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    It's very kosher

    Beloved Houston bagel shop rolls out second location in Bellaire

    Eric Sandler
    Dec 28, 2020 | 3:30 pm

    Houston’s newest bagel shop opens this week. The Bagel Shop Bakery, a sister location to the 45-year old Meyerland original, will begin service on Wednesday, December 30.

     

    Located in a former pawn shop/drug store at 5422 Bellaire Blvd., the new Bagel Shop Bakery is one of three concepts that manager Michael Saghian is opening in the space. Houston Catering Concepts has already begun operating on premises, while a second location of the bakery’s companion New York Deli and Coffee Shop — both of which are co-owned by Saghian — will debut in late spring/early summer 2021.

     

    While Saghian goes to great lengths to emphasize that nothing about the original location of the bagel shop is changing, the new outpost will offer a substantially different experience. For the first time, diners will have the option to purchase bagel sandwiches and other prepared items that can be taken to-go or consumed on a 40-seat patio.

     

    “The biggest thing for us is the bagel shop has been around for 45 years,” Saghian tells CultureMap. “We want to take the warmth and the memories and the meaning behind who we are and open this location with all of that, but offering elevated sandwiches, giving a part of our community the opportunity to eat our bagels, bringing in the old and the new, and continue building on the multi-generational families that come in.”

     

    To help realize that vision, the bagel shop turned to consulting chefs Matt Marcus and Roshni Gurnani, a Chopped champion who will also serve as the executive chef of the deli when it opens later this year. Taking inspiration from both Marcus’ lifetime of eating at the original location and modern Jewish concepts such as New York restaurants Russ & Daughters and Sadelle’s, the duo have crafted a fully kosher of both dairy and pareve (neither milk nor meat) dishes that meet the ultra-stringent standards of the Mehadrin Kashrus of Texas (better known as MKT).

     

    Adhering to this standard, which is compliant with the dietary practices observed by ultra-Orthodox Jews, comes with a whole set of procedures that must be followed and products that must be used. For example, all ingredients must be checked in over video chat with one of the supervising rabbis. Additionally, the cream cheese used on prepared sandwiches comes from a MKT-approved producer and is different than the cream cheese the bagel shop makes and sells for retail-style to-go.

     

    For those who either don’t keep kosher, the most practical manifestation of following those rules will be that the bagel shop will not serve any meat products. That means Marcus and Gurnani had to get creative to develop non-meat containing takes on classic sandwiches and starters such as matzo ball soup.

     

    “We’re taking the traditional Jewish recipes and being able to offer them in a vegan environment. It’s elevating that menu, offering a lox and bagel and making it a wow factor,” Gurnani says.

     

    In addition to bagels and lox, the menu includes a breakfast sandwich with a fried egg, cheddar cheese, and vegetables. Avocado toast is present and accounted for, along with a pizza bagel that can be topped with cheese or vegetables. Some of the more creative options include a housemade falafel burger, a pastrami salmon Reuben sandwich, and latkes topped with smoked salmon. Both dairy and pareve desserts will be available, which means observant Jews can enjoy a cake pop after a meaty meal. A full lineup of coffee and espresso beverages will provide customers with their daily caffeine fix.

     

    “We’re hoping to do modern takes on Jewish food,” Marcus says. “It’s going to be something really cool and really special for the city.”

     

    Those efforts at updating classics will continue in the new coffee shop and deli, which will seat 300 people in a massive, 5,000-square foot space. Saghian offers a few hints, including deli meats that are smoked onsite, tableside sliced nova and lox, and a full liquor license with cocktails. Construction on the space is currently underway, with the goal of opening around May. Unlike the bagel shop, it will not be kosher, so diners will be able to order a bacon cheeseburger. It aims to continue to raise the game for deli-style eating in Houston.

     

    “We’re bringing new recipes to the deli, bringing new ways to present these things,” Gurnani says. “That’s where we’re going from here. Everything will be scratch-made. That’s my forte.”

    The new location occupies a converted drug store.

    Bagel Shop Bakery Bellaire location exterior
      
    Courtesy of The Bagel Shop Bakery
    The new location occupies a converted drug store.
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    news/restaurants-bars

    welcome to paradise

    Veteran Houston bartender shakes up the Heights with new tropical bar

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 8, 2025 | 1:12 pm
    Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar exterior
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.

