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    Eat Well, Do Good

    Eat Well, Do Good: Houston top restaurants jump into AIDS Foundation's Dining Out for Life

    Clifford Pugh
    Apr 22, 2014 | 9:57 am

    On one night each year, participating restaurants donate a significant portion of their food sales to help fight HIV and AIDS. For this year's edition of AIDS Foundation Dining Out for Life Thursday (April 24), organizers have added more restaurants, including some of Houston's trendiest eateries, and expanded the hours to include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    "This is a opportunity for everyone to participate and be a philanthropist," says AIDS Foundation Houston development director Ron Goines. "You don't have to do anything but invite your friends, have a meal and you have provided housing and support services for our clients."

    Organizers have added more restaurants, including some of Houston's trendiest eateries, and expanded the hours to include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    Ambassadors from the organization, as well as corporate supporters, will be on hand at each restaurant Thursday night to thank diners for helping the cause of HIV prevention, education and treatment in the greater Houston area by dining out. Representatives from Wells Fargo will be at The Phoenix on Westheimer and Walgreens pharmacists will be ambassadors at Bombay Pizza in downtown Houston.

    AIDS Foundation Houston helps the most vulnerable with housing and supportive services to make sure they stay on their medication. And it focuses on prevention, encouraging those in high-risk groups to get tested and to always practice safe sex. The foundation hopes to raise $30,000 from the evening. Goines points out that:

    • $25 will provide HIV prevention materials to at-risk youth
    • $50 will provide five HIV test kits
    • $100 will help provide one month’s worth of groceries for two families
    • $250 will help provide one HIV individual transportation to monthly doctor visits
    • $500 will help purchase basic household items for two previously homeless families

    Goines credits restaurateur Monica Pope, chair of this year's Dining Out For Life, for convincing more restaurants to participate. "It is such a first-class list of restaurants," he says, with such establishments at Brasserie 19, Fleming's River Oaks, Sorrel Urban Bistro, Thanh Phoung in Pearland and "both Coppas" (Coppa Ristoriante and Coppa Osteria) participating for the first time.

    The list of 28 restaurants includes:

    Américas River Oaks — 2040 W. Gray

    Barnaby’s Midtown—414 W. Gray

    Barnaby’s Original — 602 Fairview

    Barnaby’s Memorial— 5750 Woodway

    Barnaby’s River Oaks — 1701 S. Shepherd

    Baby Barnaby’s — 602 Fairview

    Beaver's — 2310 Decatur

    Bombay Pizza Co.— 914 Main

    Bombay Pizza Co. — 636 Hwy 6, Suite 100, Sugar Land

    Brasserie 19 — 1962 W. Gray

    Brio Tuscan Grille — 3029 Kirby

    Canopy — 3939 Montrose

    Coppa Ristorante— 5555 Washington

    Coppa Osteria — 5210 W. Gray

    Fleming's Prime Steakhouse River Oaks — 2405 West Alabama

    Ibiza — 2450 Louisiana, Suite 200

    Last Concert Café — 1403 Nance

    Niko Niko's Montrose — 2520 Montrose

    Niko Niko's Market Square — 301 Milam

    RDG Bar Annie — 1800 Post Oak

    Shade — 250 W. 19th St.

    Sorrel Urban Bistro — 2202 W. Alabama

    Sparrow Bar + Cookshop — 3701 Travis

    Taco's A Go-Go Midtown — 3704 Main St.

    Taco's A Go-Go Heights — 2912 White Oak

    Thanh PhuongPearland — 3236 E. Broadway

    The Phoenix (formerly Firkin & Phoenix) — 1915 Westheimer

    Tila's Restaurant & Bar — 1111 S. Shepherd

    In other activities, the Starbucks at 3407 Montrose Blvd. will host the 10th Annual Silent Art Auction, featuring artwork from Houston artists, on Thursday. Proceeds from the day-long silent art auction benefit AIDS Foundation Houston and Dining Out For Life.

    "Dining Out at the Ball Park" will take place on Saturday (April 26) when the Houston Astros take on the Oakland Athletics at Minute Maid Park. Discount tickets are available for the game and $5 from each ticket sold will benefit AIDS Foundation Houston. To receive the discount, click on the "T" icon next to the Saturday, April 26 game and enter password AFH in the offer code/password box and press OK.

    Dining Out for Life takes place on April 24, with a significant portion of food sales from participating restaurants going to AIDS Foundation Houston.

     
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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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