Food News Roundup

14 things to know about Houston dining right now: openings, closings, and 2 million matzo balls

Compared to the frenetic pace of the last few months, the pace of openings has slowed a bit, but Houston restaurants continue to generate lots of news. Here’s a quick look at all the recent happenings worth knowing.

Chefs on the move
A number of area chefs have changed jobs recently. Clark Cooper Concepts announced last week that it has “amicably separated” from longtime executive chef Brandi Key. The chef played an instrumental role in the company, contributing to the openings of (the now shuttered) Coppa Ristorante and its sibling Coppa Osteria, Punk’s Simple Southern Food, SaltAir Seafood Kitchen (closed last year), and The Dunlavy event space.

Key tells CultureMap that she’s working on a self-described passion project called The Kitchen Key, which will teach “the basics of home cooking and cooking with kids through the use of multiple social media platforms.”

Martha de Leon, the chef who won last year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Rising Star of the Chef for her work at Pax Americana, has left her position to move to Seattle with her husband, Abe. Pax owner Dan Zimmerman tells CultureMap that Pax has hired de Leon’s replacement and will “have an entirely new menu in the next month or two as well as some planned cosmetic updates.”

Former Underbelly sous chef Gary Ly has changed his plans. Originally tabbed for one of the concepts at downtown’s upcoming Bravery Chef Hall, Ly has instead decided to move to New York, to work as a sous chef at celebrity chef David Chang’s restaurant Momofuku. Diners can wish Ly bonne chance on February 6, when the chef will host a pop-up at Eight Row Flint devoted to the Lunar New Year with a bowl of wonton noodle soup with smoked pork broth and charred Chinese broccoli.

Everything that’s old is new again at Boheme, where chef Rishi Singh has returned to the kitchen after a two-and-a-half year stint at downtown tapas restaurant Batanga. The chef’s influence can already been seen on the patio bar’s menu in dishes like smoked barbacoa tacos, shrimp toast, and a new pizza that uses a variety of Asian sausages.

Finally, visitors to Star Fish might notice a familiar face in the kitchen. Veteran Houston chef Joseph Stayshich (Benjy’s, Karbach Brewery) has made the jump from Eloise Nichols to Cherry Pie Hospitality's Heights-adjacent seafood restaurant.

Openings and Closings
Speaking of Montrose patio bars, Doc’s Motorworks Bar & Grill has closed after three years in business. Rumors that Ruggles Black chef Bruce Molzan would take over the space and rebrand it as Ruggles Ice have not come to fruition, according to a report in the Houston Business Journal. While the space’s future is uncertain, don’t expect a prime location in Montrose (with respectable parking) to stay empty for long.

Pondicheri has brought its contemporary Indian cuisine to the Asia Society Texas Center. Pondi Cafe is open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday with a menu that mixes favorite dishes from its larger sibling with a few one-offs, like a chickpea pie and a Bournvita ice cream sandwich.

Bacon Bros. Public House, the South Carolina-based bar and restaurant, has closed. Known for its housemade charcuterie and barbecue, the restaurant lasted less than a year in Sugar Land Town Square.

River Oaks has a new destination for doro wat and kitfo. Acclaimed Ethiopian restaurant Blue Nile has opened a second location at 3030 Audley St. in the space previously occupied by Luigi’s Cucina Italiana.

Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, the California-based restaurant that opened its first Houston-area location last year, has added an additional outpost in Sugar Land at 13513 University Blvd. While no one will confuse its cuisine with the quality found at an intimate omakase feast, being able to receive two pieces of nigiri for only $2.25 has its own rewards.

Other news and notes
The day is drawing near when Kenny & Ziggy’s will sell its 2 millionth matzo ball. The lucky schlemiel who orders the winning ball will receive prizes, a $100 gift card, and a t-shirt that reads “My Matzo Balls are Bigger than Yours!” At the present rate of sales, the restaurant expects a winner to be crowned sometime during the week of February 5.

None of the employees of Aqui, the Houston restaurant opened by Austin chef Paul Qui, have commented publicly about what it's like to work somewhere where the owner has been accused of domestic assault, until now. Pastry chef Jillian Bartolome addresses a variety of topics, including negative publicity and questions she's received from friends about her decision, in this conversation with San Francisco chef Richie Nakano on ChefsFeed.

Cane Rosso may be known for pizza, but chefs Jonathan Jones and Matt Wommack want it to be known for burgers, too. On Wednesday nights, both the Heights and Montrose locations are offering the Ghostface Squealer Burger (beef and ghost pepper bacon patty with habanero slaw, pickles, spicy mayo, and double American cheese, $12) and the Cane Rosso Burger ($10) served with potato puffs.

Veteran Houston bartender Chris Morris (Hunky Dory, Radio Milano) will present the regalo cocktail he’s created for the Bacardi Legacy cocktail competition at four venues this week. Find the drink (a mixture of rum, champagne, mango nectar, sugar, and basil leaves) on Wednesday, January 31 at Sloan/Hall from 5 -7 pm; on Thursday, February 1 at South Bank Seafood Bar from 4 - 8 pm; on Friday, February 2 at Ladybird’s from 6 - 10 pm; and Saturday, February 3 at Johnny’s Gold Brick from 8 pm until close.

Try the Regalo cocktail this weekend.

Regalo cocktail Bacardi Legacy Chris Morris

Courtesy photo

Try the Regalo cocktail this weekend.

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Houston DJ-turned-TikTok star cooks up a cult following one recipe at a time

Courtesy of Uncle Dibbz

Uncle Dibbz, a.k.a. A.H. Bowden, has built a devoted following for his viral recipes.