    The woman behind your favorite bartender’s favorite bar has quietly opened a new cocktail spot in the Heights. Called Berwick’s Birds of Paradise, it’s the latest project from Double Trouble owner Robin Berwick.

    Berwick tells CultureMap that she began looking for a new project about a year ago. Double Trouble, a coffee and cocktail bar that opened in late 2011, no longer required her full attention. She found an ideal space with the former La Coqueta at 2020 Studewood Street, a standalone building in a prime area of the Heights. Similar to Double Trouble, Berwick took inspiration from tropical destinations for BBOP's (pronounced “be bop”) drinks and design — with some additional flair from the only kind of bar she’s never worked at.

    “I might be embarrassed if you print this, but it’s the truth. I have bartended in just about every category of bar: restaurant bar, nightclub, dance club, strip club, dive bar, and Anvil and Poison Girl, the cocktail bars that people knew me from before Double Trouble,” she says.

    “The only place I didn’t work that I wanted to was a resort hotel bar. I never want to be responsible for running a hotel, but I wanted to open a bar that felt like it was once attached to a hotel.”

    Patrons will notice a screen printed portrait of a woman hanging on one of the bar’s walls. Berwick has decided that it depicts the mythical owner of the non-existent hotel that BBOP is attached to.

    “I don’t know her name, but she’s a little spooky and she’s blue. I just look at her and ask her what would she do,” Berwick says.

    Berwick worked with Jarred Pruitt and Eli Ashby at Houston builder Pruitt Structures to renovate the space with everything from new plumbing and HVAC systems to a vintage-inspired tile floor and an all-new ceiling treatment. The costs ran a little higher than expected, but Berwick cites her “fantastic investors” who raised the money required to build the bar she envisioned.

     Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar interior The building received a comprehensive renovation to become Berwick's Birds of Paraidse.Photo by Eric Sandler

    The cocktail menu takes a similarly tropical (not to be confused with tiki) theme. For example, the bar’s frozen cocktail is called La Bruha, after a nickname Berwick received from the tradesmen who helped renovate the bar. “It’s a riff on an El Diablo,” she explains, “Tequila, fresh lime juice, spicy ginger beer, habanero tincture, topped with a layer of elderberry liqueur. The ginger surprises people. It’s got a little punch to it.”

    Similarly, the Crocodile Tears Martini gets a little island flavor courtesy of Strange Water, a coconut water created by former Houstonian Yael Vengroff, and Grey Goose Citra vodka. “Everybody’s been saying it’s ‘dangerously drinkable,’” Berwick adds.

    BBOP’s tidy food menu is overseen by veteran Houston chef Jacob Pate, whose resume includes Coltivare, Good Dog Houston, and the recently-closed Savoir. Current offerings include chicken wings, a smash burger, and a Bikini Sandwich — similar to a Cubano, Pate gives the traditional Catalan-inspired pressed ham and cheese sandwich a Houston twist courtesy of muffaletta compound butter and tomato condiment.

    “On the horizon is a house made sausage dog that I’m excited about,” Pate writes in an email. “At Savoir, we had some fun butchery projects that I would like to build upon where it makes sense. Beyond that, the first priority is figuring out how it all fits in our small kitchen and having fun.”

    In addition to food and drinks, Berwick is working with Heights cigar bar Nice Ash to stock a humidor for BBOP. Patrons will be able to smoke a cigar on the bar’s patio. Because people will be smoking (among other reasons), BBOP is strictly 21-plus.

    The bar opened quietly on July 4. So far, its customers has been a mix of curious neighbors, Double Trouble regulars, and Berwick’s friends in the service industry. After spending so much time on renovations, she says she’s happy to focus on operating her bar.

    “I had been used to this high stress level, waiting for the bottom to drop out [during the renovations],” she says. “When the first guests came in, I relaxed. We know how to make drinks.”

    Currently, the bar is open Wednesday-Sunday from 4pm - midnight. Days of service and hours of operation will expand once additional employees have been hired.

    Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar exterior
      
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.
    news/restaurants-bars

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