Thirteen on track

Despite trade, James Harden's Houston restaurant will open as scheduled

Harden may be gone, but his restaurant will still open soon.

Photo courtesy of ABC13

The January 13 blockbuster trade of Rockets star James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets will not affect the opening of his new restaurant, Thirteen. The restaurant's publicist Sherrie Handrinos issued a statement that the establishment will open as scheduled later this month (a countdown clock on the restaurant's website indicates an opening on Tuesday, January 19).

"Our entire staff and team are looking forward to providing top notch service and bringing a one-of-a-kind dining experience to Houston," she writes. "We are looking forward to sharing our extensive menu and beautiful restaurant with the city.”

Harden hired chef Tobias Dorzon to lead the kitchen at Thirteen, which will occupy the former Mr. Peeples space in Midtown. Formerly a professional football player, Dorzon followed his father's footsteps by becoming a chef. From his home in Washington, D.C., he developed a following as a private chef for professional athletes and celebrities such as DeSean Jackson, Trent Williams, Snoop Dogg, and The Game.

Dorzon tells the Houston Chronicle that his menu will offer an elevated take on steakhouse classics and comfort food. Dishes will include deep fried lasagna, crab and crawfish fried rice with buttered prawns; deep-fried red snapper; and "a plate-busting dry-age tomahawk steak with shallot and pineapple compound butter."

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With Rockets fans' reactions ranging from good luck to good riddance, Dorzon seems to be taking the news in stride. He shared an image of Harden with his almost 100,000 Instagram followers.

"It’s not often Black chefs like myself get put in a position like this," he writes. "Brodie thank you for the platform; now go get you one 🏆The mobb going to hold it down on this end."

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i have the power

Houston restaurant returns after power outage forced 2-week closure

Photo by Sabrina Miskelly

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A Houston restaurant is on the road to recovery after a power outage shuttered it for two weeks. Daily Gather will reopen this Wednesday, August 19.

Owner Aaron Lyons tells CultureMap that the CityCentre restaurant lost power on August 4 when an underground transformer malfunctioned.

“Black smoke was coming out of the ground,” Lyons says. Both CityCentre and Centerpoint engineers initially told Lyons the problem would be fixed in two or three days, so he opted not to rent a generator, although both the neighboring Yardhouse restaurant and The Moran CityCentre hotel did acquire generators to remain open.

A representative for MetroNational, the Houston commercial real estate giant that acquired part of CityCentre in 2025, confirms that the property had an electrical problem that required complex repairs.

“CenterPoint Energy responded to the incident and isolated the affected service,” the representative writes in an email. “Our electrical contractor then worked continuously to locate, access, and repair the damaged infrastructure. Due to the extent of the underground damage, as well as the need to excavate and access multiple buried junction boxes and conduit pathways, the repairs were complex and extensive.”

That complexity meant the initial estimate of three days got extended by an additional week. Lyons says he asked about obtaining a temporary generator but was told by CityCentre’s management there wasn’t room on the property for one. “We were told we couldn’t get a generator because the hotel was taking up all the space,” he says.

Therefore, Daily Gather, Bellagreen, and Jeni’s Ice Cream all remained closed until the problem was finally resolved on Monday, August 17.

Lyons says he’s paid his employees the entire time the restaurant has been closed. He’s working with his insurance company to file a business interruption claim that he hopes will cover lost revenue and food waste. Still, the timing couldn’t have been worse. After a slow July, Lyons was counting on Houston Restaurant Weeks diners to help Daily Gather build some momentum for the busy fall season.

“Summer has been super slow. World Cup killed our business,” Lyons says. “We were looking forward to Houston Restaurant Weeks. We basically lost the first two weeks of Houston Restaurant Weeks. It just sucks.”

Open since 2022, Daily Gather serves an eclectic, globally-inspired menu that mixes Southern, Italian, Vietnamese, and other influences. It's $55, four-course Houston Restaurant Weeks menu offers everything from elote cornbread and watermelon salad to shrimp pasta in poblano cream sauce and sumac-marinated roast chicken. Like Dish Society, its fast casual sister concept, Daily Gather sources much of its produce from Texas farms and updates its menus seasonally.

Lyons adds that the restaurants staff is working furiously to repair any damage during the outage and prepare food for Wednesday’s service. He’s hoping to open in time for lunch, but Daily Gather might not reopen until dinner. Either way, keep an eye on its Instagram feed for the latest updates.

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