a feast for next year

Houston's highly anticipated 'anti-food festival' postponed until 2023

Houstonians will have to wait another year to attend Commune.

Photo courtesy of Indie Chefs

A food festival delayed is not a food festival denied. At least, that's the hope of culinary-minded Houstonians.

The Commune food festival announced it has been postponed until March 2023. First proposed to be held last summer, the event shifted to March 2022 when the Delta wave caused a spike in COVID-19 infection rates. Instead of the two-week long series of dinners prepared by 200-plus chefs, Commune held a more limited, three-day preview of collaboration dinners and pop-ups that provided a small taste of the full experience.

"Now, as we’ve moved into 2022, we’ve continued tracking the rapidly developing COVID-19 changes," organizers wrote in a statement. "And as we’ve closely monitored the virus’s variants, it's with heavy hearts but a whole lot of optimism that we’ve decided to push this big ol’ Houston shindig to spring 2023. We feel that to do Commune justice, we must wait until it’s safe and healthy to bring in the slated 200+ acclaimed chefs and the thousands of guests we can’t wait to host."

Houstonians who opted to roll their tickets to 2022 instead of attending the preview will have their purchases refunded. Expect to see the credit within approximately seven days.

Pitched as an "anti-food-festival," Commune proposed to treat Houstonians to an epic culinary experience headlined by numerous James Beard Award winners, Top Chef contestants, and Food & Wine Best New Chef honorees from across the nation. Organizers planned a a mix of intimate omakase meals, collaborative dinners, classes, panel discussions, and street market-style stands. Sadly, that won't happen until 2023.

Meanwhile, Commune organizer Indie Chefs Community has other plans for 2022. Instead of one, two-week long food festival, it will host The Road to Commune, a 10-city tour of collaboration dinners. It kicks off in Austin March 23-27 with stops in cities such as Los Angeles; Columbus, Ohio; and Brooklyn, New York. Tickets for the Austin stop go on sale this Friday, March 4.

festivals

Farewell, ElRo

Creative Montrose pizzeria will shutter after only a year-and-a-half

Photo by Julie Soefer

ElRo Pizza & Crudo

An acclaimed Houston pizzeria will soon serve its final pies. ElRo Pizza & Crudo will close after service on December 31.

In a post on Instagram, chef-owner Terrence Gallivan thanks his staff for their dedication and his customers for their support. “We hope to see you all over the next couple weeks. Come celebrate with us,” he writes.

Open since June 2023, ElRo intrigued diners who enjoyed Gallivan’s work at pioneering Houston restaurant The Pass & Provisions. At ElRo, the chef served a modified version of the Provisions pizza recipe alongside crudos and shareable small plates such as arancini and housemade sausage. It earned four nominations in this year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, including Best New Restaurant and Chef of the Year.

Sadly, Gallivan tells CultureMap that business has seen “a steady decline in business for many months.” Recently, the restaurant had tried a number of initiatives to draw in diners, such as steak night on Tuesday and fried chicken on Saturday.

The early announcement gives diners two weeks to make one more visit (or two) to the restaurant before it closes. Customers may want to time their visit for happy hour, which takes places from 3-6 pm Tuesday-Friday. It includes half-off glasses of wine, $4 draft beers, $9 select cocktails, and food specials.

Gallivan adds that he doesn’t know yet what his next move will be. Hopefully, he’s got one more comeback in him. Houston is a more fun town to dine in when Gallivan is cooking in it.

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