Tastemaker Winners Revealed

Houston's best restaurant and chef crowned at the 2020 Tastemaker Awards

The CultureMap Tastemaker Awards are always memorable, and 2020 will be no exception. Bars, restaurants, and breweries are facing unprecedented challenges, and these awards celebrate the spirit of creativity and ingenuity that keeps them pushing forward.

When we began introducing you to this year's nominees in February, the world looked a lot different. Not long after, our awards program and tasting event, originally planned for early April, was rescheduled, and this summer, we pivoted to a completely virtual format for our annual awards. Despite the uncertainty and changes, our mission remains the same: to honor Houston's top restaurant and bar talent when they need the recognition the most.

As a reminder, a panel of industry experts, including former winners, selected tonight’s winners, except for Best New Restaurant, which was selected by CultureMap readers. That means all of our nominees and winners have earned the respect of their peers. With so many talented people working in the city’s bars and restaurants, we truly hope they feel it was an honor to be nominated.

Tonight’s winners, as revealed in a ceremony hosted by Houston hip-hop legend Bun B, bring more acclaim to Nancy’s Hustle. After winning Restaurant of the Year in 2019, the EaDo favorite takes home two prizes this year: Chef of the Year for Jason Vaughan and Pastry Chef of the Year for Julia Doran. More than serving delicious food, the team at Nancy’s has earned respect for its inclusive culture.

Like restaurants across the country, Nancy’s Hustle has had to alter its operations in the face of the pandemic. The restaurant has operated as to-go only, which allows it to keep paying for employees’ health insurance while limiting the potential for contracting COVID-19.

They’re not alone in finding creative ways to operate despite the challenges posed by the virus. Rosie Cannonball claimed the Goodnight Charlie’s patio to offer a new menu of food and drinks meant to be enjoyed outdoors. Buffalo Bayou Brewing erected a massive tent in its parking lot to provide more outdoor seating. Two Headed Dog has been selling its signature frozen cocktails to-go.

Hopefully, this year’s awards inspire diners to patronize both our nominees and their local favorites. Whether dine-in or to-go, these establishments need support if they’re going to survive. Now, meet our 2020 Tastemaker Awards winners.

Restaurant of the Year: Himalaya
Think of this as a lifetime achievement award for Kaiser Lashkari’s essential Indo-Pak restaurant. Himalaya didn’t necessarily take a step forward in the last 12 months — although Lashkari did earn his first James Beard semifinalist nomination in 2019 — so much as it has remained a consistently excellent place to dine. Even picking a favorite dish is almost impossible, but building around chicken hara masala, steak tikka, and lamb biryani will result in a satisfying experience.

Chef of the Year: Jason Vaughan, Nancy’s Hustle
This award feels like a fitting arc for the chef, who won the Tastemaker Award for Rising Star Chef in 2018 and earned his first James Beard Award semifinalist nomination earlier this year. Credit Vaughan for creating Nancy’s menu of instant classics — who knew Houstonians had such a deep affection for smoked trout roe — and for keeping things fresh with specials. We look forward to trying his take on pizza and fermented vegetable dishes at the upcoming Tiny Champions.

Rising Star Chef of the Year: Felipe Riccio, Rosie Cannonball
Riccio brought the lessons he learned in Europe at acclaimed restaurants Osteria Francescana and Azurmendi to Montrose where he blends Spanish and Italian techniques with locally sourced ingredients to create Rosie Cannonball’s utterly craveable dishes. The restaurant’s small vegetable plates, including the essential blistered bean salad, demonstrate both the chef’s respect for ingredients and the benefits of the restaurant’s wood-fired oven and grill. If March, the chef’s fine dining tasting menu concept, lives up to expectations, Riccio will be a Chef of the Year nominee for many years to come.

Best New Restaurant: MAD
Few restaurants transport diners to another world quite the way MAD does. From the eye-popping decor by Spanish interior designer Lazaro Rosa-Violán to chef Luis Roger’s menu that uses modernist techniques to add levity to a meal, MAD captures Madrid’s manic energy. No surprise that its fans propelled it to victory in our Best New Restaurant tournament. The restaurant has been a smash hit since it opened last summer.

