easter dining 2022

Where to eat Easter brunch in Houston: Fine dining, serious steak, and more

Le Jardinier will feature white asparagus.

Photo by Emily Chan

For those who observe, Easter provides the opportunity to reflect on themes like charity and sacrifice. The holiday also marks the changing of seasons, as winter gives way to spring.

Regardless of how religious a person is, Easter also provides the opportunity for a decadent brunch. Houston restaurants are ready with a range of options at various price points.

All of the restaurants listed below are running special menus or dishes to celebrate the holiday, which takes place Sunday, April 17. CultureMap will update this list periodically as new options become available.

Bloom & Bee
The restaurant inside The Post Oak hotel will offer a three-course, $75 Easter brunch menu. Start with dishes such as deviled eggs or white asparagus soup. Entree choices include lobster Benedict, salmon coulibiac, and herb-roasted leg of lamb. For dessert, choose selections from a buffet of French pastries.

Blossom Hotel
The Medical Center hotel's Lunar Easter Brunch ($108.95 per adult, $39.95 children 5-10) starts with bottomless champagne and mimosas paired with dishes such as cedar plank salmon, pineapple-glazed pork loin, and sweet potato casserole, as well as a selection of baked goods and desserts. Activities for kids include face painting and an Easter egg hunt.

Craft Pita
The casual Lebanese restaurant will serve two Easter specials. Dine-in customers may opt for smoked lamb shwarma pitas and bowl, while to-go customers may purchase a take-and-bake Easter dinner for four that includes lamb, Lebanese rice, fattoush salad, hummus, cucumber yogurt, and mamoul cookies.

Feges BBQ
The Spring Branch location of the Texas Monthly top 50 barbecue joint will host an Easter party and crawfish boil on Saturday, April 16 from 11 am - 3 pm. An Easter egg hunt, games, and pictures with the Easter bunny will keep kids entertained while adults enjoy live music by John Egan, crawfish, and beer.

Guard and Grace
The downtown steakhouse’s brunch offerings blend some of its traditional fare like steaks and raw seafood with a range of breakfast dishes. Choose from four different Benedicts, French toast, a cinnamon roll, and more.

Indianola
Agricole Hospitality’s Texas-inspired EaDo establishment will be serving a bottomless brunch ($65 per adult, $20 children 12 and under). Selections include shrimp cocktail, deviled eggs, strawberry ricotta sourdough toast, leg of lamb, wood-grilled Black Angus filet, duck fat roasted potatoes, and spring panzanella salad.

Le Jardinier
The fine dining restaurant at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will serve a three-course, $125 menu with optional wine pairings available for $85. Start with deviled eggs before choosing from dishes such as burrata with watercress pistou, garden salad, or white asparagus with orange reduction and pickled strawberries ($15 supplement). Entree choices include tagliatelle with rabbit ragu, spicy lamb shoulder with chickpea fricasse, or risotto with red snapper and vegetables.

The Palm
Downtown’s Italian-inspired steakhouse will feature a special 26-ounce prime rib with choice of soup or salad for $99.

Perry’s
The steakhouse chain’s Easter Sunday is a two-course menu that starts with pear salad or carrot ginger soup. Choose from ham ($45) or prime rib ($65); each is served with whipped potatoes and green bean almondine. Add a slice of white chocolate cheesecake for $8.

Picos
In addition to its usual brunch buffet, the Upper Kirby Mexican restaurant will serve an Antojito Platter that comes with gorditas, salutes, tlacoyos, picadas, and quesadilla. In addition, the buffet will add both a carving station with pork belly porchetta and roasted beef steamship as well as a raw bar with oysters and ceviche. It's priced at $54 for adults, $42 for seniors, and $30 for children over eight.

Postino
All four locations of the wine bar will offer their Old Skool Hippity-Hop Brunch that features DJs spinning 90s-era hip hop and R&B.

Tonight & Tomorrow
The restaurant inside La Colombe d’Or in Montrose will supplement its regular brunch offerings with a special three-course, $65 Easter menu. Available both Saturday and Sunday, choices include arugula and endive salad, risotto du marché with black truffles, Gulf red snapper, scallops, and ribeye. A separate children's menu is available for $21.

Toro Toro
This Latin American steakhouse at the Four Seasons will serve a decadent brunch buffet. Priced at $145 per adult and $65 for children 12 and under, the offerings include a seafood station, sushi station, carving station, omelet station, Texas cheese display, and so much more.

Trattoria Sofia
Chef LJ Wiley will supplement the Italian restaurant's usual lunch menu with a few brunch specials. They include: Uovo al Purgatorio, two poached eggs and Prosciutto di Parma with tomato sauce; Il Tritatto, potato and mortadella hash with two poached eggs and Parmigiano Reggiano; Polenta Fra’diavolo, shrimp over creamy polenta with spicy tomato sauce; Focaccia di Mora, blackberry focaccia French toast; and Arrosto D’Agnello, roasted lamb loin with Castelvetrano olives, olive oil smashed potatoes, torn mint leaves, and salsa verde.

Traveler's Table
The Montrose restaurant's, three-course, $45 Easter menu starts with deviled eggs. The five second course options include Ukrainian borscht, shiitake-edamame dumplings, and breakfast bread pudding. Finish with one of six choices, including a truffled ham, mushroom, and brie omelette, Louisiana fried chicken, and lamb shakshuka.

