Sneak Peek at Toulouse

The French Cowboy rides again at River Oaks District's first restaurant

After months of feverish anticipation, the first of eight restaurants at the luxurious mixed-use development River Oaks District is getting ready to make its debut. Toulouse Café and Bar, a French brasserie concept from Dallas-based restaurant group Lombardi Family Concepts, will open for dinner April 4. It's the first of two Lombardi Family restaurants to come to ROD; Italian restaurant Taverna will open in May.

While the restaurant may be from out of town, diners will find familiar faces in the dining room and the kitchen. Owner Alberto Lombardi has hired Philippe Schmit as executive chef and former Smith & Wollensky general manager Giorgio Ferrero to run the dining room.

"I asked around which one was the best chef in Houston, because we like to hire local people. They told me there was a famous chef, Philippe; they call him the 'French Cowboy,'" Lombardi tells CultureMap. "I call him. We have a meeting. I took him out to talk about philosophy. We say, 'Let’s do it. Let’s try.' As an Italian, we say, we make him an offer he couldn’t refuse."

Working at Toulouse marks Schmit's return to full-time restaurant cooking for the first time since his abrupt departure from the Galleria-area restaurant that once bore his name (now La Table). Of course, he's remained busy. After splitting with Philippe in 2013, the chef organized a Houston visit by the Master Chefs of France, consulted on the menu for Highland Village restaurant Drexel House, and helped bakery/cafe Flo Paris turn into one of 2015's most pleasant surprises.

"I’m happy to go back to real life as a chef," Schmit says. "I still have my hands full, but at least it’s in one kitchen."

Expect that one kitchen to be very busy. Toulouse has what may be River Oaks District's most desirable location: right in the middle of the complex, adjacent to Dior. A climate-controlled patio looks out onto a courtyard, which should become an excellent place for people watching. Inside, both the large bar area and expansive dining room look into the open kitchen. The room itself recalls Thomas Keller's casual Bouchon Bistro with a pressed-tin ceiling, wood-paneled walls, marble table tops, and a tile floor.

To fit its location, Lombardi says that Houston's Toulouse will be a little fancier than its Dallas counterpart. "In Dallas, it’s much more bistro, easygoing. This is more brasserie, meaning the layout (with the larger bar area). Even the menu is a little bit different. We emphasis a little more on steak, seafood, besides the classic things you expect to find in a French restaurant: escargot, beef bourguignon, duck confit, steak frites, le moules."

Schmit and corporate chef Renato Di Pirro are working to finalize the menu, which will blend dishes that have worked at Toulouse with some of Schmit's classics like bouillabaisse and escargot. Specifically, Lombardi notes that the restaurant has become known for its "mussels on steroids" (due to their size), which will come in three varieties with or without pommes frites.

Entree prices at dinner start in the mid-20s and run up to $44 for lamb chops, but most items are clustered from $28 to $34.

In addition to lunch, dinner, and brunch, Toulouse will serve breakfast during the week. Lombardi says he expects breakfast to appeal to businesspeople who want something a little more elegant than what they might find at a hotel or coffee shop. Look for omelets and other egg dishes, pastries such as croissants, coffee, and fresh-squeezed juices.

Taken together, Toulouse looks to be a combination of a number of successful Houston restaurants. The French-inspired menu (including cold seafood options), lively bar scene, and expansive patio have all been components of Brasserie 19's success. All-day utility is something recently introduced as part of La Table's transformation.

Both Schmit and Ferrero are veterans at giving Houstonians what they want, and their experience should help Toulouse get off to a strong start. If everything comes together, Toulouse will both kick start River Oaks District as a dining destination and earn the title of Houston's first significant restaurant opening of 2016. No pressure.

General manager Giorgio Ferrero, owner Alberto Lombardi, chef Philippe Schmit.

Toulouse River Oaks District Alberto Lombardi Giorgio Ferrero Philippe Schmit

Photo by Eric Sandler

General manager Giorgio Ferrero, owner Alberto Lombardi, chef Philippe Schmit.

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Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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