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    butcher's ball 2019

    Houston star chefs and Texas foodies heat up smokin' Butcher's Ball

    Eric Sandler
    Oct 23, 2019 | 12:45 pm

    Food lovers from across Texas flocked to Brenham on Sunday, October 20, to eat and drink with a purpose at The Butcher’s Ball. Now in its fourth year, the festival celebrates not just the chefs who make food but the farmers and ranchers who supply the ingredients.

    The two-day event drew over 1,200 attendees to Rockin’ Star Ranch for food, drinks, demonstrations, presentations, live music, and more. Each year gets a little bigger than the last, with more than 50 chefs and pitmasters serving food at both a dinner on Saturday, October 19, and the afternoon festival on Sunday afternoon. All told, the event raised more than $20,000 for local nonprofit Urban Harvest's programs that support local farmers and ranchers.

    Always a highlight, the Golden Cleaver competition drew 30 chefs from across the state, including Houstonians Dawn Burrell (Kulture), Brandi Key (Alice Blue), and Martin Stayer (Nobie’s, The Toasted Coconut) — each of whom paired with a farm or ranch to showcase a signature cut of meat. For the first time in the event’s history, a Houston chef didn’t win.

    Instead, Justin Manning of C&J Barbecue in College Station took the top prize for his smoked osso bucco with redeye gravy, bone marrow biscuit, and a roasted red pepper and pecan gremolata. Austin Simmons (Tris in The Woodlands) took third place for his smoked, dry-aged akaushi short rib from HeartBrand Beef, while Houston favorite Monica Pope (Sparrow Cookshop) came in second for her chicken wing confit with crispy rice and six-day cured egg yolk.

    Other highlights included a savory profiterole from chefs Sarah Heard and Nathan Lemley (Foreign & Domestic in Austin), adobo beef tongue from David Uygur (Lucia and Macellaio in Dallas), and a wagyu sirloin taco from Tony Luhrman and Mike Serva (El Topo in Houston).

    Master bartender Linda Salinas, a regular on CultureMap’s “What’s Eric Eating” podcast, recruited the bar staffs from Monkey’s Tail in north Houston and Rosewater in Clear Lake to create cocktails made with spirits provided by sponsors, including Ketel One vodka, Highland Park whisky, 8th Wonder gin, El Tesoro tequila, and others. Sarah Troxell, the current CultureMap Tastemaker Awards bartender of the year, served up tiki cocktails for her recently-opened project, The Toasted Coconut.

    Panel discussions on the state of Texas barbecue and farm policy, a kids cooking class led by Pope, and performances by the Will Van Horn Trio, Mexican Blackbird, Vinyl Ranch, Dawn & Dupree, and Jaime Wyatt offered a respite from all the eating and drinking.

    Butcher’s Ball always attracts a who’s who of the local culinary community. Spotted in the crowd were Ashley and Tyler Horne, Michael Fulmer, Monica Danna and Joey Garcia, Gin Braverman and Bret Whitacre, Joe Apa, Graham Laborde, Cat Nguyen, Matt Marcus and Eby Harvey, Janna Roberson, Keri Henry, and so many more.

    We can’t wait to see how organizers Jonathan Beitler and Elaine Dillard top themselves in year five.

    Shawn Gawle of Rosie Cannonball.

    Butcher's Ball 2019 Shawn Gawle Rosie Cannonball
      
    Photo by Emily Jaschke
    Shawn Gawle of Rosie Cannonball.
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    a fresh start

    River Oaks gourmet grocer unveils cozy new name and big Dallas plans

    Eric Sandler
    May 8, 2025 | 10:32 am
    The Cottage Grocery exterior
    Photo by Julie Soefer
    Tres Market is now known as The Cottage Grocery.

    River Oaks’ favorite gourmet grocer is switching things up with a new name and a second location. Tres Market is now known as The Cottage Grocery, but that’s only one of many changes for the five-year old market, bakery, and cafe.

    The rebrand comes after founder Julie Rhyne and her business partner Jeannine Holland decided to end their partnership and go their separate ways. While the name may be new, Rhyne’s recipes are the same. The store offers about 450 items, all of which are prepared fresh on site and are available to-go in the restaurant’s refrigerated cases, along with specialty items, wine, and more. Customers have come to rely on The Cottage Grocer for heat-and-serve soups, salads, and entrees that range from roast chicken to pastas to pork tenderloin, meatloaf, and more.

    Although the store has only been open for about five years, Rhyne’s history in the business goes back to 1989, when she started a catering company from her home kitchen. Things got bigger when she and her husband moved to Houston. The store took off during the early days of the pandemic, when nearby families turned to then-Tres Market for restaurant quality meals they could heat up at home. Now the store’s 30 cooks produce more than 2,000 containers of food daily, along with cookies, cakes, and other sweets for the store’s bakery.

    A Family Affair

    Rather than operate The Cottage Grocery on her own, Rhyne is now working with her daughter, Lauren Van Wagenen, and her son, Taylor Rhyne, as well as their spouses. The new name is an homage to the business’ location — Rhyne refers to the building adjacent to the market as ‘The Cottage’ — as well as a nod to the family’s preference for taking vacations to cozy places that offer comfort and respite without being too fancy.

    “When we go on vacation, the whole family goes — my kids, their spouses, the grandkids, the whole fam-dam-ily,” she tells CultureMap. “We love going to places that are laidback and relaxed. They all have a common theme. You walk in and realize they get it. It’s how people would spend all their time if they could.”

    Coming to Dallas

    Van Wagenen, an accountant who worked in finance for more than a decade, will take the lead on the store’s new Dallas location that’s expected to open this summer. She’s already made her mark on the business by creating barcodes for all of the store’s prepared items. The simple change cut check out times down from five minutes to 30 seconds, she says.

    Both Rhyne and Van Wagenen are excited about the upcoming Dallas location, which will be located in the Highland Park neighborhood at 4919 McKinney. They see a lot of similarities between Highland Park and the store’s original location in River Oaks.

    “The site itself is kind of an island where three roads intersect,” Van Wagenen says. “You can’t miss us. When we were looking, we wanted to be in Highland Park. It’s similar to River Oaks — tree-lined streets, a lot of walkability.”

    Just as Rhyne’s constant presence at the River Oaks location assures customers that an owner is keeping an eye on the business, Van Wagenen and her husband David plan to be fixtures at the Dallas store. As in Houston, everything will be prepared fresh at the store from Rhyne’s recipes.

    “It’s a two-story, cottage-looking house with these huge high-rises around it,” Rhyne adds. “Everyone’s going to be looking down at us, and we’ll be out there waving cookies at them.”

    Once Dallas is open and running smoothly, Rhyne and her son Taylor, an IT specialist, will begin looking for a second Houston location. More details on those plans will be revealed in the future.

    The Cottage Grocery exterior
      

    Photo by Julie Soefer

    Tres Market is now known as The Cottage Grocery.

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