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    Rocking the Night

    Chic new club raises the glam quotient for nightlife in Midtown, plenty of moola required

    Marcy de Luna
    Marcy de Luna
    Sep 17, 2015 | 8:01 am

    Club Clé (French for key), the posh new nightclub in Midtown, is upping the nightlife ante with 9,000 square feet of high-roller glam and glitz.

    Night owl hedonists can thank Zack Truesdell (Christian’s Tailgate, Saint Dane's), Salim Dehkordi and Dallas Rodriguez (both of Avenue Night Club) for the hotspot where lines for entry form early and the partying continues into the wee morning hours.

    The sexy space, with room for 1,200 (600 inside and 600 outside) revelers, boasts sleek décor in black, rich red and gold, sparkling chandeliers, a central dance floor and a trendy crowd of social movers with plenty of discretionary income.

    The hotspot is is quickly becoming known for its VIP bottle service and a Sin City vibe — all for a price.

    Book it, baby

    Twenty-eight plush booths line either side of the dance area. But you'll need to break out the credit card and commit to the high-end bottle service package in order to secure one of the coveted spots.

    Pricing starts at $300 for a perch in the rear corner of the club. Highly coveted tables, located closest to the DJ booth, require a heftier minimum bottle guarantee, which tops out at $5,000.

    Partying like a rock star at your own table, no matter which price point, will score you a bottle (or bottles) of booze delivered straight to your seat, ensuring you won’t have to fight for the bartender’s attention at the crowded bar — and you can keep the party going without interruption.

    Love the champagne girl

    Spend the big bucks and your bottles will be delivered Sin City-style by a bevy of beauties carrying sparklers and letters that spell out your name as well as by a skimpily-clad champagne girl perched atop a giant gold key that's carried in by four hunky guys.

    The perks that come with table reservations are plenty. You will be greeted at the front door and escorted past the doorman as you bypass the line of common folk waiting to get in. During the evening, no less than four helpers will check in on your table, ensuring that your every booze filled need is met and your table stays serviced and clean.

    For those trying to budget, you can skip table service all together, but you'll have to brave the line to enter and fetch your own drinks. The line starts early for the 10 p.m. opening. We recommend arriving when the doors open. Two bars are located in the front of the club, one dark and mysterious, the other decked out in all white with cushy leather sofas.

    The cool kids

    Get your social game on hobnobbing with your neighbors. High-profilers like Chandler Parsons, Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and former Houston Rockets’ player Robert Horry have been spotted among the crowd.

    In between mingling, make your way to the dance floor as a DJ spins an up-tempo mix of house music, hip-hop and Top 40 tunes over a state-of-the-art sound system and LED screens deliver graphics that sway to the music.

    Poolside manners

    Step outside for a breath of air, take a puff from a rental hookah and hang by the newly added pool. Although it's connected to the patio and accessible during all business hours, hold your swim trunks and bikinis for Sundays — that's the only day you’re allowed to take a dip, 4 to 10 p.m.

    Reserved seating for six daybeds and 10 private cabanas on the open-air party deck is available only to those booking bottle service, of course, which ranges from $300 to $1,500 on Sunday Funday.

    The 40-foot outdoor bar features five flatscreen TVs, 15 beers on tap, shareable punch and eight creative cocktails. Don't skip the Clé De La Ville made with whiskey, citrus fruit and botanical Spanish liqueur, cherry bitters and an orange twist.

    Also exclusive to Sundays is a menu of bites from now-open Pan-Asian neighbor, Tarakaan. Expect ceviche, fish tacos, chicken strips, sandwiches and more.

    VIP bottle service at Club Cle gets your premium bottle of booze delivered by a bevy of girls.

     
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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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