holiday.

Because she was also pet sitting her granddog, it meant I would have to make the drive to her neck of the woods which happens to be in the Livable Forest of Kingwood. I scoured the internet, trying to find a good nearby happy hour but it wasn't easy.  Not to insult the fine people of Kingwood, but there really is a dearth of non-chain eateries or social hour offerings. The few that I did find were closed on Monday which just happened to be the day we were hanging out.
When I mentioned to my friend the few Mexican restaurants with decent happy hour deals in Kingwood she didn't seem enthused though margaritas are one of her most favorite things in the world. It's probably the reason we've been besties for decades. Instead, she suggested we try out J. Christopher's, a longtime Italian joint in Kingwood that was recently bought by the owners of two other Kingwood hotspots, Chimichurri's South American Grill and Sharky's Waterfront Grill.

I have been driving to visit my friend in Kingwood since we were nineteen, which means a few decades zooming past J. Christopher's. Not once in those many years has Big Hair Kim suggested dining there or even ordering from the restaurant. It was never one of her favorite places and was often a last resort for takeout. When the new owners took over, she and her adult daughter gave it a try and really enjoyed it. She thought I might, too.

Though a plate of steaming pasta is not what I usually think of on a hot Houston afternoon, I saw that the Monday drink special was sangria and I am quite a fan of the fruity wine cocktail. My friend and I made our way to J. Christopher's to enjoy a meal and some conversation. Classic Rock Bob often wonders aloud how we have anything else to talk about after our many years of gabbing but we amuse ourselves and that's what matters.
J. Christopher's has been located off Kingwood's Northpark Drive for over four decades and has changed ownership a few times over the years. The current owners, Rosa and Ronald Perez, bought the suburban pizza and pasta restaurant at the end of 2022, then did renovations and created a new menu. It reopened in late March 2023. While there have been a few grumbles online from regular customers about the changes to the pizza and the loss of some of the previous menu's dishes, others seem pleased with the refresh.

For me, however, this was my first visit so I couldn't make any comparisons to the original set up. That can be a good thing.

The restaurant is located in a strip center and the bistro tables outside might make for okay dining in cooler temperatures, if one doesn't mind the parking lot view. We headed inside to find a bright and cottage-y space with a cabinet of wine bottles lining the entry along with a wall of wooden pizza peels. There were blue banquettes along the brick wall where several diners were already occupying much of the space. We were sat at a table against a peer-through wall which looked into another dining room.
We both ordered the Monday sangria special ($6.50) which is available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Our server returned with two very full wine glasses of purple brew served over a little crushed ice. It was heavy on the brandy and light on the fruit but it was deliciously refreshing and similar to a sangria I once had in Paris.

We had a hard time choosing an appetizer but the Pizza Fritta sounded promising. Our server seemed quite taken with us and even sat down and talked with us occasionally. That may not be everyone's style but we are fun time gals so we enjoyed having another gal to blab with.

She brought us two slices of the complimentary focaccia and it was all we could do not to beg for more. Some focaccia can be very tough but this was slightly crispy on the outside and fluffy soft within. There was no restraint with the butter and minced garlic which was a good thing. We would have been willing to pay handsomely for seconds.
Our Pizza Fritta soon hit the table and it was completely different than what I expected. My Italian American mother-in-law, who sadly passed away many years ago, used to make what she called pizzelles. They were fried discs of pizza dough served with tomato sauce and a sprinkle of cheese and are commonly called pizza fritta. This was more like an empanada filled with mozzarella and pesto, which made sense once we learned that the chef was Venezuelan. It was tasty, as dishes filled with cheese often are, but I don't think I would order it again for $9. The pesto sauce itself was very green and my friend swore she could taste spinach in it. Considering the garnish was fresh baby spinach leaves, she might be right.

Both our meals came with a salad. The dressings were standard jarred stuff with mine being Italian and my friend's balsamic vinaigrette. I liked that the salad was a blend of spring mix and iceberg and the grape tomatoes were nice and ripe. We were both impressed with the homemade croutons which were very garlicky and almost melted in the mouth, unlike the store-bought kind which put the eater in danger of a dental emergency.
Once our entrees I arrived, we ordered a second sangria. My friend loves Caprese salad and her Spaghetti Napoletana ($14) was basically the pasta version. My lunch special eggplant parmesan had the same spaghetti and marinara as her plate minus the bocconcini mozzarella. There were three slices of breaded eggplant atop the mound of pasta with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on top. Some Italian restaurants drown anything remotely "parmesan" in loads of cheese. This version allowed the eggplant to be the star. The eggplant was perfectly cooked inside and the outer crust was just a few seconds from being overdone as if someone had snatched it out of the fryer in the nick of time. It was a solid eggplant parm and a good weekday lunch deal for $12.99. It includes salad and tea but I was having sangria.
My friend loved her dish and since her pasta was basically the same as mine, I didn't give hers a try. We both agreed that the sauce let the tomatoes shine through with a nice bit of garlic. I didn't really taste any herbs in the sauce but there were some sprinkled on my eggplant. My friend's plate had fresh basil leaves sprinkled around with a mix of fresh tomatoes, marinara sauce and mozzarella.

A few more customers wandered in as we sat enjoying the last of our sangria. The light-colored shades were drawn but we still felt a bit toasty. Since my friend has a teenage son at home and I was staying over, we ordered some items to go. When it came time to pay, our server seemed disappointed to lose us. As I said, Big Hair Kim and I are pretty fun.
Later that evening, we dug into our take-away booty. We had ordered the deep dish cheese pizza for her son, only asking that he save a slice or two for us to taste. And we were happy that a teenage boy actually listened. The pizza was amazing. Maybe it's because I haven't had deep dish pie in years due to my husband's aversion to it. You would think a carb freak would love the thicker crust.

The sauce was a deep dark red with a hint of oregano and it had a nice topping of cheese but it was the crust itself that was full of flavor. It was wonderfully charred, crispy on the outside with a nice chew on the inside. Between the pizza crust and the focaccia, someone is doing bread right at J. Christopher's.

We also had fried mushrooms ($9), fried zucchini ($8) and fried arancini ($10). The mushrooms and zucchini were fried in a tempura-style batter and both were perfectly cooked inside, especially the zucchini which also came with a tasty horseradish sauce for dipping. The arancini, however, was the fail of the day. There were three balls of rather bland rice only brightened by the meat sauce on top. It seemed as if the arancini was made with plain rice rather than risotto which may be why it was flavorless. Slow cooked risotto soaks up the flavor of whatever broth it is cooked in and that's why cooks often use the leftovers to make arancini. And for ten bucks, the three small balls were probably not the best deal on the menu.
Still, the majority of what we sampled at the newly rebooted J. Christopher's showed a traditional approach to Italian American cuisine with a few unique touches and fresh ingredients. There is a lot more that I would like to try such as the tableside Cacio e Pepe made in a wheel of cheese. I would also like to see how its thin crust pizza compares to the deep dish. I might even be able to convince Classic Rock Bob that deep dish pizza is not an abomination once he tries the version at J. Christopher's.

Since Big Hair Kim lives just minutes away from the restaurant, I'll probably find myself visiting Kingwood more often to take advantage of the other daily drink specials at J. Christopher's such as the Wednesday and Thursday Limoncello Lemon Drop or Sunday's Mimosa.

And I will definitely beg for more of that focaccia.

J. Christopher's Italian Bistro
2245 Northpark
281-358-6601
jcitalianbistro.com