Hot Dog Wows

Forget Houston's best burgers: Gourmet hot dogs from celebrity chefs are the new hot thing

James Coney Island is a Houston-area institution celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. Despite a cult following that goes back generations (my dad would rather eat at James Coney Island than just about anywhere), I couldn’t tell you the last time I’d been.

I think I took it for granted even though I have plenty of fond memories involving Coneys and Frito pies made with that signature chili.

I didn’t know about the new menu items like gourmet sandwiches, fancy burgers and salads. I didn’t know there were 21 locations and sort of forgot that you can’t get any of it outside of Houston — OK, there’s a location in Conroe, but I digress.

James Coney Island lured me back with an ingenious promotion celebrating its anniversary that has six of Houston’s most distinguished chefs each creating their own “signature” hot dog. It’s an ambitious endeavor, given the fact that these babies are being fashioned with some pretty special ingredients.

This hot dog screams, “Texas!” and is honestly one of the best things I’ve eaten so far this year.

Take June’s offering, the “Huntin’ Dog” created by Randy Evans, executive chef and co-owner of foodie fave Haven. Evan’s dog features an Angus beef, uncured, nitrate/nitrite-free hot dog from 44 Farms in north Texas, served in a specially-made jalapeno-cheddar bun from Houston’s own Slow Dough Bread Company. It’s topped with Haven’s well-known Texas Wild Boar Chili — made with meat supplied by Frontier Meats in Fort Worth — and a sprinkling of finely chopped onions and cilantro.

This hot dog screams, “Texas!” and is honestly one of the best things I’ve eaten so far this year — for real. It's $6.29 and will be available throughout June. I actually think Evans will have to offer it at Haven after that because the people will demand it.

“We worked with several iterations of it and wanted to be able to maintain the significance of each component while having the flavors meld together,” says Evans, who grew up eating at the James Coney Island on the North Freeway. James Coney Island president Darrin Straughan, a native Houstonian, hopes these gourmet chef dogs will bring people in to witness the overall changes in the hot dog giant's menu.

Custom dogs from Kata Robata’s Manabu “Chef Hori” Horiuchi, Monica Pope of Sparrow, Hugo Ortega of Hugo’s, Matt Marcus of the Eatsie Boys and John Sheely of Mockingbird Bistro will arrive in the coming months. It’s a good time to be a hot dog lover.

"Huntin’ Dog” by chef Randy Evans of Haven

$James Coney Island May 2013 Huntin\u2019 Dog\u201d by Chef Randy Evans hot dog$

Photo by Jodie Eisenhardt

"Huntin’ Dog” by chef Randy Evans of Haven

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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.”