Eating Good at TMC

6 new restaurants transform Medical Center into fast casual dining utopia

The restaurants will occupy the ground floor of a new Westin hotel being built on the site.

Courtesy of Pearl Hospitality

The Texas Medical Center has never been known as a dining destination, but a new development will offer both visitors and employees a bit of relief from hospital cafeterias. Pearl Hospitality, the company behind downtown's luxurious JW Marriott hotel, has revealed a plan to transform the Medical Towers building at Fannin and Dryden into a veritable fast casual utopia.

Already home to staples such as Cliff's Grill, Chipotle, Starbucks, and the Halal Guys, the renovations will add the following establishments to the building's offerings: MOD Pizza, Roti Modern Mediterranean, Poke in the Bowl, Antone’s, JuiceLand, and SusieCakes. These additions are part of Pearl's plans to transform the tower into a new Westin hotel that's scheduled to open in early 2020.

"The Texas Medical Center market brings a unique mixture of visitors, employees, students, physicians, and patients that interact in a concentrated area every single day," Shop Companies landlord representative Christie Amezquita said in a statement. "Pearl Hospitality’s creation of this sophisticated urban street level experience featuring high-quality food and beverage is the perfect amenity to serve such a diverse community and is unlike any other project in the City of Houston.”

While many of the concepts are familiar — for example, Antone's po' boys have made it a Houston institution and SusieCakes' homestyle desserts have been a hit in Rice Village —Roti Modern Mediterranean will be opening its first Houston location in the building. The Chicago-based restaurant with locations in Washington, D.C. and New York features rice bowls, sandwiches, and salads that can be customized with a wide array of proteins, sides, and sauces.

"We are excited that the first Roti Modern Mediterranean in Houston will be part of the redeveloped Medical Towers project in the Texas Medical Center," Roti CEO Carl Segal added. "It's the ideal location for Roti’s bold flavors, wholesome ingredients, and healthy Mediterranean cuisine.”

news-you-can-eat openings

the more things change

Houston's essential Jewish diner looks better than ever after refresh

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

It’s tricky to renovate a restaurant that’s as essential to its community as New York Deli. A staple of Houston’s Jewish community for almost 50 years, the tiny restaurant near Meyerland will serve as many as 400 people during a busy Sunday brunch.

Still, the time had come, as the tape on the deteriorating banquettes and peeling wallpaper illustrated. With the restaurant’s lease up for renewal, co-owner Michael Saghian saw an opportunity for some updates.

“I couldn’t be the new guy who ruined the place by moving it,” he tells CultureMap. “We worked out a deal with the landlord [to stay] and did a big refresh.”

The most noticeable change is the removal of the restaurant’s front door and vestibule. Instead, diners enter through the restaurant’s companion bagel shop. Separate entrances made sense when the bagel shop was certified kosher by local religious authorities, but now that designation only applies to the Bellaire location that opened in 2020. Not only is the new setup easier for people with mobility issues to navigate, it allows more light into the dining room, brightening the place considerably..

Saghian and co-owner Riana Sherman worked with interior designer Erin Hicks on the refresh. Tables, chairs, and banquettes are all new, but the color scheme remains the same. The process yielded 10 more seats, and the furniture is a little more durable, too.

“People have flipped chairs because they’re so lightweight,” Sherman says. “We got a sturdier chair.”

Behind the scenes, an expanded kitchen allows for the restaurant’s cooks to work faster and more efficiently. An additional egg cooker should cut down the amount of time people wait for their food to arrive.

“The kitchen had one of everything. Now we have two of everything. We can pump out a lot more food,” Saghian says.

Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers such as the “bagel girls,” a group of woman who’ve eaten breakfast at the restaurant since the ‘80s. A piece of old wallpaper has been framed and hung on the wall, too, as a nod to the space’s history.

New York Deli interior changes Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers.Photo by Sergio Trevino

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

Saghian says he suffered from sleepless nights as he worried about people’s reactions to the changes, but so far his customers have been effusive.

“It still feels like an old school diner,” Saghian says. “It has pieces you remember. Even the new stuff is old school.”

While the physical environment is new, the staff remains the same. To ensure he kept the same team of cooks and servers, Saghian paid their wages for the two weeks the restaurant was closed for renovations.

Even more importantly, the prices are the same. That’s something that will make even the oldest regulars happy.