3 restaurant closings

3 closings to know in Houston food: Last chance to visit some neighborhood staples

Fegen's has served its last meal.

Photo by Carla Gomez

Over the past week or so, two Houston restaurants and a coffee shop announced they're shutting their doors. Thankfully, customers have a little time to say goodbye to two of the businesses.

Fegen's, the contemporary American restaurant in The Heights, announced it had closed effective April 12. Chef-owner Lance Fegen released the following statement on behalf of his partners in the F.E.E.D. TX restaurant group:

“While it’s regrettable that the end of our tenure has come, it’s been an honor and a privilege to serve the Heights community and beyond for over fifteen years. We are grateful for each and every one of our patrons and will miss you all—we have memories to cherish for a lifetime.”

Opened in April 2021, Fegen's evolved out of Liberty Kitchen, the chef's lively, seafood-oriented comfort food restaurant. F.E.E.D. sold the other two locations of Liberty Kitchen to the Culinary Khancepts group (State Fare) in 2020, but opted to keep the restaurant's original Heights location and transform it into Fegen's. Its menu featured classic American fare mixed with Southern Italian-inspired pizzas. It is not clear at this time whether F.E.E.D. plans to repurpose the space with another concept.

Montrose coffee shop Southside Espresso will close after service this Saturday, April 16. Open since the fall of 2012, it has been a staple for well crafted espresso drinks made with locally roasted coffee from Fusion Beans.

In a post to social media, owner Sean Marshall writes that he's working on opening a coffee trailer at the Montrose Marketplace, a street market at the corner of Montrose and Westheimer. In the meantime, patrons are invited to a farewell party that will be held Saturday from 5-7 pm.

Polish restaurant Pierogi Queen will close its original location in League City on May 20, the restaurant announced on Facebook. It had already closed its stand at Railway Heights Market on April.

"Sadly, all our achievements did not help us enough to keep running any longer. We are grateful for all we got, but at this point with current food prices and not able to find reliable help we came to the decision and closing our League City location as well," the post reads.

Owner Eva Sek told the Chronicle that a lack of customers who knew Polish food contributed to the decision to close. The restaurant may continue to sell its frozen pierogis at the Henderson & Kane market.

Until the restaurant bids farewell, it will operate with extended hours of 12-8 pm Thursday and Friday and 12-4 pm Saturday.

closings

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.”