Meet the new-old Rudz

Beloved Montrose bar rocks exciting Houston chef and new direction

A beloved Montrose institution is making some changes to prepare itself for its next 40 years. With a new general manager and a new chef, Rudyard’s wants to take the steps necessary to remain a neighborhood staple.

“The thing I said before was instead of new and improved it’s old and improved,” general manager Allison Meyer (Aqui) tells CultureMap. “Clean everything up, dust everything off.”

To that end, she recruited Anthony Calleo to serve as the bar’s chef. Best known for founding Pi Pizza, Calleo had been looking for a space to open another restaurant when Meyer asked if he knew anyone interested in taking over the kitchen. After a three-hour conversation and a meeting with owner Lelia Rodgers, Calleo took the job.

“I’ve been coming here for 20-ish years,” he says. “My 27th birthday party was here. When Lindsey and I were together, I was here all the time for Grown-up Storytime. I’ve done Punk Rock Karaoke and open-mic comedy. I have a history with this building.”

Calleo’s new menu builds on dishes he’s created at Pi, for the food truck at Ladybird's bar and at Sandy Witch, the sandwich shop he operated out of the Grand Prize kitchen back in 2013 and 2014. Rudyard’s regulars will be pleased to see that the burger menu has been expanded with a couple of new options, and the signature tots remain present and accounted for. But that’s only the beginning.

“I was real worried people were just going to order burgers and tots, and I’d want to slit my wrists in the alley . . . They’re ordering the other stuff [too],” Calleo says.

Taking his inspiration from the dishes he used to eat at Rudyard’s when chef Joe Apa ran the kitchen, Calleo’s menu includes classic fish and chips with a crispy crust, a massive club sandwich that features house-smoked turkey and bread sourced from local baker Bread Man Bread Company, and the “Not a Shitty House Salad” that mixes greens with pears and cheese sourced from the Houston Dairymaids. Four new pasta dishes utilize noodles made by BOH Pasta, chef Ben McPherson’s Italian restaurant that’s opening soon at Bravery Chef Hall.

Now that the bar has resumed lunch service, the mix of lighter and more hearty options means people can eat there at all times of day without feeling bad afterwards. From Calleo’s perspective, Rudyard’s customer base should be everyone who can walk there in 10 minutes. He just needs them to give his menu a chance.

“It’s a great building. It’s got great character. It’s comfy as shit. There’s 50 reasons you should come here,” Calleo says. Later, he adds. “Let me handle dinner for you. I’ve got a menu full of reasons and a whole lot of energy invested that you should take me up on that.”

If the idea of a comfy pub with better-than-it-has-to-be food, basic cocktails, and a solid tap wall of craft beer sounds familiar, well, Calleo isn’t afraid of comparisons to a certain nearby establishment.

“I’m making shirts,” he says with a laugh. “Rudyard’s, just down the street from Hay Merchant for 41 years.”

Fish and chips.

Photo by Design Riot

Fish and chips.

chefs news-you-can-eat

hail to the chef

Food & Wine's Best New Chef list includes Gulf Coast-obsessed Houstonian

Photo by Ally Hardgrave

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A Houston chef is basking in the national spotlight. Food & Wine magazine has named Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition executive chef Lucas McKinney to its 2026 class of Best New Chefs.

Announced Tuesday, September 15, McKinney is one of 14 chefs nationally — and the only Texan — to receive the prestigious award. He joins a roster of local Best New Chef alumni that includes Michael Cordua (Churrascos, Americas), Bryan Caswell (Reef, Latuli), Chris Shepherd (Underbelly, Georgia James), Justin Yu (Oxheart, Theodore Rex), and Emmanuel Chavez (Tatemó), whose win in 2023 made him the first Houston chef to be named a Best New Chef since Yu in 2014.

Open since 2023, Josephine’s is a Gulf Coast-inspired seafood restaurant in Midtown. Named for McKinney’s great-grandmother Althea Josephine, its menu is inspired in part McKinney’s family history in the seafood business. It sources ingredients from across the Gulf Coast, including blue crab, redfish, oysters, and local produce.

Both Josephine’s and McKinney have already earned significant awards, including both Rising Star Chef of the Year and Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year in the CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, a Rising Star award from Star Chefs magazine, and a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“I don't know how to put it into words,” McKinney said in a statement. “Josephine's would be nothing without our team, the farmers and fishermen we’ve built relationships with, and our guests who support us. To be able to do something this big with Gulf Coast cooking – the fish we grew up eating, the crabs we grew up cooking, the oysters we shucked at home – means the world.”

McKinney has come a long way from his time as a line cook at Georgia James and a chef de cuisine at Hay Merchant. He credits Shepherd for pushing him to think about the future and what kind of chef he wanted to be.

"I didn’t know how big a moment that would be," McKinney tells CultureMap about his time at Hay Merchant. "The trust they put in me to have fun and cook. I look back, Chris would say, 'what do you want to cook?' I’d say a 'divey oyster bar.' Seven years later, we’re here in New York on the biggest stage with the best people. I’ll come back home on Thursday to shuck oysters."

In an essay on the Food & Wine website, Shepherd praises McKinney — who worked for him at Georgia James, Hay Merchant, and Georgia James Tavern — for the way the chef has embraced his Gulf Coast roots at Josephine’s. Shepherd praises many of the restaurant’s signature dishes, such as smoked red fish dip, gumbo, and Viet-Cajun crawfish, which sell “a few thousand pounds a week in peak season.” Shepherd notes that McKinney’s talents extend beyond his cooking.

“Chefs, staff, and diners are drawn to McKinney, not just because of how delicious his food is but because he is generous with what he knows,” Shepherd writes. “Spend enough time at Josephine’s, and you may find him pulling up a chair to explain the best way to eat a hard shell blue crab; I’ve seen him do it. In that moment, he’s passing along a Gulf Coast tradition that has been in his family for generations.”

Speaking to CultureMap from New York, Shepherd says McKinney came onto Food & Wine's radar after participating in last year's Southern Smoke Festival. Many of his fellow BNC alumni dined at Josephine's either before or after the festival.

"For me, every time you see someone who worked for you succeed, it’s a beautiful moment. All I want for them is to follow their dreams. It’s pretty amazing," Shepherd says.

Six of this year's BNC recipients, including McKinney, will participate in this year's Southern Smoke Festival, which is taking place at Discovery Green on Saturday, October 3. Southern Smoke shared which chefs are coming and what they're cooking in an email. Tickets for the festival are available here.

Food & Wine has named Best New Chefs since 1988. To be eligible, chefs must have led a kitchen for five years or less. The magazine’s editors travel across the country to scout applicants. Finalists undergo background checks, including anonymous surveys by the restaurant’s staff to evaluate the culture at their businesses. Previous recipients include culinary superstars such as Thomas Keller, David Chang, Tom Colicchio, and more.

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