For the past month, Uncle Dibbz has been, shall we say, going ham on social media with the myriad videos of alternative Thanksgiving dishes. He’s dropped how-to clips for such recipes as Cajun-roasted turkey, honey-baked ham/hens, oven-bag turkey, and six-piece fried turkey (to go). Basically, if you don’t want to cook a bland ol’ Butterball this Turkey Day, Dibbz has you covered.

Who is Dibbz, you say? Well, he’s a North Jersey-born, Georgia-bred, Houston-based chef who’s been building quite the foodie rep online. Several videos across his TikTok, Instagram and YouTube pages, from his Cajun-boiled fried chicken (2 million on IG) to his “Propose to Me Pasta” (12.3 million on TikTok), has amassed millions of views. But Dibbz (government name: A.H. Bowden) wasn’t always a culinary content creator. He used to spin music back in Atlanta as DJ DiBiase, named after retired wrestler Ted “The Million Dollar Man” DiBiase. “DiBiase is a mouthful to say, so people just always call me ‘D’ or ‘Dibbz’ for short,” says Bowden, 37, during a Zoom interview.

@uncledibbz PROPOSE To Me PASTA 💍 🍝 Trust your Uncle! This SEAFOOD Pasta will seal the deal 👌🏽 Get my recipe below ⬇️ or on uncledibbz.com [@uncledibbz Link in Bio] 🌐 **Ingredients:** - 8 ounces spaghetti - 1 lb mixed seafood (shrimp, scallops, crab meat, etc.) - 2 tablespoons olive oil - Fresh chopped basil - 2 cloves garlic, minced - 1/2 cup white wine - 1/4 cup heavy cream - 2 tablespoons unsalted butter - Salt and pepper to taste - Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust [link in bio] - Fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish) - Grated Parmesan cheese (for garnish) **Instructions:** 1. Cook the spaghetti pasta according to the package instructions until al dente. Drain and set aside. 2. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chopped basil and sauté for about 1 minute until fragrant. 3. Add the mixed seafood to the skillet. Season with Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust to taste and cook for 2-3 minutes until cooked through. Remove the seafood from the skillet and set aside. 4. Pour in the white wine to the skillet and let it simmer for 2 minutes, allowing the alcohol to cook off. 5. Stir in the heavy cream, butter, Uncle Dibbz Delta Dust seasoning, salt, and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the sauce thickens slightly. 6. Add the cooked spaghetti and cooked mixed seafood to the skillet. Toss everything together until well coated with the sauce. 7. Remove from heat and garnish with fresh parsley and grated Parmesan cheese. 8. Serve hot and enjoy the flavorful Seafood Spaghetti. That's good Shawty! #UncleDibbz #ThatsGoodShawty #Pasta #marryme #proposal #bride #wife #husband #relationshipgoals #datenight #easyrecipe #seafood #cajun #cooking #fyp #foryou #viral #houston ♬ original sound - Uncle Dibbz 🍴

He was making a nice living as a DJ, even serving as rapper Big K.R.I.T.’s touring DJ for a while. But when the pandemic hit, the gigs obviously dried up.

“I was living in Miami at the time,” he says. “And, you know, when you have a lot of time on your hands to think – but also need to figure out a way to, you know, sustain an income and everything like that – the ideas start coming,”

Like most DJs at that time, he was doing live mixes on Instagram. But his days throwing cookout parties in Atlanta inspired him to start doing his cooking videos, where he used his very own seasoning. Of course, he had a lemon pepper blend, which he used in a lemon pepper hot wings video that currently has over a half-million views on TikTok.

“I'm about to go live to DJ later that night, and my phone was just going off with orders,” he recalls. “So I'm like, where are these orders coming from? And it's not from my friends. I'm seeing the cities and the states. I don't know these people.”

Thanks to his videos, which usually end with him saying his signature line “That’s good shawty!” (that’s also the name of his cookbook he released last year), Dibbz went into the seasoning business full time. He eventually hired another person to help send out the piles of orders he was receiving.

He even got an order from former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith, one of his favorite athletes. “I remember doing a book report on him when I was in fourth grade,” he boasts.

Although Dibbz has a flair for making meals that border on decadent, he’s an ardent practitioner of cooking with natural ingredients, especially in his seasoning. He has several low-sodium seasoning, including Bebe’s Salt Free – named after his mother, who had open-heart surgery a few weeks before the pandemic started.

“I don't think a lot of people understand the amount of toxins and chemicals that go into a lot of these seasonings,” he says. “You're starting to see it in the news now. A lot of the foods with certain dyes are being taken off the shelves and things like that.’

Soon, Dibbz moved himself and his new business to Houston, a favorite place to perform as well as a town whose hip-hop got him into music. He cites local chopped-and-screwed gods DJ Screw, Michael 5000 Watts, and OG Ron C as his holy trinity of influences. To give props to the music of his new home, he created a hot sauce – called HXT Sauce – whose uncharacteristically large bottle resembles Promethazine cough syrup (aka the key ingredient in lean, the preferred purple cocktail for the city’s rap community).

“It's not necessarily about promoting that usage,” he says. “But, at the same time, it’s just a homage to one of the factors and influences of screwed-and-chopped music.”

Dibbz still indulges in spinning records from time to time. The Waxaholics’ DJ Big Reeks has gotten him to break out the vinyl a few times during his Thursday-night sets at Alley Kat Bar & Lounge in Midtown. But creating new recipes, dropping delicious content and proving you can eat and live in a hearty, healthy fashion still remains his full-time mission.

“I’m not just talking about eating cauliflower rice all day and every day, but just eat real food,” he says. “We're eating fake food. That's the bottom line. We're eating fake food and my whole purpose is to inspire people to eat real food and that starts with real ingredients, real herbs, you know – real natural seasonings.”

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