Restaurant Closings

Celebrity chef throws in the towel on two Heights-area restaurants that lost their buzz

Bradley's Fine Diner sign March 2014 Bradley Ogden

Bradley's Fine Diner has served its last order of pot roast.

Photo courtesy of © Bradley's Fine Diner

In what has to be an early candidate for the least surprising Houston restaurant news of 2016, Ogden Hospitality has closed Bradley's Fine Diner and Funky Chicken. The California-based company that's led by James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef Bradley Ogden has confirmed a report by the Chronicle that the restaurants have shuttered.

"We want to thank the many people who worked so hard to make Bradley’s Fine Diner and Funky Chicken inviting venues for the surrounding community to enjoy," Christopher Vestal, CEO of Ogden Hospitality Group, said in a statement after CultureMap asked for comment. "At this time we will continue to focus our efforts on Pour Society, one of our most successful openings to date, which has taken shape under a talented and locally-based culinary and operations team. We are currently working to redevelop both Heights locations into concepts suitable for such a vibrant neighborhood and will release more information when plans have been finalized."

The closures bring to an end a saga that began in 2012 when Ogden announced his plans to open multiple restaurants in Houston. Funky Chicken opened two years ago, and Fine Diner followed in April 2014. Both restaurants showed promise initially but failed to connect with diners. In May 2015, Ogden hired former Triniti chef de cuisine Greg Lowry to get them on the right track, but it appears to have been too little too late.

Pour Society, the upscale Gateway Memorial City pub that features a menu created by Lowry and chef de cuisine Matthew Lovelace with the Houston palate in mind, has opened to mixed reviews. Still, the talent in the kitchen and today's commitment by Ogden Hospitality to the project suggest that it should find its footing from a culinary standpoint soon.

When Funky Chicken debuted, Ogden planned to open 200 locations across the country, but the restaurant never grew beyond Houston. He seems to have shifted his focus to hot dogs, opening a restaurant called Bradley's Funky Franks in Menlo Park, California, last October. Bringing that concept to The Heights seems like a risky move, though, as it would be in direct competition with well-regarded restaurants Happy Fatz and Good Dog Houston.

closings the-heights

fit to print

New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

undefined

Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

news-you-can-eat media