Truluck’s
Both the Galleria and Woodlands locations of the will run two Easter specials: Florida Lobster Thermidor made with chunks of spiny lobster tail simmered in a creamy shellfish sauce with Havarti, mushrooms and tarragon ($125) and an Easter Bloom cocktail made with cognac and almond orgeat syrup.

The Union Kitchen
All six Houston-area locations will feature brunch and dinner specials on Easter Sunday. Choices include Short Rib Benedict, Creme Brûlée toast, braised lamb shank, and cognac New York strip.

Urbe
Hugo Ortega’s street food restaurant in Uptown Park will serve a $45, two-course brunch that also comes with a dessert buffet. Choices include tacos al pastor, raw oysters, gorditas, chilaquiles, and huevos rancheros. Reservations recommended.

Wild Oats
Chris Shepherd's newest restaurant will elevate its already decadent all-you-can-eat brunch buffet with Easter-appropriate dishes such as ham, rabbit, and lamb. Its priced at $75 for adults and $35 for kids 4-10.

Bloom & Bee will be lively on Easter Sunday.

Courtesy of Fertitta Entertainment

Bloom & Bee will be lively on Easter Sunday.

where-to-eat holidays brunch

Bourdain-inspired chef/writer

Houston chef looks back at barbecue pop-ups with artful new zine

Courtesy of Ryan Grimes

Ryan Grimes has been serving food in bars for more than 10 years.

If you frequent beloved dive bars like Two Headed Dog, Grand Prize Bar or Lil' Danny Speedo's Go Fly a Kite Lounge, there’s a good chance you’ve drunkenly bought food from Knives in Water.

One of several pop-up kitchens that sells and serves bar food on a regular basis, Knives consists of one guy – Baltimore native Ryan Grimes – who knows his way around smoked meats, whether it’s ribs, turkey legs, buffalo wings, or a whole turkey (for Thanksgiving only). When it comes to barbecue, he sees himself as a culinary outlier.

“The art of barbecue can kind of be gatekept by a lot of folks, which is ridiculous,” Grimes tells CultureMap. “I mean, it's three ingredients. It's a lot like punk rock: three chords and the truth, and you’re gonna get it right.

On Saturday, May 24, Grimes will celebrate his 42nd birthday at Midtown bar Two Headed Dog, where he’ll be serving up more than just food. He’ll also debut Papercut, a zine filled with essays, remembrances and, yes, recipes. “A lot of it was taken from previous Instagram posts I had done that I expounded upon,” he says.

With layout and artwork provided by bartender/artist Khrystah Luisa Gorham (who also designed Knives in Water’s logo and T-shirt merch), Grimes included many endearing entries to this brisk read. A 2015 post has him recalling the time he and his father went to the Million Man March when he was 12. A more recent piece has him cooking for his parents and maternal grandparents on Martin Luther King Day. He pays tribute to idol Anthony Bourdain (“I count him as a teacher of sorts, helping me find my own voice through food, culture and adventure.”) as well as an old friend whom he named a wing sauce after.

The issue also runs down the various dishes Grimes tinkered with during the pandemic. “I took a look back at dishes that I had done in the past that I don't do anymore or, for one reason or another, I can't do,” he says. “Maybe they're too complicated or just wouldn't sell well at a dive bar, that kind of thing.”

Papercut is basically a printed primer of the business Grimes has been operating since 2019. “Actually, [The Suffers frontwoman] Kam Franklin was the person that first put the idea in my head to do this, you know, professionally,” he remembers. “I did a dinner party for her. I mean, I can't remember what year it was — 2010, 2012, 2014… She was the first person to say, 'hey, you really got something here. You know, you're talented, your food's good. People seem to dig it.' So I guess you could kind of date it back to that.”

Grimes got the idea for Papercut when he did a pop-up at last year’s Zine Fest Houston, held at the Orange Show. That’s where co-organizer Anastasia “Stacy” Kirages encouraged Grimes to put his thoughts and opinions down on paper. “It took her a while to convince me to do it,” he says. “Stacy's the most personable, likable person on the planet and I admire the hell out of her. So, it was kind of tough.”

After he stopped procrastinating, Grimes found that creating a zine came quite easily to him. “Once I came up with the name, the silly name, it just kind of flew together in the space of maybe two months. I started writing it in February and I was holding a copy of it by late March, maybe early April. But yeah, it didn't take long at all.”

Grimes has a limited number of copies, which he’ll be selling at his pop-ups. Copies will also be available at CLASS Bookstore and Gulf Coast Cosmos Comicbook Co. He isn’t ruling out dropping another volume if demand calls for it. If he does, Grimes assures readers that he’ll have fun with it and not become another culinary clout-chaser. “

Yeah, it's really serious – the business of being a foodie, posting on Instagram and likes and all this stuff,” he says. “The competition is real and this is just a way to say it doesn't have to be that way. You know, you can do all of this yourselves. You and your friends can start a pop-up.

“Starting a restaurant is something that will likely never happen for me,” he continues, “but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in my food and don't believe in my friends that do it as well. Umbrella Fellas, Annie’s Sammies, Tacos Bomberos. These are all pop-ups that are deserving of brick-and-mortar restaurants. They're deserving of all the accolades that we just don't get overshadowed because we're small-time, hanging out in dive bars, serving the people. But that's fine. No one I know is doing this for the laurels. It's just this punk rock DIY ethic that anyone can do this. Yeah, that's the beauty of it.”

chefs writing