Sneak peek: TMX

Ronnie Killen's highly anticipated Mexican restaurant now open in Pearland

Killen’s TMX, chef Ronnie Killen’s eagerly anticipated Mexican restaurant, held a two-day soft opening over the weekend of December 29-30. The chef invited a small group of media members in for a first taste Saturday night.

As Killen told CultureMap back in October, Killen's TMX brings together two distinct styles of cuisine: the Tex-Mex items that first appeared on the dinner menu at Killen’s Barbecue and the more traditional Mexican cuisine that the chef became interested in during travels to Mexico. At TMX, diners may opt for queso, enchiladas, and/or tamales loaded up with barbecue brisket, but they can also choose for delicate ceviches, a tuna tostada, or smoked scallops in green mole.

Most critically, Killen, working with director of operations Graham Laborde and Killen’s STQ executive chef Teddy Lopez, found a way to give some of his signature items a TMX twist. For example, creamed corn comes in empanada form. Beef ribs, a favorite at both the barbecue restaurant and STQ, get a barbacoa-style treatment with a slightly spicy adobo topping. Instead of STQ’s pork belly with cherry habanero barbecue sauce, TMX serves the fatty meat with a little bit of skin on that’s smoked and then fried, chicharrones style; the result is juicy meat with a crispy, crunchy bit on top.

All of the dishes are prepared on-site. Meats are smoked at the restaurant, and TMX also makes its own masa for tamales and corn tortillas. Chips (cut and fried in house, natch) get paired with either a slightly spicy red salsa or a milder, acidic green salsa. As Killen explained after the meal, he’s looking for balanced flavors that will appeal to a wide audience, rather than something that’s too smoky or too spicy for most people to enjoy.

Speaking of crowd-pleasers, pastry chef Samantha Mendoza has developed some new options for the restaurant. Cinnamon-dusted churros with semisweet chocolate sauce and dulche de leche ice creamed emerged as an early favorite, but a delicate chocolate dessert and a riff on tres leches also earned fans.

Killen’s restaurants have never been known for their design, but TMX has more style than his other endeavors. Tiles, lighting fixtures, plateware, and more have all been sourced from Mexico, giving the space a cohesive look and feel.

Killen acknowledged that the menu will expand a bit in time. Currently, the restaurant’s only chicken dish is chicken tinga in either enchilada or taco form; chicken fajitas are conspicuously absent (beef and carnitas are available). Currently, the only shrimp dish is campechana, and the menu doesn't have any sort of steak preparation. Since those are pretty important items, expect to see them on the menu at some point soon.

Similarly, the cocktails feel like a bit of a work in progress. It only currently offers three made with tequila and two with mezcal. Available on the rocks or frozen, the margarita could’ve used a little more tequila bite, but one frozen cocktail, the rum-based Getaway Car, delivered a boozy punch.

Both Killen’s Steakhouse and Killen’s Barbecue have become destination restaurants that draw diners from far beyond Pearland. A hosted media dinner with the full attention of Killen and his staff on its second day of business is too soon to form a firm opinion on whether TMX will achieve a similar status, but it’s off to a good start.

For now, the restaurant will be open for dinner beginning January 2, 2019. Lunch will follow in time.

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Killen's TMX; 9330 W. Broadway St. in Pearland; 832-664-8696; Tuesday through Sunday 5 pm to 10 pm. Reservations available on OpenTable.

A look inside Killen's TMX.

Photo by Kimberly Park

A look inside Killen's TMX.

openings tex-mex news-you-can-eat

visiting popup bagels

A highly opinionated take on Houston's venture-backed new bagel shop

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

It’s hard to remember the last restaurant opening with as much fanfare as PopUp Bagels. Houstonians lined up in the heat for the bakery’s grand opening on Saturday, June 13.

Shawn the Food Sheep included a glimpse of the line in his review below.

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Eager to see what the fuss is all about, I stopped by around 10 am on Thursday, June 18. Thankfully, only about a dozen people stood in line ahead of me, and I had a bag of six bagels in less than 20 minutes.

The frequency with which it boils and bakes it bagels sets PopUp Bagels apart from Houston’s traditional, mostly family-owned bagel shops. Instead of making large batches early in the morning that may get refreshed once or twice per day, PopUp Bagels is constantly boiling and baking smaller batches of a couple dozen bagels at a time throughout its operating hours. That's why customers will hear the cry of “hot bagels” echoing through the small, counter-service space every time more emerge from the oven.

PopUp is different from traditional bagel shops in a couple of other important ways. First, the menu only list five varieties — plain, poppy, salt, sesame, and everything, which is topped with poppy seeds, salt, and sesame seeds. And, it only serves whole bagels — no slicing or toasting. The store’s motto of “grip, rip, and dip” explains how it expects customers to consume their bagels. Packaged lox are available, but diners have to assemble the sandwich themselves — either off-site or at one of the couple of cafe tables outside.

PopUp Bagels also doesn’t sell individual bagels. Instead, diners must order a minimum of three bagels and a schmear — various cream cheese and butters are available — for $15. Six bagels and a schmear costs $24. A dozen bagels and two schmears is $46. As a point of comparison, the Bagel Shop Bakery in Bellaire charges $25 for 13 bagels and two, 8-ounce schmears.

So, how is it?

Fresh, hot bagels are inherently superior to hours-old bagels. That’s a real advantage for PopUp Bagels. On my visit, the fresh-from-the-oven plain bagels were so hot that they needed a couple of minutes before we could "grip and rip" them.

As for the bagels themselves, they certainly look the part. The outside is deeply caramelized with an even distribution of toppings that adhere well to the exterior.

But the biggest shortcoming is texture. Bagels, obviously, are supposed to be chewy, but all six of the bagels that an ex-pat New Yorker friend and I ordered walked the line between chewy and underbaked. That may be deliberate, as softer bagels are easier to “grip and rip.”

It's also possible that the bakery’s new employees are still dialing in procedures, and that a different day would yield bagels with a crispier texture. Colloquially, friends who have also visited the shop — both in Houston and other cities — disagreed with my assessment of the texture.

The plain is just that, with a very mild flavor. Both the scallion cream cheese and salted butter had a pleasantly creamy texture and boosted the dining experience.

Overall, PopUp is competitive with Houston’s best bagels. That’s promising, since Stripes — the equity growth firm that bought PopUp Bagels in 2023 — has announced plans to open more than 300 locations nationwide.

But you won’t see me driving half an hour or standing in a long line to get another taste. Houston’s locally-owned bagel shops are more convenient, less expensive, and just as good.

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

openings news-you-can-eat breakfast popup bagels