Saigon House at 3101 Main has piqued a lot of curiosity, and now you can satisfy that. The fast-casual café is open, and chef Vu Tuan Anh is ready to show off his tradition-meets-today fusion Vietnamese fare. It's a dining option before a visit to MATCH, the new Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston, and the light rail will take you right to its doors. It will be open for lunch only, seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to start and will extend its hours until 10 p.m. to include dinner in a few weeks.
The long-awaited
Hunky-Dory Tavern, 1801 North Shepherd, opens for business on October 5.
Check out Greg Morago's preview article on the Houston Chronicle website, which includes a sampling of menu items including crab soup with cream and sherry, pork belly with beans and
escabeche of rabbit. It shouldn't surprise you to know that this British-style fare is created by Richard Knight, former chef of
Feast.
A reader tip told us that we missed the opening of
Off The Vine at 2865 Dulles in Missouri City, which we regret! The new bistro uses locally sourced ingredients, including its own freshly-grown herbs, and also offers freshly blended teas made in house. The lunch menu is traditional café fare, but dinner has heartier offerings such as crab-topped mushroom caps with jalapeño jelly or beef stew with mustard bread.
It appears that
Teala's at 3210 West Dallas has closed; a reader told us that the parking lot is chained off, and our phone calls went unanswered. The
website and Yelp listing are still live, but something is definitely up at Teala's.
Ever wondered how the bagel equivalent of a doughnut hole would turn out? You can figure that out at
Bagel Dots, 5533 Judalon, which serves just that. We have to say that the
glamour shots on the website look incredible. As an added bonus, they deliver within the Loop, so you don't even have to change out of your pajamas to get your morning fix of tiny, round bagel bites.
Olivia Pulsinelli at the Houston Business Journal reports that popular Mexican food franchise
Los Cucos has opened a brand-new concept,
Mama Sumba Sports Bar & Grill, at 9522 North Sam Houston Parkway East. There are 23 high-definition televisions, bar games, and a 25-foot bar stocked with Los Cucos' classic mixed drinks and a plentiful beer list.
Cara Smith, also of the Houston Business Journal, says that
Slim Chickens, an Arkansas-based fried chicken restaurant, will be opening its first Houston location at 23320 Mercantile Parkway on November 2. The restaurant has plans to open as many as 20 Houston-area locations in the next five years, so you may have a new favorite wing place very soon. According to the new general manager at the Katy location, there are no heat lamps in sight; food is served fast and fresh as a daisy.
Sharetea at 9889 Bellaire is now open and slinging delicious bubble teas and other drinks, albeit somewhat slowly;
the Yelp reviews are positive about the goods, but wait times are pretty long. Hopefully the service will speed up after they've been in business for a bit.
Yet another burger joint is coming to town;
Eric Sandler at CultureMap reports that Austin-based
Hopdoddy is coming soon to the River Oaks District and is aiming for a spring 2016 opening. The eatery offers not only all-natural beef patties, but also bison, lamb, chicken, turkey, tuna and veggie patties. There will also be also boozy milkshakes and plentiful craft beer to seal the deal.
d'marcos pizzeria is opening a second location in the Energy Corridor area at 14642 Memorial where you'll be able to find the Chicago-style and deep-dish pies that Sugar Land residents have grown to adore. Owner Demarco Jenkins got his recipe from Mama Rigetta's in Chicago and uses top-notch, additive-free ingredients to make his award-winning pizzas. The grand opening celebration for the new location will be sometime in October, which is National Pizza Month; watch for an opening announcement on
the d'marcos Facebook page.
A new food-and-flicks theater will be opening in 2017;
Moviehouse & Eatery, an Austin enterprise, has purchased land in Cypress Creek Lakes for its first Houston location,
says Laura Furr at the Houston Business Journal. The theater boasts a full kitchen and alcohol service with beer, wine and cocktails. If you're curious to see what the new cinema will be like, you can check out the original location in Austin or the three branches in Dallas.
That's all for openings and closings this week! Know of something we missed? Leave us a comment or
send us an email.
