no slice for you

Downtown Houston food hall's 'nice' pizza joint suddenly shutters

Mr. Nice Pie has closed.

Photo by Shawn Chippendale

Finn Hall has lost its first food vendor. Mr. Nice Pie, the downtown food hall's pizza restaurant, has closed.

A spin-off from a former partner of Montrose's Love Buzz pizzeria, Mr. Nice Pie served oversized pizza slices and whole pies. "Pretty much just working under someone else's thumb just isn't for us," the Mr. Nice Pie team tells CultureMap. "We're working on another East Side addition and are moving on to focus on that."

In response to CultureMap's request for comment about Mr. Nice Pie's closure, Finn Hall's operators provided the following statement:

“Finn Hall’s model includes testing emerging concepts and ideas and we recognize turnover is part of that process,” said David Goronkin of the Finn Hall management team. “That said, we wish Mr. Nice Pie all the best. We are talking with other popular pizza operators and concepts in town, and we’re planning to make an announcement soon.”

Only open since December, Finn Hall has been a hit with downtown office workers, who pack it for weekday lunches. Happy hour in the Swallow's Nest cocktail bar has become popular as well. The venue is more difficult to access for visitors; they must either find some of the limited street parking or pay $10 or more to park in a nearby garage. Those who plan ahead may reserve three hours of parking for $7.50 in the garage at 803 Fannin St.

The food hall is home to 10 restaurants, including Vietnamese concept Sit Lo, Goode Co. Taqueria, Dish Society, and Mala Sichuan. Finn Hall and Conservatory are downtown's two operating food halls, but they'll soon be joined by Bravery Chef Hall, Understory, and Lyric Market.

closings downtown

Houston's smallest restaurant?

Michelin-recognized Houston sushi chef fires up 4-seat Japanese skewer spot

Courtesy of Sip & Skewer

Diners sit in front of chefs cooking on a grill.

The team behind one of Houston’s Michelin-recognized sushi restaurants is opening an intimate new izakaya. Sip & Skewer is the newest concept from Hidden Omakase owner Tuan Tran and chef Marcos Juarez.

Opening Friday, February 13, Sip & Skewer is a four-seat restaurant devoted to skewered meats that’s located within Sushi by Hidden, the group’s affordable omakase restaurant in Rice Village. At Sip & Skewer, diners sit across from the chefs as they cook a 10-course, $90 meal on a Japanese binchotan grill.

“Sip & Skewer is small, loud, and intentional. The kind of hidden experience you’d find in Tokyo,” Tran said. “And with Chef Marcos guiding the team at Sushi by Hidden, this space is getting new energy from every angle.”

A four-seat restaurant within a 10-seat restaurant might seem kind of superfluous, but Tran explains that it’s part of a larger plan for his group of restaurants, which also includes West U. hand roll restaurant Norigami. It also builds on the success of Hidden Omakase, the Galleria-area sushi counter that earned a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“Sip & Skewer is part of a larger vision. It’s designed as a stepping stone toward our next concept, Kōri, a new hand roll and craft cocktail bar opening in the Heights. Our plan is to open Sip & Skewer directly next to our hand roll spot, creating a small alley of Japanese concepts that feed into one another,” Tran explains.

“This allows us to build awareness, train our team in a new format, and introduce guests to Japanese charcoal grilling in a very personal way before we scale the idea into a larger setting with Kōri. The four-seat format keeps overhead extremely low while serving as a live test kitchen and brand builder for what’s coming next,” he adds.

On a related note, Juarez and the other chefs at Hidden Omakase are dividing their time between all three restaurants. Tuam explains that it’s a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent customer experience.

“The same team that works Michelin-recognized omakase service also runs the grill here, which keeps quality and execution consistent while allowing the chefs a creative outlet in a very different format,” Tran said. “Because Sip & Skewer is only four seats and reservations only, it does not require a dedicated full-time staff. It’s an extension of the team rather than a separate operation.”