Houston remains an attractive destination for out-of-town restaurant groups, especially near the Galleria. Since May, River Oaks District has already seen five high-profile openings with Toulouse, Hopdoddy, Steak 48, Taverna, and Le Colonial, which opened on Monday. Now, another California-based concept has announced its plans to come to Houston this fall.
Bosscat Kitchen & Libations will open its first Texas location near River Oaks District at the Westheimer Oaks mixed-use complex at Westheimer and Mid Lane that will also be home to Adair Kitchen's sister restaurant Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors. Although the restaurant has had a social media presence for several months, it is only now releasing details about what will be its flagship Texas location. The almost 7,000 square foot restaurant will seat over 200 diners.
Founded by owners John “JT” Reed, Leslie "Bosscat" Nguyen, and Vincent Capizzi in 2014, the bar and restaurant is known for its comfort food menu and an extensive whiskey selection that should exceed more than 350 spirits. At the heart of the location is a glass-enclosed whiskey room that houses all the spirits as well as 40 whiskey lockers for VIPs and a 12-person private dining table. A "mini-rickhouse" will allow those same VIPs to mix and store their own barrel-aged cocktails.
All three owners as well as executive chef Peter Petro, general manager Tai Nguyen (a native Houstonian who once worked at Ruggles Grill), and bar director Matt Sharpe are moving to Houston as part of the expansion.
“I love Houston,” said Reed in a statement. “We had opportunities to open a second location in California, but I took a trip to Texas and just fell in love with Houston. I love how the people here really get behind localized concepts. We hope that Bosscat can be a place that’s warm and welcoming to everybody in the neighborhood.”
Skimming through Nguyen and Petro's Instagram feeds shows they've been visiting the Bayou City for several months as part of the process of learning about their new home. Petro's menu will feature local purveyors like 44 Farms, Black Hill Ranch, and Kraftsmen Baking in dishes such as a barbecue porchetta sandwich, Cajun brick chicken, and a beef short rib with Asian-style black pepper sauce.
Lots of Houston bars and restaurants offer great whiskey selections, but none of them are located near the Galleria. As long as the food tastes as good as it looks, that should help Bosscat stand out from the crowd .
Bosscat offers whiskey lockers.