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Les Ba’get
Increasingly, a talented group of chefs and pitmasters are exploring the intersection between traditional Texas flavors like barbecue and Vietnamese cuisine. From food truck to a tiny restaurant in Montrose to its spacious home in Garden Oaks, Les Ba’get has been at the forefront of adding smoked brisket and braised beef belly to spring rolls and banh mi. Beyond staples like vermicelli bowls and its signature short rib pho, an eclectic menu of small plates and a range of creative cocktails help keep diners coming back for more.

Best Pizza: Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana
Get you a pizzeria that can do both, or, in this case, three things. Pizaro’s serves classic, wood-fired Neapolitan pizza, a foldable New York pie, and deep dish Detroit. Regardless of style, diners can count on fresh ingredients and classic flavors. Limited-time specials — like the recent pizza that featured barbacoa from Feges BBQ and a birria-style consomme dipping sauce — help keep things interesting for regulars.

Brewery of the Year: Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company
Buffalo Bayou has long been one of Houston’s most creative breweries, serving up endless variations on its core lineup and creating one-offs brews that become fan favorites. Moving into its new, 28,000-square-foot facility in Sawyer Yards not only means an endless supply of Crush City IPA; it also provided a platform for chef Arash Kharat to put his passion for pizza to good use. By setting up a massive tent in its parking lot, Buff Brew allows people to continue enjoying its food and beers while dining outside in relative safety.

Pastry Chef of the Year: Julia Doran, Nancy’s Hustle
Doran earned this recognition for almost three years of work at Nancy’s, but she’s stepping things up considerably since the start of the pandemic. Whether it’s baking breads and cookies for the restaurant’s to-go offerings or participating in the nationwide Bakers Against Racism movement, the chef has been a leader for both her colleagues at the restaurant and her peers citywide. Like Vaughan, we can’t wait to see what she comes up with at Tiny Champions.

Bar of the Year: Monkey’s Tail
With a combination of creative cocktails and classic American food, Monkey’s Tail has been drawing an audience to Lindale Park since it opened last summer. Partner Greg Perez’s cocktails and a strong craft beer selection offer plenty of choices for quenching someone’s thirst, and the Mexican-inspired menu of burgers, pizza, and wings is as tasty as it is affordable. Perhaps no item better illustrates the approach than the bar’s happy meals: a slice of pizza or a burger with a beer and a shot for only $8.

Bartender of the Year: Lindsay Rae, Two Headed Dog
After years of working at Poison Girl and leading the team at Grand Prize, Rae and business partner Billy Boyd opened Two Headed Dog in Midtown. Rae’s exuberant personality — friends are greeted with high-fives, hugs, or both (pre-pandemic) — fuels the bar’s welcoming atmosphere, and her skills at creating syrups, infusions, and frozen cocktails means patrons get their drinks quickly. Until we can sing along to punk rock classics with her on Two Headed Dog’s patio, patrons can get some of the bar’s best drinks to-go.

Wine Program of the Year: Public Services Wine & Whisky
Like the name says, count on this elegant downtown establishment for its eclectic selection of international wines and a diverse range of whiskies from around the world. The “Sherry” sign in the window points to what sets Public Services apart from other wine bars: a huge selection of fortified wines. For the most complete experience, pair that Sherry with a whisky aged in Sherry casks.

Hero Award: Chris Shepherd, Southern Smoke Foundation
The Southern Smoke Foundation has been helping restaurant workers in crisis since Hurricane Harvey, but the nationwide shutdown of restaurants due to the pandemic challenged the organization as never before. It staffed up by hiring unemployed hospitality workers to handle the crush of applications and forged national connections to raise money as quickly as possible. Even while he was working to keep his own restaurants open, Shepherd, our inaugural Houston Tastemaker Hero Award winner, has served as a tireless advocate for the organization he founded. The results speak for themselves: over 1,200 people nationwide have received more than $2.7 million in funds.

