Houston Restaurant Weeks Lineup

Houston Restaurant Weeks lineup: 11 newcomers definitely worth a try

Houston is only two weeks away from the annual dining frenzy known as Houston Restaurants Weeks. This year's event runs for five weeks: from August 1 until Labor Day on September 7, but unofficially kicks off today (July 15) when organizer Cleverley Stone publishes the menus of the over 200 participating restaurants.

As always, the premise is simple. Restaurants put together special lunch, brunch and dinner menus at fixed priced points ($20 for lunch, $25 for brunch, $35 or $45 for dinner). When a diner visits a restaurant and chooses the menu, the restaurant agrees to make a donation to the Houston Food Bank ($3 to $7, depending on the menu).

Last year's effort raised a record $1.6 million, which could be shattered given the additional week of dining.

Most of last year's participants have returned, including popular destinations suchs as Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, Masraff's and the Cordua family restaurnts of Americas, Churrascos and Artista. While they're certainly worth patronizing, the list below takes a look at 11 of the over 20 new HRW participants. They range from established restaurants joining the event for the first time to new restaurants that diners may not have had the chance to try.

One thing to keep in mind is that the list of restaurants isn't complete. Organizers will be adding additional places right up until the event begins August 1. If a particular favorite is missing, keep checking back. Now to the list:

Amalfi Ristorante Italiano & Bar
The Briargrove Italian restaurant inspired by the Amalfi coast offers a three-course, $45 dinner menu. Starter options include snapper crudo and beef carpaccio. Main courses consist of three seafood options that include snapper ravioli and pan seared tuna steak; those who prefer entrees that walked can choose from paccheri pasta in veal ragout or pork tenderloin medallions with black truffles and mushroom sauce. Three dessert options complete the meal.

B&B Butchers and Restaurant
The white-hot Washington Avenue steakhouse is serving both a three-course, $45 dinner and a three-course, $20 lunch. The dinner menu includes the restaurant's signature sizzling bacon appetizer as well as an 8-ounce filet. Step up to a 16-ounce slab of prime rib for a $20 supplement. At lunch, entree choices include a burger, steak sandwich and salmon. For dessert, don't miss the cheesecake.

Holley's
The Midtown seafood restaurant offers both a $45, three-course dinner menu and a two-course, $20 lunch menu. At dinner, choose from some of the restaurant's signature items like its top-notch gumbo, Thai curry mussels, blackened grouper, chicory-dusted beef tenderloin and spectacular coconut cake. At lunch, the fried oyster salad looks like the most compelling entree choice.

Jonathan's the Rub
The restaurant has been a well-loved neighborhood destination for residents of the Memorial Villages for many years, but Jonathan's is making its first-ever appearance in HRW. The three-course, $45 dinner menu includes starters like mushroom ravioli and mains like lobster salad and a 14-ounce Prime NY strip served with chimichurri sauce. Finish off with key lime cheese cake, apple cobbler or chocolate mousse.

Karbach
The restaurant at the rapidly growing craft brewery offers a three-course, $35 dinner menu. Start with the popular Korean fried chicken or a riff on the Canadian classic poutine. Entree options include shrimp and grits and an 8-ounce steak. Finish with a beer milkshake or chocolate chile stout cake.

Paul's Kitchen
The Upper Kirby restaurant known for its use of high-quality local ingredients keeps things classic on its three-course, $35 dinner menu. Start with watermelon gazpacho, salad or chicken fried quail and waffles. Entree choices consist of shrimp and grits, steak frites or chicken with charred okra. For dessert, choices include lemon poundcake and blackberry cobbler.

Peska Seafood Culture
The stylish seafood restaurant near the Galleria offers both a three-course, $45 dinner menu and a three-course, $20 lunch menu that consist of only savory options: good news for people who aren't into sweets. At lunch, start with ceviche or an oyster trio before moving on to a shrimp taco or yellow tail crostada. Main courses include a pork chop or the daily catch filet. At dinner, start with chef Omar Pereney's signature fruit and flower salad, then move on to lobster capuccino or a soft shell taco. Finish with striped bass trainera or a braised beef short rib.

Prohibition Supperclub & Bar
The downtown restaurant that's home to CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards Bartender of the Year winner Lainey Collum offers a three-course, $45 dinner menu. One could start with something other than six chargrilled oysters, but it would be a mistake to do so. Entree choices include prime rib, pork chop and salmon. Peach cobbler and chocolate torta are two of the three desserts.

Revival Market
Skip the crowds at Coltivare by going to its sister restaurant down the street. The three-course, $35 dinner menu offers most of the recently-introduced menu that's already winning fans. The 13 starter options include both the pickled shrimp and Gulf by-catch salads, as well as buttermilk biscuits or Revival's country ham. Roasted half chicken and a Berkshire pork collar are two of the four entree choices. Dessert choices include lemon panna cotta and buttermilk pie.

