Friday Night Pop-Up
Celebrated Indian restaurant and trendy donut shop join forces for one night only
Three words should be enough to convince diners to make time the Friday night pop-up that's bringing together popular Indian restaurant Pondicheri with innovative Heights doughnut shop Hugs & Donuts.
Butter. Chicken. Kolache.
Could anything be more delightfully Houston in 2016 than the classic Czech pastry filled with sweet, tangy butter chicken? Well, the donut and lox sandwich on a black pepper parmesan donut with green masala cheese spread might come close. On the sweet side, save room for saffron donut holes, bournvita cream doughnuts filled with malted chocolate custard, and doughnut bread pudding.
The collaboration represents a reunion of sorts. Hugs & Donuts co-owner Matt Opaleski and Pondicheri pastry chef Alexa Hernandez worked together more than 10 years ago at chef Scott Tycer's hotspot Aries. They decided a collaboration of Indian flavors and American breakfast pastries made sense.
"We both wanted to do something different and have fun, so this is what we came up with,” says Opaleski in a statement.
The pop-up will be held at Pondicheri's upstairs Bake Lab on Friday from 5 to 9 pm — or until everything's sold out, which will probably happen quickly. After all, butter chicken kolaches.