6 things to know

6 things to know in Houston food right now: local coffee now brewing in the Galleria

Get a matcha latte and other eye-openers at Gene Jones Coffee.

Courtesy of Gene Jones Coffee

Editor’s note: Houston’s restaurant scene moves pretty fast. In order to prevent CultureMap readers from missing anything, let’s stop to look around at all the latest news to know.

Now open

The Galleria has a new coffee shop that provides a locally-owned alternative to Starbucks. Shoppers will find Gene Jones Coffee in the mall’s food court.

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Developed by the owners of the FOMO Factory immersive art experience, Gene Jones brews locally-roasted Tenfold Coffee and offers vegan snacks from Sinfull Bakery. It opened in late December.

Chef on the move

Brandi Key has left her role as the operating partner for Heights restaurant Alice Blue, the chef announced on Instagram. Key joined the restaurant in 2019 after working as the executive chef for Clark Cooper Concepts, where she helped develop the menus for Coppa Osteria, SaltAir Seafood Kitchen, and others, and a brief stint with Lasco Enterprises.

“Without these four walls, and the people in it, I wouldn’t be who I am today. It’s been a wild ride in 2020 but damn, it was all so worth it,” she writes.

Eat well and do good

Chef Dawn Burrell is the latest participant in Tacos a Go Go’s Taco Tuesday Team-Up fundraiser. The former Kulture chef has created a Beef Cheek Birria taco — beef birria, adobo, Monterey Jack cheese, red onion, pickled cilantro leaves, and sliced radishes — that will be available at all Tacos A Go Go locations every Tuesday in January. A portion of proceeds from every taco sold will benefit I’ll Have What She’s Having, the local non-profit dedicated to women’s health.

Dining deals

Fleming’s has a new offering for wine lovers. The steakhouse, part of the Bloomin Brands group that includes Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill, is pouring wines from California winery Belle Glos as part of its “Winter Uncorked” special. For $28, diners will receive pours of Pinot Noir Balade, Pinot Noir Dairyman, Pinot Noir Clark & Telephone, and Quilt Cabernet Sauvignon.

Le Colonial has selected Recipe for Success as the beneficiary of its monthly Dine Out for a Cause series. Now through January 31, the restaurant will donate $1 from each prix-fixe lunch ($25) and dinner ($45) menu sold. The local non-profit had approximately $40,000 worth of equipment stolen from its Hope Farms project on Thanksgiving Day.

Houston Sauce Pit, a food truck that serves vegan barbecue(5000 Almeda Rd.), wants to help diners embrace Veganuary by giving customers a free meal on their fifth visit. Opened last year, the truck serves an array of barbecue-inspired, vegan dishes such as Loaded Brisket Mac (mac & cheese topped with vegan brisket), BBQ Smoked Wangs (vegan wings), and Smoked Loaded Elote (street corn on the cob).

“Roughly 40-percent of our customers are meat eaters, and the rest are vegan or moving toward a plant-forward lifestyle,” owner Jarrett Milton said in a statement. “Our success is built on making [dishes] that tastes like real Texas barbecue, with all that smokey, sweet flavor, but with plant-based proteins instead of meat.”

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an offer he couldn't refuse

Exclusive: Killen's Barbecue will soon shutter in The Woodlands

Killen's barbecue meat platter with sides

Photo by Robert Jacob Lerma

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Fans of Killen’s Barbecue’s location in The Woodlands have a days to make one last visit. The restaurant will close this Sunday, December 7, chef-owner Ronnie Killen tells CultureMap.

Open since 2021, Killen says that he’s in final negotiations to sell the location at 8800 Six Pines Dr. to Whataburger for a new location of the iconic Texas fast food restaurant. Neither the original location of Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland nor its Cypress location are affected by the closure of The Woodlands and will remain open.

“Whataburger made me a deal I couldn’t pass up. It would take 10 years to do that kind of revenue,” Killen writes in a text, adding that the company recently made a significant payment to keep the deal’s window open through the end of the year.

He added that the costs to operate the restaurant have gone up significantly. As one example, a cord of wood cost $175 when he opened the first Killen’s Barbecue in 2013. It costs $475 now, he writes.

If the deal falls through, Killen states that he could look for a new buyer or convert the restaurant into a second location of Killen’s Burger, the retro-styled burger joint he operates in Pearland.

The restaurant’s closure had been expected since February, when Killen sold The Woodlands’ location of Killen's Steakhouse. At the time, Killen said he also planned to find a buyer for his barbecue joint in the bustling suburb. He cited the driving distance from Pearland to The Woodlands as one reason he chose to divest both locations. He still operates Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland, comfort food restaurant Killen's near the Heights, Killen's Burger, and three other locations of Killen's Barbecue.

As it approaches its 13th anniversary in the spring, Killen’s Barbecue remains a vital part of Houston’s barbecue scene. The restaurant recently earned an honorable mention from Texas Monthly and holds a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide. In July, it opened a new location at Hobby Airport.

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