On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” chef Joseph Boudreaux joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss Boo’s Burgers. Recently opened on the Navigation Esplanade, Boo’s Burgers is a brick-and-mortar location of Boudreaux’s five-year-old burger pop-up.
The conversation begins with Boudreaux sharing the path that brought him for a corporate job to professional cooking. Along the way, he worked at Tiny Champions, the pizza and small plates concepts from the owners of Nancy’s Hustle, and the Tipping Point, an establishment that combined coffee, tattoos, and vintage streetwear.
The chef started serving burgers at the Tipping Point. He quickly built a following — including a timely shout out from Top Chef finalist Dawn Burrell — that allowed him to start serving burgers at events across Houston. What sets Boo’s Burgers apart is Boudreaux’s burger grind, a custom mix of shoulder clod, chuck roll, and beef belly.
“I wanted something that was really beefy, really rich. That would be different from anything else that’s out there,” Boudreaux says. “For me, if I’m going to do something — again, looking at Jason [Vaughan, chef and co-owner of Nancy’s Hustle and Tiny Champions] and the time I spent with him. So much stuff is made from scratch — if I’m going to do it, let me present the best product I can possibly do. Me grinding my own meat really sets my burger apart.”
Listen to the full episode to hear the chef’s plans to expand Boo’s Burgers menu slightly. He also shares why it was important to him to have a 1,000-square-foot kiosk location rather than a larger restaurant.
In this week’s other episode, Sandler and co-host Brianna McClane discuss the news of the week. They begin by making some suggestions for where to eat during Houston Restaurant Weeks. From there, they turn to Riel’s announcement that it will close at the end of August and react to a California-based venture capital firm acquiring local favorite Shipley Do-Nuts.
In the restaurants of the week segment, McClane and Sandler share first impressions of Kitchen Rumors, the intriguing new restaurant from the team behind Woodlands restaurant Amrina. They praises dishes such as the infladita and paneer kakori but disagree on the merits of a blue cheese chicken kebab. The segment concludes with a discussion of the highs and lows of a meal at Alora, the Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Montrose.
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