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    Houston's Hot New Bakery

    Food game changer: Houston's best bread company is set to open its first local bakery — and expand to Austin

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 30, 2014 | 9:56 am

    The numbers are staggering: 15,000 to 20,000 pounds of flour per week, 18,000 pieces per day (6,000 or more of which are hamburger buns), 300 customers from Conroe to Webster and Katy to Kingwood. All produced from an anonymous, unmarked warehouse space on Westpark.

    Owner Heath Wendell estimates that as many as 20,000 Houstonians per day eat the bread produced by Slow Dough Bread Co. "It's just mind boggling for us," he tells CultureMap.

    While Wendell could be content with Slow Dough's growth over the past five years, he isn't the sort of person to rest of his laurels. That's why the company, which supplies freshly baked bread to many of Houston's finest restaurants, is set to expand even further by moving into the Austin market and opening a retail storefront as part of the new Weights + Measures complex in Midtown. (CultureMap was first to report on the Weights + Measures complex.)

    The menu is still under development, but it will include donuts, as well as what Wendell calls the "rustic side of pastries . . . "

    Wendell recalls growing up in Chicago and working for Deerfields Bakery, a company his grandfather started. When he wanted to grow the business beyond what his uncles were comfortable with, Wendell's grandfather encouraged him to leave and start his own business.

    "He recognized I was an entrepreneur," Wendell says. Eventually, Wendell arrived in Houston. "I came down here and recognized the need for bread," he says.

    The Austin expansion has already begun. A Slow Dough truck heads west four days per week to service six accounts that include celebrated charcuterie shop Salt & Time, Royal Blue grocery and the Farmhouse delivery service. General manager Clayton Garrett tells CultureMap that Slow Dough is responding to demand from Austin restaurants that couldn't purchase bread from Austin's existing commercial bakers.

    "We made the decision because of the amount of phone calls we received," Wendell adds. "We're really, really excited about it."

    To meet the expected demand, the company has added two new trucks and will soon install two massive new deck ovens to double its production capacity.

    In addition, manager Thomas Massey, who spent years working for Whole Foods in Austin, will be in the city full-time to serve as a resource for customers. Massey notes that despite the growth of Austin's restaurant scene, the city's existing bakeries don't have "enough capacity to handle the desire for new, different and better." Still, he says, "I love Austin. There's tons of room for everyone."

    If there's sufficient demand, Wendell thinks Slow Dough could even open a bakery in Austin to service both that city and San Antonio. Once the demand justifies the expense, Wendell says he'd like to find a business-minder baker in Austin who could partner with the company and train in Houston. "It would be nice," he says.

    As the Austin expansion is happening, Slow Dough will also launch its first retail space as part of the Weights + Measures complex in Midtown. The development, a joint venture between urban designer/developer Ian Rosenberg, 13 Celsius owner Mike Sammons, Brown Paper Chocolates owner Richard Kaplan and Slow Dough, will feature a 600 square-foot retail bakery that sells sweet and savory breads and pastries.

    The partnership grew out of Wendell's longstanding relationship with Rosenberg and Sammons that began when Wendell and co-owner/fiancee Marlo Evans first started Slow Dough. The last stop on their delivery route was 13 Celsius, and they would stay to have a glass of wine and discuss their businesses. For four years, Rosenberg told Wendell that he wanted to help him open a retail location.

    "This project came up, and everything worked out," Wendell says. "Everything will be made there," he promises, rather than trucked in from the wholesale facility.

    "When you have a retail store, you can see people's reactions to your product," Wendell notes. "I'm totally looking forward to it." The menu is still under development, but it will include donuts, as well as what Wendell calls the "rustic side of pastries . . . Things I grew up making."

    The new space will also make pizza dough for an adjacent restaurant and serve as a training ground for bakers before they enter production at the wholesale facility, since they'll be freed from the pressure of having to make hundreds of pieces at a time.

    "We'll be part of the retail community, which is pretty cool," Wendell says.

    The production facility will add additional capacity soon.

    6 Slow Dough bread making June 2014
      
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    The production facility will add additional capacity soon.
    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    Bourdain-inspired chef/writer

    Houston chef looks back at barbecue pop-ups with artful new zine

    Craig D. Lindsey
    May 15, 2025 | 4:00 pm
    Ryan Grimes Knives in Water
    Courtesy of Ryan Grimes
    Ryan Grimes has been serving food in bars for more than 10 years.

