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    things to know

    5 things to know in Houston food right now: Openings, breakfast sandos, and elegant new lunch

    Eric Sandler
    Jan 29, 2021 | 11:31 am

    Editor’s note: Houston’s restaurant scene moves pretty fast. In order to prevent CultureMap readers from missing anything, let’s stop to look around at all the latest news to know.

    Coming attractions

    Houston’s newest hot chicken truck will open near the Galleria next month. Clutch City Cluckers will serve halal hot chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, and fries topped with hot chicken at 5550 Val Verde St. Founder Ahmad Kilani has worked for Abu Omar Halal and is a partner in six locations of the halal food truck and restaurant.

    The truck will celebrate its grand opening the week of February 19-21 with 50-percent off all food items as well as a raffle with giveaways that include a Sony Playstion 5 and Nintendo Switch.

    Katy favorite The Social Pub & Grill will open a second location in Fulshear later this year, real estate firm NewQuest Properties announced. The three year-old bar and restaurant has been a hit thanks to its eclectic menu of bar food — sandwiches, burgers, steaks, shareable, etc. — as well as extensive selection of cocktails.

    “It’s possible Social Pub & Grill could be the only full-service restaurant in Cross Creek Commons,” NewQuest senior associate Andrew Alvis said in a statement. “And that’s a sweet spot to be in from a business standpoint.”

    Other news and notes

    Sticky’s Chicken has launched a weekend egg sandwiches pop-up. Beginning Saturday, January 30 and continuing for the foreseeable future, SCRMBLD will serve four egg sandwiches on maple butter Texas toast: bacon, egg, and cheese; sausage, egg, and cheese; tomato, spinach, egg, and cheese; and grilled onion, ham, egg, and cheese.

    “We’ve always wanted to add a breakfast menu, and we wanted something fun and easy and were inspired by the egg sandwich trend,” Sticky’s co-owner Patsy Vivares tells CultureMap. “So we came up with our own version."

    Common Bond Bistro & Bakery has teamed up with influencer Danielle Dubois, the personality behind the hangryhoustonian Instagram account, for a special promotion to help combat childhood cancer. The bakery is offering DIY king cake decorating kits — in both cinnamon and raspberry — for the Mardi Gras season, and $5 from each kit sold will benefit Sky High for Kids, a non-profit that has raised more than $16 million for pediatric cancer research since 2007. Pre-order through February 10 for pickup between February 13 and 16.

    In addition, people can purchase a Common Bond king cake that the restaurant will donate to a patient at Texas Children’s Cancer Center. Common Bond hopes to donate at least 200 king cakes ($25) on February 16.

    “Our organization started in Louisiana and it is great to go back to our roots,” Sky High founder and CEO Brittany Hebert Franklin said in a statement. “We are humbled to be a part of this project with Common Bond and Danielle.”

    After a successful run in December, Turner’s has made lunch service a permanent part of its offerings. The upscale establishment from proprietor Ben Berg and chef Robert Del Grande serves lunch Tuesday - Friday from 11 am - 3 pm.

    Like the dinner menu, lunch at Turner’s features updated takes on classic American fare such as lobster salad, chicken salad, and a cheeseburger topped with Raclette and “secret sauce.” Those who really want to splurge may opt for a Texas wagyu ribeye or caviar.

    “While it certainly may not be an everyday lunch spot for everyone, we hope Houstonians will consider our intimate, elegant dining room with first-class service to celebrate closing a deal, a birthday, any important milestone...or even just to take an afternoon off to splurge on yourself.,” Berg said in a statement.

    Sticky's Chicken's breakfast pop-up begins Saturday, January 30.

    Sticky's Chicken egg sandwich
    Photo by Becca Wright
    Sticky's Chicken's breakfast pop-up begins Saturday, January 30.
    news-you-can-eat
    news/restaurants-bars

    What's Eric Eating Episodes 523 and 524

    Acclaimed Austin duo dish on their wine-obsessed neighborhood restaurant

    CultureMap Staff
    Jan 16, 2026 | 1:08 pm
    Birdie's Arjav Ezekiel Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel
    Photo by Mackenzie Smith Kelly
    Birdie's owners Arjav Ezekiel and chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel are this week's guests.

    On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel and beverage director Arjav Ezekiel join CultureMap Houston editor Eric Sandler to discuss their Austin restaurant Birdie’s.



    Widely considered one of Austin’s top restaurants, Birdie’s has earned local, regional, and national acclaim, including a place of the 2025 Time100 Next list, Food & Wine magazine’s 2023 Restaurant of the Year, and a 2025 James Beard Award for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service to Ezekiel. In a 2024 column, James Beard Award winner Chris Shepherd recommended that Houstonians visit Birdie’s the next time they’re in Austin.

    Sandler’s conversation with the duo begins with a little bit about how they met while working together in New York and their decision to move to Austin. From there, it turns to Birdie’s counter service model that’s unusual for a restaurant of its quality. Sandler asks whether not offering traditional table service has lowered the restaurant’s profits.

    “It’s the opposite. Because we have a leaner labor force in the dining room, our margins are probably double what they would be if we were a traditional restaurant,” Ezekiel explains. “What we’re able to do is take a portion of that margin and invest it back into our team. We talk about ‘Conscious Capitalism’ a lot. That extra margin pays for paid family leave that we offer to everybody on our team, the month of paid and planned vacation every year, the subsidized health insurance, the subsidized mental therapy we offer. We needed to find more change under the cushions, so we could invest it back into our team.”

    Initially, Birdie’s opened with an a la carte menu. In 2025, it switched to a prix fixe format that offers diners six courses for $80. The switch means the restaurant serves fewer diners per night, which has shortened the wait to order from up to an hour to 20 minutes or less. Chef Malechek-Ezekiel explains that this change has also expanded the range of dishes she’s able to serve and broadened the techniques she uses to create them.

    “We can cook fish confit. We can use the Japanese robata grill to cook on charcoal. We can hot smoke fish to order. Now, I feel like, wow, look what we can do now. Before, we had the skills, but we couldn’t physically do it with how tiny our space is.”

    Listen to the full episode to hear more about how Birdie’s guides diners through its wine list, which of the monthly prix fixe menus has been the most successful, and the couple’s thoughts on potentially opening a new restaurant.



    In this week’s other episode, Craft Pita chef-owner Raffi Nasr joins Sandler to discuss some recent news in the world of Houston restaurants. Their topics include Tex-Mex restaurant Superica transforming into a casual steakhouse; the imminent opening of delivery-focused Shredders Pizza; and a change in operations at Weights + Measures.

    In the restaurant of the week segment, Nasr and Sandler describe their recent meal at Oru, a new sushi restaurant in the Heights from the team behind Michelin-recognized omakase counter Neo and Upper Kirby hand roll concept Kira. Listen to hear their favorite dishes as well as Sandler’s quibbles with a couple of aspects of the experience.

    -----

    Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hear it Sunday at 9 am on ESPN 97.5.

    Birdie's Arjav Ezekiel Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel

    Photo by Mackenzie Smith Kelly

    Birdie's owners Arjav Ezekiel and chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel are this week's guests.

    news-you-can-eatinterviewpodcastchefs
    news/restaurants-bars

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