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year Les Ba'get.

les ba'get interior

Les Ba'get/Facebook

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year Les Ba'get.

a love letter to Brennan's

Chris Shepherd salutes his favorite Houston restaurant — and its new hot dog tower

Brennan's of Houston new bar

Courtesy of Brennan's of Houston

The zinc bar tops are an ode to Parisian restaurants.

those that don’t know, it’s a place where I had the opportunity to hone my skills as a young cook and is absolutely a place that I still call home.

It was the restaurant that I wanted to work at so badly after graduating culinary school. I had applied once before, but did not get the job. I was disappointed, but now that I look back I am really happy I didn’t get the job. I wasn’t ready and I know that now. I took a job at a country club at the time and thought that I was going in the right direction in my career. I worked hard at that job, was promoted to sous chef and made some really amazing friends but something was missing.

Becoming a Chef at Brennan’s

My friend Randy Evans was working at Brennan’s, which is why I wanted to work there. I wanted to continue the push for knowledge and skills. Randy stopped by my apartment on his way home after work to have a drink and a chat, and I asked him how his night was. He told me that they did 400+ covers for service and it was exhilarating. He then asked how my night was, my answer was that I put out the taco buffet and was home early.

That moment is when my head started to spin. I questioned a lot of the things I was doing. Please don’t get me wrong, the job I had was a really great one, and I know it’s the right fit for a lot of people. It just wasn’t for me, and that night changed a lot for me.

Randy and his wife Melanie invited me to dinner at Brennan’s for my birthday. That night I met Mark Holley, Jose Arévalo, and chef Carl Walker. Mark asked me what I was doing and where I wanted my career to go. I started working at Brennan’s two weeks later.

I worked there for nine years, because I was given the ability to learn as much as I could. I was able to work my way through the kitchen, while Randy and I pushed each other as hard as we could to learn as much as our brains could hold, and we had great mentors that helped us with that. I learned how to cook like a good cook, practiced technique, repetition, creativity, and leadership — I was being trained to be a chef and not just a cook.

I was questioned about every new dish I would create by Alex Brennan-Martin, chef Carl, chef Jose, chef Mark, and my friend Randy about the thought process, the flavors, the techniques, and, most importantly, “the whys” behind the dish. They believed in me and taught me to believe in myself. Randy and I studied everything that had to do with food and wine. I mean, there is literally a magazine named Food & Wine and years later, I now get to work for that publication. How cool is that????

I had the opportunity to take that passion into the dining room and become “The Wine Guy” aka the sommelier because I wanted to know how the dining room worked as well. At the same time Randy was promoted to executive chef, and it was a great feeling for both of us. We will be out in Sonoma next month as we celebrate 30 years of working in this industry together, and we owe a lot of this to this restaurant and the people that work there. So when I say it’s a special place to me, now you have some context to why. But enough about me — let’s talk about what’s really exciting me at Brennan’s right now.

Brennan’s New Bar

I have seen the bar at Brennan’s remodeled a couple of times over the years but nothing like what was unveiled recently. They nailed it. With this remodel they made the bar bigger and more exciting. The restaurant has always been a fine dining restaurant — a special occasion restaurant where you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other momentous life occasions. This restaurant has more regulars (people that are there literally all the time) than any other place I’ve worked — multiple generations of those regulars!

When they looked at the bar, they knew they wanted a fine casual bar. But what does that mean, exactly? They built basically a restaurant inside a restaurant that gives you a place to go watch an Astros game while having a delicious cocktail, an amazing bottle of wine, and shrimp po boy or a hot dog and slider tower. Yeah, you read that right. I’ll talk more about that in a bit.

As part of the renovation, Alex Brennan-Martin installed black and white tile floors and zinc bar and table tops, just like you’d find in any cafe in Paris. The light fixtures are made of whiskey decanters. If you spend some time looking around, you will notice there are nods to the almost 60 years of history of Brennan’s of Houston. It’s beautiful and relaxing at the same time as you either look into the bar or out into the beautiful and iconic courtyard that is just so reminiscent of New Orleans.

