Finn Hall Opening Date

Downtown Houston's next food hall serves up highly anticipated opening date

The wait for downtown's next food hall has come to an end. Finn Hall, the the 20,000-square-foot food hall coming later this year to the Jones on Main at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. building, will open its doors December 3.

Initially slated to open in February, the facility will include 10 restaurants and two bars. As a reminder, they are:

Goode Co. Taqueria, which will feature classic Tex-Mex cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Low Tide, a seafood and raw bar concept from the owner of Harold's in the Heights
Dish Society, a condensed version of of the popular farm-to-table restaurant
Mr. Nice Pie, a pizza by-the-slice concept from the owners of Voodoo Queen and Love Buzz
Mala Sichuan, a new outpost of the popular Chinese restaurant
Craft Burger, a creative burger concept from Chopped champion Shannen Tune
Oddball Eats, the first brick and mortar outpost of the falafel-centric Mediterranean
Yong, a Korean restaurant from former Cottonwood/La Grange chef Daniel Ajtai
Sit Lo, a new concept from the team behind the Bowl'D Up food truck that will serve Southern Vietnamese food.
Amaya Coffee, a coffee shop from Catalina Coffee owner Max Gonzalez

Sample menus for each restaurant have been posted to Finn Hall's website, which means diners can already start planning their first visit. The options are almost limitless, ranging from a truffle butter Juicy Lucy at Craft Burger, tea-smoked duck at Mala Sichuan, a fried shrimp platter at Low Tide, lamb chorizo fries at Oddball Eats, a bulgogi bowl at Yong, and more. For beverage options, patrons can look to St. Jac's, a beer and wine bar, or Swallow Nest, an intimate cocktail bar located on the mezzanine level.

Finn Hall will be the first of four new food halls coming to downtown. Bravery Chef Hall, a new concept from Conservatory owners Anh Mai and Lian Nguyen with partner Shepard Ross, will open in December. Understory will feature a new concept from Ninfa's and another outpost of East Hampton Sandwich Co when it opens sometime next year. Then there's Lyric Market, the mysterious food hall that hasn't released any vendor information since developer Jonathan Enav announced his plans to open it way back in January.

Finn Hall will be located in the J.P. Morgan Chase building.

Courtesy photo

Finn Hall will be located in the J.P. Morgan Chase building.

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Anthony's song

Prolific Houston pizza chef fires up a new Italian restaurant in River Oaks

Courtesy of Anthony's New York Italian

Anthony's New York Italian is now open near Central Market.

One of Houston’s most prolific pizzaiolos has quietly opened a new restaurant in River Oaks. Anthony Russo, founder of Russo’s New York Pizzeria, has opened Anthony’s New York Italian in the former Pie Tap Pizza space at 3748 Westheimer.

While Russo is known primarily for his fast casual restaurants that sling New York-style pies, Anthony’s New York Italian is both more personal and more upscale. It takes inspiration from his Italian heritage — his father grew up in Naples and his mother grew up in Sicily — as well as Russo’s Italian Restaurant, the Galveston eatery his parents operated for almost 20 years.

“We had veal, lobster, Gulf snapper, a lot of nice, classic dishes. There’s where I grew up in the kitchen,” Russo tells CultureMap. “I was always around fine dining restaurants. My mom and dad used to bring in chefs from Italy. They were excellent chefs. That’s what we had in Galveston for 18 years.”

With Russo’s at more than 50 locations, the time felt right to open a more upscale concept. Partially inspired by New York restaurants such as Carbone and Quality Italian, Russo thinks Houstonians will appreciate his high-end take on Italian American fare.

The menu includes lobster fra diavolo, a 24-ounce prime porterhouse, bone-in veal parmesan, frutti di mare (shellfish with tomato sauce over pappardelle), and more. In addition, the dish utilize Italian olive oil that’s pressed by one of the chef’s friends. Anthony’s also makes all of its doughs, sauces, and sausage in house.

Of course, Russo is making pizza, too. They’re baked in imported Italian ovens using slightly different dough and sauce recipes — along with imported mozzarella and burrata — than his more casual restaurants.

And, no, Russo isn’t concerned that a pizzeria lasted less than a year in the space.

“I feel confident this location is going to be a killer for us. We make homemade pasta on site here, fresh from scratch.” he says. “We're bringing fresh lobster. We're bringing fresh clams. We got a nice veal chop. I mean, these are all chef-selected ingredients. I don't think anybody's doing that in town right now.”

The restaurant is still in such early days that it doesn’t have its own website or social media pages yet. For now, diners can follow Russo on Instagram for updates.

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Anthony's New York Italian is open for dinner Monday-Thursday beginning at 4 pm. It’s open for lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday beginning at 11 am. Reservations are available on OpenTable.

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