Radio Milano
The upscale Italian restaurant in CityCentre is serving three-course menus for lunch, brunch and dinner ($35). At dinner, start with lobster bisque or scallop crudo before moving on to risotto, beef filet or duck. Chef Jose Hernandez is well-known for his desserts, so choosing from the three options could be tough. Best to go with friends and share. On the brunch menu, black pepper spaghetti with rabbit ragu sounds particuarly intriguing.

Sud Italia
This Rice Village newcomer in the former Bistro des Amis space offers three savory courses on its $35 dinner menu. Start with arancini (fried risotto balls) or a fritto misto of fried lobster, shrimp, calamari and vegetables. Three pasta choices are next, including a compelling sounding orecchiette pasta with sausage in pomodoro sauce. Finally, choose from one of three entrees including a stew of mussels, calamari and red snapper.

Revival Market is offering 13 starter choices, including this smoked bycatch salad.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Revival Market is offering 13 starter choices, including this smoked bycatch salad.

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Rising Star

Houston restaurateur dishes on swapping Tex-Mex for new retro steakhouse

Photo by Eric Sandler

Star Rover is now open in the Heights.

Restaurateur Ford Fry surprised Houston diners when he announced in January that he was closing his Tex-Mex restaurant Superica and replacing it with Star Rover, a casual, family-friendly steakhouse. With Star Rover now open for dinner and weekend brunch, Fry — who also owns Star Rover's neighbor La Lucha, casual taqueria Little Rey, and River Oaks fine dining restaurant State of Grace — explains that the decision came down to both economics and his own desire to provide the Heights with something he thought was lacking.

“This was our smallest Superica. Superica for us takes so much — every day you’re making salsas, tortillas, it’s so prep heavy,” Fry says. “We weren’t big enough to be that successful. We didn’t have enough seats to make the labor make sense.”

Rather than compete against Houston’s seemingly limitless roster of Tex-Mex restaurants, Fry saw an opportunity for a steakhouse that occupied a space somewhere between chains like Texas Roadhouse and Outback and fine dining staples like Pappas Bros. Enter Star Rover, which already has a popular location in Nashville.

Just as La Lucha channels Fry’s childhood memories of the San Jacinto Inn, Star Rover takes some inspiration from iconic Houston restaurant Hofbrau. Diners of a certain age will see places like Hofbrau in the restaurant’s design. The walls are adorned with framed pictures, taxidermy, vintage advertising, and more.

“The inspiration is if you were some old Texas dude who wanted to start a steakhouse you’d find a bunch of crap and put it on the walls,” Fry says. “We want to make it cool, but it’s got to take you away from what it was. Did we achieve that? I hope so.”

Fry tasked chef Bobby Matos with updating the Star Rover menu for Houston. It starts with a selection of steaks — chopped, filet, T-bone, ribeye, or skirt — along with a half-chicken, blackened redfish, and chicken fried chicken. All of them come with milk rolls, salad, fries, and onion rings. Diners who want a little surf and turf can add either a crab cake or a fried lobster tail.

The appetizer menu is similarly tidy, consisting of shrimp cocktail, oysters (raw or fried), potato skins, and vegetable crudités. Desserts include a selection of pies as well as soft serve ice cream.

Since the steaks are thinner than those served at upscale steakhouses, they’re cooked hot and fast on a plancha and basted in butter.

“We control the costs by the size of the meat,” Fry explains. “Meat is so expensive, how do you do a family-friendly steakhouse? It’s a 12-ounce ribeye and it’s choice. We put the right amount of age on it.”

Tucked away in the corner of the menu is text that reads “Cheeseburger?! Just ask!” People should, because it’s a hearty half-pound, New York tavern-style burger that sits on grilled onions, is topped with cheese and mayonnaise, and is served on a classic potato bun. Think of it as the thick-patty counterpart to La Lucha’s thin-patty Pharmacy Burger.

“I call it a lowbrow steakhouse burger,” Fry says. “It’s not a Peter Luger, but it may be better and it won’t cost as much.”

Star Rover’s weekend brunch menu features the same pancakes that had been a staple at Superica. They’re joined by some new items, including baked-to-order cinnamon rolls, breakfast tacos, and kolaches that use sausage from Houston’s Roegels Barbecue Co.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Star Rover is now open in the Heights.

The restaurant has one other old-school touch in the form of an eating challenge called the “I Ate the 76er.” Available with 24 hours notice, diners who finish a 76-ounce steak, milk rolls, salad, onion rings, and fries in under an hour will receive the meal for free, plus a t-shirt and the opportunity to sign a winners’ wall. The challenge reflects the spirit Fry is bringing to Star Rover.

“A lot of it is scratching that itch of something fun I want to do versus what I think the neighborhood will like,” he says. “We did a version of this in Nashville with a stage. It’s where I eat when I’m in Nashville, because it’s what I want to eat when I’m there.”

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