Now let’s talk about the important stuff: cocktails, food, and wine! The cocktail program has really taken a shift to fun, thoughtful but still tipping a hat to the classics. Let’s start with two styles of the Old Fashioned. There is the “Old” Old Fashioned which is the classic bourbon, bitters, muddled brandy, cherry, orange and a sugar cube — classic, right? Then we have the “New” Old Fashioned which is bourbon run through a Yama Still, a still that is traditionally used to make the best cold brew coffee where water slowly drips through coffee beans extracting the the best flavor of the beans. In this case instead of the beans, the middle infusion chamber is filled with the oranges and cherries. The bourbon slowly drips through the chamber infusing all of those delicious flavors and ends up on the other side. It’s outstanding.

The Parisian Gas Lamp is a cocktail that pays tribute to the iconic glass lamps in the restaurant and is made from Cognac, Cointreau Noir, and flambéed orange peel. They have also added some frozen cocktails like the Bananas Faster (not Foster but Faster), which made from rum, banana purée and vanilla soft serve, perfect if you are too full for the classic dessert.

I also want to remind you that you can get those infamous 25 cent martinis at lunch Monday through Friday with the purchase of an entree. The wines by the glass are fantastic, but the whole wine list is deep and one of the best around. It is filled with true gems from all over the world, don’t sleep on it because it’s a well put together novel!

This is not just your regular food menu. As I said before, they have literally developed a restaurant inside of a restaurant for you to enjoy. When I first sat down, I was really surprised to see the menu. Traditionally a bar menu has four or five items on it but not this one — this one has more than 25 items, and most are designed specifically for the bar.

Yes, you can get the famous snapping turtle soup, the seafood gumbo, and a Jill Jackson Salad, but that’s just the beginning. Raw and roasted oysters, seafood towers, flatbreads, and snacks like pimento cheese and deviled ham with fire’crackers, muffuletta sliders, and even New Orleans-style po’ boys. That’s just where the madness begins! The team has added some really amazing items like some over-the-top seafood nachos with fried oysters, shrimp, crabmeat — if you’d like to add caviar, they sure as hell will let you!

Then we get to the piece de resistance, the tower of power, the all-gas-no-brakes kind of dish that I am in love with: The Hot Dog and Slider Tower. Full Tilt Hot Dogs, prime brisket sliders, all fries (house made fries, sweet potato fries, tater tots) with Creole chow chow, comeback sauce, and Andouille sausage queso for dipping! Even writing this I’m overwhelmed with joy.

Full Tilt Foods is a company that my wife and I started, and we now make the official hot dog of the Houston Texans and The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Brennan’s is the first place outside of NRG stadium to carry them, and they are meaty hot dog heaven. The sliders are rich and delicious from that prime brisket, and this is one of the best shareable, show stopping dishes out there and absolutely worth a try.

It's nice to see a bar that is open all day, not just to have a fantastic beverage but to enjoy some delicious food with friends and loved ones in a fine casual atmosphere. I have been in love with this restaurant for most of my life, and I think what they have done gives folks an option to either come in and have an amazing dinner or relax with friends, have a hot dog tower with some great cocktails, and watch a game on the TV.

Thanks team for reading along on my love story to a restaurant. We all have our special places that hold those memories to us. What’s yours? Let me know your story.

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Share your favorite Houston restaurants with Chris via email at chris@chrisshepherd.is.

Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a nonprofit he co-founded with his wife Lindsey Brown, has distributed more than $12 million to hospitality workers in crisis through its Emergency Relief Fund. Catch his TV show, Eat Like a Local, every Saturday at 10 am on KPRC Channel 2 or on YouTube.

Brennan's of Houston new bar

Photo by Andrew Hemingway

The zinc bar tops are an ode to Parisian restaurants.

chris shepherd cocktails news-you-can-eat openings

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