Restaurant's TV Makeover

Another Houston restaurant gets a reality TV show makeover: Will it be enough to survive in Montrose?

Add Montrose restaurant Gratifi to the list of local spots that have undergone transformations thanks to a reality TV show. Chef Robert Irvine and his crew from Food Network show Restaurant Impossible spent two days and $10,000 transforming the restaurant formerly known as Ziggy's Healthy Grill.

As with this week's episode of the TLC show Bakery Boss that was filmed near Vintage Park at Drew's Pastry Place, Restaurant Impossible seeks to make over struggling restaurants.

Gratifi hosted a well-attended grand reopening party Thursday night to show off the changes. The party also allowed the show to capture footage of diners reacting positively (one assumes) to the new changes.

"When Houston was the land of the giant chicken fried steak, being healthy was unique for a restaurant," owner Kevin Strickland told CultureMap when he first decided to rebrand the restaurant. "That started changing a few years ago when more people and more places became health-conscious.

"We decided it was time to broaden our reach."

Despite a new menu and a dog-friendly patio, the restaurant still sought assistance. The only clue comes from this tweet that notes "it is REALLY expensive to own real estate in Montrose."

While no one at the restaurant is allowed to comment on the experience of filming the show or the changes made to the restaurant until the episode airs, an open front door provided sufficient access to examine the space and spy a glimpse of the new menu.

The restaurant's wooden tables and chairs remain, but a new coat of dark blue paint gives the interior a more upscale feel. The bar looks to be redone, too.

Most importantly, Gratifi's unwieldy menu has been streamlined down from 20 burgers, sandwiches and full-size entrees to just seven items, plus a short list of appetizers and salads. The burgers were one of Gratifi's strengths, so it's good to see they remain. And who can argue with any restaurant serving a daily mac and cheese special?

Also, if the new menu header can be believed, the restaurant will keep its somewhat confusing name (read it as gratify not graffiti).

Is that enough to get Gratifi back on its feet? Someone at the restaurant certainly thinks so, tweeting, "Wow. Words cannot do justice to what @RobertIrvine and @lynnkegan and @Rest_Imposs accomplished tonight. I am genuinely blown away."

Want to see the changes? The restaurant will be open for regular service this weekend.

Another change? This mural along the restaurant's Taft side by artist Alexandra Kontrimalte.

Gratifi Kitchen + Bar Houston mural January 2014

Gatifi Kitchen + Bar Facebook

Another change? This mural along the restaurant's Taft side by artist Alexandra Kontrimalte.

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

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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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.

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