Foodie News

Another Lone Star food win: San Diego chef Philippe Verpiand calls for a Texasmigration

Chef Philippe Verpiand
Cavaillon in San Diego

Are the days of coastal culinary dominance numbered? They are if you believe chef Philippe Verpiand, who's throwing in the towel on his San Diego eatery and heading to Texas.

Verpiand, a native of the Provence region of France, came to California to cook under Jean-Michel Diot at La Jolla's famed Tapenade restaurant. After seven years as chef de cuisine at Tapenade, Verpiand left to open his own restaurant, Cavaillon, in the San Diego exurb of Santaluz, where he earned a name as one of the city's best chefs.

But now Verpiand has his sights set on the Lone Star State.

"Here I was pretty much dying, working every day, and everywhere I went in Houston, luckily I made reservations," Verpiand tells the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Reef restaurant. A small French bistro. Everywhere I went was packed. The wine lists were really, really big. And at Cavaillon they want to come with a coupon. Everybody wants to bring his own wine and they complain about I’m charging corkage. A month ago on a Saturday night, a 12-top showed up with a case of wine. It’s a sad joke.”

And the chef seems taken not only by Texans notorious penchant for dining out but by our relatively laissez-faire regulatory system.

"California is way too complicated,” Verpiand said. “Little laws. Too much taxes. Not enough customers. I can do the same thing with a better lifestyle.”

Verpiand isn't the first California chef to catch Lone Star fever. In a December cooking class at Houston's Central Market, Catalan native Daniel Olivella of San Francisco's B-44 and Barlata admitted he was looking for a place to set up in Austin.

Of course, many California commentators claim that Verpiand's issues in California stem not from laws or cheap consumers, but are due to a snakebit location (it's apparently far enough outside the city that the San Diego paper has to describe the location of the town), a menu that was solid but not exceptional and a price range beyond what the area would support.

Regardless, the public defection of a popular San Diego chef to Texas (and Houston, we hope) is another win for the Lone Star State in the Texas-California rivalry.

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one last hurrah

Staple downtown Houston bar announces imminent closure

Dean's Downtown/Facebook

Dean's is closing this Sunday, April 26.

One of downtown Houston’s favorite casual bars will serve its last drink this weekend. Dean’s will close after service on Sunday, April 26.

First opened in 1999 as Dean’s Credit Clothing, the bar rebranded as Dean’s when current owner Bobby Stark took over in 2013. He tells CultureMap that Notsuoh owner Jim Pirtle, who also owns the bar’s building at 316 Main Street, offered to buy out the last two years of Dean’s lease so that he could open a new concept in the space.

“[The buyout] allows me, my partners, and my employees to do something else,” Stark writes in a text. “Some staff want to get out of the business. Some want to start their own bars and restaurants. Some just want to continue, and Jim’s new bar will be mostly the same vibe — maybe just a little bit more low-key.”

Dean’s opened at the same time as other game-changing bars and restaurants such as Goro & Gun, the Original OKRA Charity Saloon, and Captain’s Foxheart’s Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge. Stark says he’s watched the area evolve from an area that people viewed skeptically into one of Houston’s most popular nightlife spots.

“Back then, downtown still had the perception that it was dangerous somehow. I don’t know why,” he says. “Now, it’s more mainstream. In a way, I think Houston is becoming more metropolitan as opposed to just a car city.”

Dean’s will celebrate its last night with “Party Like Its 2013.” Expect a soundtrack powered by songs from the era from artists such as The Weeknd, Rihana, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Taylor Swift, and more. The party runs from 8-11 pm.

closing nightlife