Downtown Houston will soon welcome a new, upscale Japanese restaurant. When it opens later this year, Kannon will be the newest Houston concept from Baltimore-based Atlas Restaurant Group.
Located in downtown’s Texas Tower, Kannon will a Japanese fine dining restaurant. The 7,000-square-foot restaurant will seat 200 diners, including a 70-seat patio. Atlas Concept Chef Timur Fazilov will create the restaurant’s menu of elevated Japanese fare, including a robata grill and dry-aged fish.
That may sound familiar, since it’s very similar to Azumi, Atlas’ upscale Japanese restaurant in River Oaks District that opened in 2024 and also features a menu by Fazilov. Atlas president and CEO Alex Smith acknowledges the two restaurants will have similar menus, but he tells CultureMap that Kannon will have a different “design and feel” than Azumi.
Along with opening Kannon, Atlas has also taken over operations at The Sylvie, the Texas Tower’s European-inspired all-day cafe. Fans of the concept can take comfort in knowing that Atlas does not plan any major changes to the restaurant’s existing menu.
Atlas also operates Loch Bar, an East Coast-style seafood tavern in River Oaks District, and Marmo, an Italian steakhouse in the Montrose Collective.
“We opened our first concept in Houston in 2019 and have loved getting to know the River Oaks and Montrose Collective communities. We’re eager to expand into Downtown Houston with The Sylvie and Kannon, and are thrilled to partner with Texas Tower,” Smith added in a statement.
It has been a bit of a journey to bring an upscale restaurant to the Texas Tower, the 47-story high-rise on the site of the former Houston Chronicle headquarters. In 2021, Chicago's What If Syndicate hospitality group announced plans to bring its Italian concept Etta to the property, but those plans fell through.
Then, Berg Hospitality opened The Sylvie in 2024. At the time, the company, which is known for restaurants such as B&B Butchers, Trattoria Sofia, and Turner’s, also planned to open Dune Road, a New England-inspired seafood restaurant in the space that had been slated for Etta, but the restaurant was quietly shelved. Berg still operates Real Agave at 1100 Louisiana.
A represented for Berg Hospitality declined to comment on the company’s decision to exit The Sylvie.
