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    esquire's best new restaurants

    Houston's corn-obsessed Mexican eatery lands on Esquire's prestigious best new restaurants list

    Eric Sandler
    Nov 17, 2022 | 11:00 am
    Tatemo tasting menu

    Tatemó is one of the country's best new restaurants.

    Courtesy of Tatemó

    Esquire magazine has named three Texas restaurants to its list of The Best New Restaurants in America 2022. They are:

    • Canje: Austin chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph’s acclaimed Caribbean restaurant (fourth)
    • Tatemó: chef Emmanuel Chavez’s corn-obsessed tortilleria and Mexican restaurant in Houston (19th)
    • Birdie’s: Austin’s natural wine bar and cafe from husband-and-wife duo Arjav Ezekiel and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel (25th)

    Four writers — Omar Mamoon, Joshua David Stein, former Esquire food and drink editor Jeff Gordinier, and culture and lifestyle director Kevin Sintumuang — created the list by traveling the country. They found themselves drawn to restaurants that told a chef’s personal story.

    “We’re always hooked when there is soul and a story to go with delicious, inventive dishes,” Sintumuang writes. “It’s hard to deny the reflection of lived experience imbued in a menu, a wine list, a cocktail, atmosphere.”

    In Houston, Stein hails Tatemó for the many ways Chavez incorporates heirloom corn into the restaurant’s eight-course tasting menu, praising dishes such as totopos, consommé, and a quesadilla. “Corn has always been a character actor. Here it’s the leading man,” he writes.

    Located just outside the loop in northwest Houston, Tatemó has earned local attention for its tasting menu, which it serves on Friday and Saturday nights, and its more casual Sunday brunch. Hundreds of Houstonians lined up this summer when the restaurant hosted former Pujol head chef Alex Bremont for a two-night taco pop-up.

    Turning to Austin, Sintumuang notes that Canje goes to extreme lengths to deliver traditional Caribbean flavors — flying in cassareep for its signature wild- boar pepper pot and fermenting the marinade for its jerk chicken, a process chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph shared with CultureMap at the Southern Smoke Festival. Canje’s lively atmosphere adds to Sintumuang’s experience.

    “And as the night rolls by, it can all start to feel like a celebration. Welcome to the party,” he writes.

    Not only does Esquire include Birdie’s on the list, but wine director Arjav Ezekiel earns the title of “Wine Guru of the Year.” Sintumuang praises Ezekiel for his list of “approachable yet thrilling low-intervention wines” that are both tasty and approachable.

    Similarly, the magazine hails the restaurant’s counter service approach as a way to offer better wages to its staff and praises chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel’s eclectic menu. “The lines are worth it for the food, a casual refined mix of American, a little Italian, a little French, that all makes you want to linger a little longer into the warm Austin night and order another bottle,” he writes.

    Esquire’s acclaim is only the most recent time both Birdie’s and Canje have made best new restaurant lists, following similar nods from Texas Monthly and Bon Appetit. The New York Times included Birdie’s on its 2021 list of the 50 American restaurants it’s “most excited about right now.”

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    This Week's Hot Headlines

    Casual River Oaks restaurant closure leads our top stories this week

    CultureMap Staff
    Jun 21, 2025 | 11:01 am
    Eloise Nichols interior
    Photo by Alex Montoya
    Eloise Nichols has updated its interior.

    Editor's note: It's time to look back at the top Houston news of the week, which is full of restaurant and bar tidbits. Two Houston-area chefs get big victories, while a River Oaks restaurant says goodbye. Get the details on our most popular stories below, then visit this guide for some weekend fun.

    1. Casual River Oaks restaurant will shutter after 10 years. A neighborhood restaurant near River Oaks will soon serve its last meal — for now. Eloise Nichols is set to close after service on Sunday, June 29.

    2. Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next. For the first time, Houston is home to a Top Chef winner. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    3. Intimate Houston cocktail lounge adds European-inspired outdoor patio. There’s a new al fresco destination for Houstonians this summer. Clarkwood, the chic cocktail bar in Montrose, has expanded with a 1,500-square-foot courtyard bar.

    4. Innovative Houston chef is the city's newest James Beard Award winner. Thomas Bille, chef-owner of Belly of the Beast in Spring, was named Best Chef: Texas at the 2025 James Beard Awards ceremony.

    James Beard Awards 2025 Thomas Bille Belly of the BeastThomas Bille is Houston's newest James Beard Award winner. Photo by Getty Images for James Beard Foundation

    5. Houston farmers market adds new indoor pickleball court with food and cocktails. The newest player in the city’s crowded pickleball court is Drop Shots HTX, opening today, June 21.

    most popular storiesclosingspickleballjames beard awardstop chefhot-headlines
    popular
    news
    news/restaurants-bars

    most read posts

    Innovative Houston chef is the city's newest James Beard Award winner

    Houston farmers market adds new indoor pickleball court with food and cocktails

    Houston company ranks No. 13 worldwide on new Forbes Global 2000 list

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