    If you frequent beloved dive bars like Two Headed Dog, Grand Prize Bar or Lil' Danny Speedo's Go Fly a Kite Lounge, there’s a good chance you’ve drunkenly bought food from Knives in Water.

    One of several pop-up kitchens that sells and serves bar food on a regular basis, Knives consists of one guy – Baltimore native Ryan Grimes – who knows his way around smoked meats, whether it’s ribs, turkey legs, buffalo wings, or a whole turkey (for Thanksgiving only). When it comes to barbecue, he sees himself as a culinary outlier.

    “The art of barbecue can kind of be gatekept by a lot of folks, which is ridiculous,” Grimes tells CultureMap. “I mean, it's three ingredients. It's a lot like punk rock: three chords and the truth, and you’re gonna get it right.

    On Saturday, May 24, Grimes will celebrate his 42nd birthday at Midtown bar Two Headed Dog, where he’ll be serving up more than just food. He’ll also debut Papercut, a zine filled with essays, remembrances and, yes, recipes. “A lot of it was taken from previous Instagram posts I had done that I expounded upon,” he says.

    With layout and artwork provided by bartender/artist Khrystah Luisa Gorham (who also designed Knives in Water’s logo and T-shirt merch), Grimes included many endearing entries to this brisk read. A 2015 post has him recalling the time he and his father went to the Million Man March when he was 12. A more recent piece has him cooking for his parents and maternal grandparents on Martin Luther King Day. He pays tribute to idol Anthony Bourdain (“I count him as a teacher of sorts, helping me find my own voice through food, culture and adventure.”) as well as an old friend whom he named a wing sauce after.

    The issue also runs down the various dishes Grimes tinkered with during the pandemic. “I took a look back at dishes that I had done in the past that I don't do anymore or, for one reason or another, I can't do,” he says. “Maybe they're too complicated or just wouldn't sell well at a dive bar, that kind of thing.”

    Papercut is basically a printed primer of the business Grimes has been operating since 2019. “Actually, [The Suffers frontwoman] Kam Franklin was the person that first put the idea in my head to do this, you know, professionally,” he remembers. “I did a dinner party for her. I mean, I can't remember what year it was — 2010, 2012, 2014… She was the first person to say, 'hey, you really got something here. You know, you're talented, your food's good. People seem to dig it.' So I guess you could kind of date it back to that.”

    Grimes got the idea for Papercut when he did a pop-up at last year’s Zine Fest Houston, held at the Orange Show. That’s where co-organizer Anastasia “Stacy” Kirages encouraged Grimes to put his thoughts and opinions down on paper. “It took her a while to convince me to do it,” he says. “Stacy's the most personable, likable person on the planet and I admire the hell out of her. So, it was kind of tough.”

    After he stopped procrastinating, Grimes found that creating a zine came quite easily to him. “Once I came up with the name, the silly name, it just kind of flew together in the space of maybe two months. I started writing it in February and I was holding a copy of it by late March, maybe early April. But yeah, it didn't take long at all.”

    Grimes has a limited number of copies, which he’ll be selling at his pop-ups. Copies will also be available at CLASS Bookstore and Gulf Coast Cosmos Comicbook Co. He isn’t ruling out dropping another volume if demand calls for it. If he does, Grimes assures readers that he’ll have fun with it and not become another culinary clout-chaser. “

    Yeah, it's really serious – the business of being a foodie, posting on Instagram and likes and all this stuff,” he says. “The competition is real and this is just a way to say it doesn't have to be that way. You know, you can do all of this yourselves. You and your friends can start a pop-up.

    “Starting a restaurant is something that will likely never happen for me,” he continues, “but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in my food and don't believe in my friends that do it as well. Umbrella Fellas, Annie’s Sammies, Tacos Bomberos. These are all pop-ups that are deserving of brick-and-mortar restaurants. They're deserving of all the accolades that we just don't get overshadowed because we're small-time, hanging out in dive bars, serving the people. But that's fine. No one I know is doing this for the laurels. It's just this punk rock DIY ethic that anyone can do this. Yeah, that's the beauty of it.”

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    news/restaurants-bars
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