Foodie News

Michael Kramer makes even Brussels sprouts taste awesome at The Tasting RoomCityCentre

The community table at The Tasting Room City Centre
Duck confit potato gnocchi with Brussels sprouts
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Pizza Napolitano with grapes, red onions, tomato and mushroom.
Photo by Sarah Rufca
A delightful, delicate beef carpaccio
Photo by Sarah Rufca
The new Tasting Room has an extensive enomatic wine system that offers dozens ofpremium wines by the taste, half-glass or glass.
Showpiece chandelier

There are plenty of restaurants where a great wine list only supplements an even more impressive meal. But until now I've never thought about The Tasting Room as that kind of place.

The concept that began as an up-market but low-frills wine bar has consistently evolved, especially since Voice alum Michael Kramer came in as the corporate executive chef. I liked how Kramer retooled the brunch menu at Uptown Park, but it wasn't until he settled in at the spacious new Tasting Room at CityCentre that I really saw the kind of understated excellence he's bringing to the restaurant.

Let's start with the pizza. TTR brought in a rare wood-burning oven and put it front and center and sent Kramer and his sous chef to be trained in the art of Vera Pizza Napolitana at the VPN Americas Pizza School in California. So the pizzas are simple and elegant, with a perfect "00" dough that gets just charred enough.

I tried one version with grapes, plum tomatoes, red onion, mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, olive oil and garlic. The crust was thin and doughy (just how I like it) and the ingredients added just the right blend of tart and sweetness while always staying light. It's perfectly authentic and outside the mainstream while also being really approachable and avoiding the scarlet letter of "artsy pizza."

I also really liked the small dishes, like a beautifully restrained beef carpaccio so thinly sliced it was hard to pick up in one piece, topped beautifully with olive oil, red onion, and micro greens. The salumi menu includes standouts from prosciutto to chorizo, but I fell in love with the cheese offerings, which included Cabot cheddar (a personal fave), garrotxa from Spain and local favorites from Veldhuizen and Cheesy Girl.

For a more traditional entree, Kramer brought out a duck confit gnocchi with Brussels sprouts and duck cracklins. I have not eaten Brussels sprouts since the age of 11, when I was served a plate of hard, bitter sprouts at a friend's house and I forced myself to eat them to be polite. (Damn my flawless Southern manners.)

I've held a grudge ever since, so I was floored that they are in fact delicious, at least in the hands of Kramer. Against a rich backdrop of duck and potato gnocchi, the ever-so-slightly crunchy twinge and bitter counterbalance of the Brussels sprouts was really tasty — Kramer says he drops them dry in the fryer for an ideal flavor.

The food was excellent, but more importantly it seemed perfectly calibrated to complement the wine The Tasting Room puts front and center. Can I say that this is a menu of great food to eat with wine without taking away from the food? Because it is.

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the more things change

Houston's essential Jewish diner looks better than ever after refresh

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

It’s tricky to renovate a restaurant that’s as essential to its community as New York Deli. A staple of Houston’s Jewish community for almost 50 years, the tiny restaurant near Meyerland will serve as many as 400 people during a busy Sunday brunch.

Still, the time had come, as the tape on the deteriorating banquettes and peeling wallpaper illustrated. With the restaurant’s lease up for renewal, co-owner Michael Saghian saw an opportunity for some updates.

“I couldn’t be the new guy who ruined the place by moving it,” he tells CultureMap. “We worked out a deal with the landlord [to stay] and did a big refresh.”

The most noticeable change is the removal of the restaurant’s front door and vestibule. Instead, diners enter through the restaurant’s companion bagel shop. Separate entrances made sense when the bagel shop was certified kosher by local religious authorities, but now that designation only applies to the Bellaire location that opened in 2020. Not only is the new setup easier for people with mobility issues to navigate, it allows more light into the dining room, brightening the place considerably..

Saghian and co-owner Riana Sherman worked with interior designer Erin Hicks on the refresh. Tables, chairs, and banquettes are all new, but the color scheme remains the same. The process yielded 10 more seats, and the furniture is a little more durable, too.

“People have flipped chairs because they’re so lightweight,” Sherman says. “We got a sturdier chair.”

Behind the scenes, an expanded kitchen allows for the restaurant’s cooks to work faster and more efficiently. An additional egg cooker should cut down the amount of time people wait for their food to arrive.

“The kitchen had one of everything. Now we have two of everything. We can pump out a lot more food,” Saghian says.

Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers such as the “bagel girls,” a group of woman who’ve eaten breakfast at the restaurant since the ‘80s. A piece of old wallpaper has been framed and hung on the wall, too, as a nod to the space’s history.

New York Deli interior changes Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers.Photo by Sergio Trevino

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

Saghian says he suffered from sleepless nights as he worried about people’s reactions to the changes, but so far his customers have been effusive.

“It still feels like an old school diner,” Saghian says. “It has pieces you remember. Even the new stuff is old school.”

While the physical environment is new, the staff remains the same. To ensure he kept the same team of cooks and servers, Saghian paid their wages for the two weeks the restaurant was closed for renovations.

Even more importantly, the prices are the same. That’s something that will make even the oldest regulars happy.

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