Spring Branch's two-year wait for its first self service restaurant ends this month. Shoot the Moon will open the week of July 26.
Developed by Kevin Floyd, previously a founding partner of Anvil and Underbelly Hospitality, Shoot the Moon features a wall of 80 taps divided between beer, wine, cocktails, and spirits. After checking in at the counter and swiping a credit card, diners will receive an access card that allows them to pour any of those beverages into appropriate glassware.
Prices are by the ounce, and the system measures to the tenth, ensuring customers only pay for what they pour. To go along with the new format, diners pay an 18-percent service fee instead of a traditional tip, a model the restaurant describes on its website. When they're ready to leave, diners simply drop their access card in a locked box; the restaurant will close all open tabs at the end of the night and charge each card according to what the party ate and drank.
“The pandemic and the economic climate over the past year have been exceptionally difficult for just about everyone, including people like us who are crazy enough to completely reinvent the restaurant experience,” Floyd said in a statement. “We are absolutely stoked to be able to share our innovative concept with the people of Houston, especially the residents of our Spring Branch neighborhood, who have been cheering us on all along.”
Chef-partner Dax McAnear, whose resume includes Triniti, Textile, Beavers, and Hay Merchant, has developed an extensive menu that's built around pizza, small plates, and center of the plate entrees. Pizza comes in thin, pan, or gluten-free crusts (a flour-less dough that's more properly identified as a flatbread) with the ability to choose from set combinations or build-your-own. For example, the taco pizza comes topped with beef, beans, taco sauce, black olives, chipotle cream, and lime, while the meat lovers pairs pepperoni with three housemade meats: bacon, Canadian bacon, and sausage.
Non-pizza options start with small plates such as hummus with romesco, black garlic cheesy bread, pimento cheese-stuffed mushroom, and crab claws tossed in Buffalo sauce. Many of the entrees have been designed to comply with the Whole 30 and paleo diets as well as be gluten-free; they include Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy and carrots, chicken with tomato and coconut curry, and confit chicken thighs with cherry-apricot chipotle glaze.
Those looking for even lighter options may consider five different salad options, or maybe they've just saving room for the four desserts.
“The Shoot the Moon experience will be very different from a traditional table service restaurant, because we’ve eliminated the frustration points such as waiting to get the attention of a bartender or waiter to order your next drink or food item," Floyd said. "We’re giving guests a high level of control with their experience. We won’t dictate the pacing or try to steer choices, unless the guests ask for help with decision making."
All that eating and drinking happens in a 4,000-square-foot space designed by local firm Collaborative Projects, overseen by STM partner Jonas Herd, with branding and other signage by Letterset Houston. Shoot the Moon joins Feges BBQ and Slowpokes in Braun Enterprises' Spring Branch Village shopping center at 8155 Long Point Rd.
A look inside Shoot The Moon.
The cheesesteak is served on a seeded hoagie roll.Photo by Michael Ma