sing for your supper

Austin-based Filipino restaurant makes waves with hot new Heights locale

Houston’s hottest new restaurant has arrived in The Heights. Be More Pacific - Filipino Kitchen and Bar, an Austin-based hot spot that just opened its first Houston location, experienced hour-plus waits during last weekend’s friends and family preview.

Located at 506 Yale St., the restaurant has begun its public soft opening this week with dinner service on Tuesday (March 3) and lunch beginning Thursday (March 5). Brunch starts Sunday.

Lifelong friends Giovan Cuchapin and Mark Pascual started Be More Pacific as a food truck in 2011. They opened their first brick and mortar in Austin in 2017, earning a Best New Restaurant award in the 2018 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. For the Houston location, they added Houston hospitality veteran Roveen Abante (Lincoln Bar, Pour Behavior, Understory Bar in Capitol Tower).

Cuchapin tells CultureMap that the restaurant has thrived by blending traditional Filipino flavors with a welcoming atmosphere and a sophisticated beverage program that includes cocktails and Filipino beers.

“We try to create a nice ambiance,” Cuchapin says. “One of the comments we get from Filipino families in Austin is that they love the food and they thank us for creating a spot they can bring their own friends to.”

Towards that end, the Houston location has lots of touches designed to make diners feel welcome. A window provides a view into the kitchen. Neon signs with catchy slogans provide Instagram moments, and artwork contains puns that reference Filipino dishes. The restaurant also offers two karaoke rooms that are available for private parties.

Cuchapin cites a number of dishes as Be More Pacific signatures, including sisig, adobo chicken, and kare kare, a stew with creamy peanut sauce that gets a Texan twist with smoked brisket. Lumpia, the Filipino-style egg rolls, comes in three varieties: Shanghai (pork and shrimp), veggie, or Gio’s, a crab rangoon riff that comes with a spicy mayo dipping sauce.

“Our version of adobo is the best I’ve had,” Pascaul told CultureMap last year. “Our Filipino barbecue and our sisig [stand out]. I don’t think anyone in Houston does sisig as good as we do.”

Brunch adds items such as ube pancakes and eggs Benedicts that feature housemade spam or corned beef. All of the restaurant’s sauces are made in-house, too.

On Tuesdays, the restaurant will feature its kamayan feasts. Available for groups of six or more, the restaurant covers a table in banana leaves then puts down a meal of 10 to 12 dishes. Think of it as a tasting menu without all the jokes about going to Whataburger afterwards.

Be More Pacific has arrived in Houston.

Photo by Ashlyn Allison

Be More Pacific has arrived in Houston.

news-you-can-eat the-heights openings

What's Eric Eating Episodes 518 and 519

Meet the men behind River Oaks' new destination for bowls and broth

Photo by Becca Wright

Find Honest Mary's in the River Oaks Shopping Center.

On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” Honest Mary’s founder Nelson Monteith and COO Andrew Wiseheart joined CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss the Austin-based restaurant that just opened its first Houston location in the River Oaks Shopping Center (2047-A West Gray St).

Monteith shares that he started the restaurant in 2017 in order to fulfill his vision of a restaurant which could serve food that’s fast, fresh, and affordable. A trained chef who operated pioneering Austin restaurant Contigo, Wiseheart joined the group to bring both culinary expertise and operational acumen to the grouping company.

Part of what sets Honest Mary’s apart is that diners can add cooked vegetables to the rice and proteins at the heart of every bowl. The “Market Sides” section includes an array of roasted vegetables — including sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, and Brussels sprouts — as well as black beans, maple-glazed carrots, and green lentils. Bowls can be further enhanced with toppings such as Texas pecans, crispy chickpeas, goat cheese, avocado, and apples as well as sauces such as creamy poblano, cashew lime crema, sesame vinaigrette, spicy peanut, chimichurri and apple cider vinaigrette

Monteith explains that looking at the ingredients on display usually inspires him when he’s deciding what to eat at Honest Mary’s.

“I will almost always look at the line and see what looks fresh and good,” Monteith says. “Today, I got the salted kale with white rice. Then, I got garlic-pepper steak. I added on lentils — they’re my go-to in the winter. They blend everything together, and I love it Then Brussels sprouts looked green. I got some jalapenos. Avocados, cause that’s healthy. Then I got the chimichurri sauce.”

Honest Mary’s is also known for its hearty broths, a classic chicken and a vegetarian option made with seaweed and mushroom. Sandler raves about the chicken broth to Wiseheart, who shares how it’s made.

“We spent six or seven months testing recipes and drinking it ourselves to see if it’s a good idea,” Wiseheart says. “I talk about it as a great complement to the menu. It’s healthy. It’s really simple. Most of the kitchens I came up with were rooted in French cuisine. This is just chicken stock with salt in it.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about Honest Mary’s plans for additional locations in Houston and Dallas. Then Monteith asks a Sandler a few questions about the Houston dining scene.

In this week’s other episode, Sandler and co-host Mary Clarkson discuss the news of the week. Their topics include Home Slice Pizza opening a new location in the Heights; the closures of Brett’s BBQ Shop in Katy and Killen’s Barbecue in The Woodlands; and Esquire including ChòpnBlok on its list of America’s best new restaurants.

In the restaurant of the week segment, the two friends discuss their recent meal at Hypsi, the Italian restaurant in the newly-opened Hotel Daphne. Listen to the episode to hear their favorite dishes and other thoughts on the meal.

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Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hear it Sunday at 9 am on ESPN 97.5.

Photo by Becca Wright

Find Honest Mary's in the River Oaks Shopping Center.

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