New in The Heights

New retro-inspired restaurant brings 'Pasghettios to The Heights

After a relatively quiet January for restaurant openings, one of this year's most eagerly-anticipated new projects will makes it debut on Wednesday, February 7. BCK: Kitchen & Cocktail Adventures, the new project from the team behind Galleria-area bar and restaurant Bosscat Kitchen & Libations, announced it's ready to open.

The former Glass Wall space has been transformed with new booths, steel-wrapped bench seating, and shelves made from hand-stitched luggage. Antiques sourced from a store on 19th Street add to the decor. Photos of the owners as children complete the retro look.

“We’ve really infused the personalities of all of our owners into this one,” co-owner John Reed said in a statement. “We came up with this concept three years ago when we were still living in California. When we came to Houston and discovered the Heights, we knew we found the perfect place to put it. This city has embraced us, and the culture that we’ve developed has brought us a lot of good people from word of mouth in the industry. We can’t wait to open our doors.”

While Bosscat serves an eclectic mix of bar bites and comfort food, BCK takes a different approach by drawing inspiration from the owners' childhoods. Head chef Jeff Fernandez and partner Peter Petro collaborated to develop dishes like a familiar-sounding two-patty cheeseburger with pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun, "Pasghettios" pasta in tomato sauce with 44 Farms beef sausage, and Backhand Shrimp — a riff on shrimp and grits that incorporates the Korean flavors Fernandez experienced in Southern California.

Diners are invited to share their own favorite recipes on a large piece of butcher's paper dubbed the "Local's Board." (The chefs may consider this article a request for a riff on a certain popular brand of canned ravioli. Just saying.)

Bar director Matt Sharp's cocktails take a similar tack with options that includes the Dr. Feelgood (a rye whiskey-based drink served in a Dr Pepper can) and the Berry Crunch Milk Punch, featuring Buffalo Trace bourbon and Cap’n Crunch Crunch Berries. Joining Sharp behind the bar will be two familiar faces, Crisia Araujo, who moves over from Bosscat, and CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Bartender of the Year winner Leslie Krockenberger (Reserve 101, Canard, etc).

The restaurant considers these first two weeks to be a soft opening where the menu will change daily as the kitchen responds to feedback from customers; its full menu will launch February 21. Brunch will follow in March.

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BCK Kitchen & Cocktail Adventures, 933 Studewood St; 832-831-7155; Monday through Saturday 3 pm to 10 pm (bar open late)

Co-owner John Reed and the BCK team.

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Co-owner John Reed and the BCK team.

the-heights openings cocktails news-you-can-eat

better than blini

Houston pizzeria unveils indulgent caviar pizza for the holiday season

Courtesy of Pizaro's Pizza

Get the Holiday Decadence pizza through the end of December.

One of Houston’s most well-regarded pizzerias is giving diners a way to splurge this holiday season. For a limited time only, Pizaro’s Pizza is topping one of its Neapolitan-style pies with caviar.

Called the Holiday Decadence, it’s a personal-sized, 8-inch, Neapolitan-style pizza topped simply with Pizaro’s housemade mozzarella cheese and seasoned with a little furikake. Alongside, the restaurant provides diners with lemon zest crème fraîche, a small bottle of prosecco, and a one-ounce jar of paddlefish caviar from Houston’s DR Delicacy. Priced at $59, it’s either an indulgent treat for one person or an extravagant appetizer for two.

Pizaro’s co-owner Nicole Bean tells CultureMap she sees the new pizza as an improvement on the caviar special the restaurant tried two years ago, which used its thicker, Detroit-style pizza.

“This year, we simplified things,” she says. “We made it more affordable. We added more caviar. The feature is the caviar, focusing on having a whole, one-ounce container either for yourself or to share with one other person.”

In this configuration, the pizza crust essentially serves as an oversized blini, with the furikake boosting the caviar’s oceanic flavors. Serving the caviar in the jar allows diners to add as much or as little to the pizza as they want. Introduced last week, Bean says the restaurant hasn’t sold that many caviar pizzas yet, but that doesn’t surprise her.

“People are a little hesitant with it being caviar and the $60 price point,” she says. “It’s not for everybody. It’s for people who are curious and want to try it or really love caviar and want to try it every way they can.”

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The restaurant always uses its monthly specials to experiment beyond familiar toppings like pepperoni and mushroom. Next month, Bean and her brother, co-owner Matt Hutchinson, will present dueling pies — his topped with crispy prosciutto, sautéed onions, and balsamic drizzle and hers a simple tomato pie, anchovies optional but strongly encouraged.

“The fun thing about pizza is you can literally do anything with it,” Bean says. “I want people to try different things on pizza. It can be decadent. It can be upscale. It can be fresh and new.”

The Holiday Decadence is available at both Pizaro’s locations through December 31. Find more details at the Pizaro’s Pizza website.

news-you-can-eat pizza caviar

New in The Heights

New retro-inspired restaurant brings 'Pasghettios to The Heights

Co-owner John Reed and the BCK team.

better than blini

Houston pizzeria unveils indulgent caviar pizza for the holiday season

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