As the first month of the new year ended, restaurant openings picked up and Houston saw a busy week for new places.
At long last, Philippe (1800 Post Oak Boulevard, 713-439-1000) has finally opened its doors. And lest you think the food is out of your price range, check out the bargain-priced lounge menu that includes delicious-sounding items like spicy duck confit tamales for $9 and caramelized sage cheesecake for $8. Full menus can be found online, but note that lunch service doesn't kick off until Tuesday, February 8.
Downtown, the owners of Les Givral's Kahve have finally opened a similarly anticipated restaurant on Market Square: Convey (801 Congress 713-225-1408), which features a sushi conveyor belt similar to Sushi Choo Choo in Humble (and the countless other conveyor belt sushi restaurants around the U.S.). Will ERA -- the other restaurant rumored to be coming soon on this stretch of Congress -- be the next to open its doors?
Two new coffee shops have taken up residence in Montrose, although they couldn't be more different from one another. Bungalow (1219 Marconi, 713-524-2591) is a coffee shop/boutique located in a 1914 cottage off West Clay and features locally roasted coffee in addition to gifts and clothing. If you want to pull up a seat and stay a while, owners Katie and Denise Skorka even offer the use of iPads in addition to free wi-fi.
Black Hole Cafe (4504 Graustark, 713-528-0653), meanwhile, offers a more artsy vibe that's in keeping with its Poison Girl and Antidote kinship. It has longer hours, too, opening at 6:30 a.m. and staying open until midnight and offering beer and wine in addition to lattes and coffee.
Revival Market will have some glorious competition -- and the more local markets, the better -- with Relish when it opens this spring. Owner Addie D'Agostino promises a vast selection of local, artisanal products for sale as well as ready-made goodies like party trays and picnic platters.
Finally, StartupHouston has the scoop on a new cafe/bar/coworking space that will be opening soon downtown. If there's anywhere that could use a concept like that, it's downtown. Looking forward to hearing more about this one for sure.
On the next page, a list of openings and closings from the entire month of January.
