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    Best Pop-Up/Start-Up

    Houston's 10 best startups showcase city's culinary creativity

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 22, 2021 | 1:45 pm

    One trend that has defined the last year in dining has been the rise of pop-up and start-up food businesses. For this year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Awards wild card category, our judges panel of restaurant industry insiders recognize these 10 standout examples of this growing movement.

    Primarily promoted on Instagram, they’ve allowed both veteran chefs and less experienced newcomers to express themselves creatively and start a business. Our nominees cover a wide range of ground — everything from an ice cream maker who decided to top what he could buy in stores to chefs displaced when their restaurants closed during the pandemic.

    They sell their products online, at farmers markets, or in non-traditional spaces such as a Montrose clothing store. Regardless of the setting, diners have come to appreciate the personal touch in each transaction.

    The other aspect of these businesses that’s so exciting is their transient nature. Customers have to act quickly to purchase these items, because their future is uncertain. Sometimes they sell out in minutes; others, a chef might discover a new opportunity in another city and depart for greener pastures. Long story short: if the concha looks good, buy it now. It may not be around next week.

    Who will win? Find out July 22 at the Tastemaker Awards party. We’ll dine on bites from this year’s nominated restaurants before emcee Bun B reveals the winners. Buy tickets now.

    Andrea Angulo - Azúcar Pan Artesano
    When her custom cake bakery Flour and the Girls faltered during the pandemic, Angulo shifted to selling pastries. Her conchas — available in flavors such as chocolate, coffee, and matcha — have a crispy crust and a soft interior that make them utterly craveable (her Basque cheesecake is worth ordering, too). Alas, this weekend will be Angulo’s final pop-up; she announced on Instagram that she’s accepted a new job in Miami.

    Andrea de Gotari - The Bake Happening
    People seeking a themed cake for a special occasion have come to rely on de Gotari’s skills. Her elaborate creations reference pop culture staples from cartoons to horror movies in exquisite detail. Themed holiday boxes combine cookies, brownies, snack mix, and other treats in fun and creative ways.

    Angelo Emiliani - Angie's Pizza
    This native Houstonian has worked at a number of excellent restaurants in Houston, Austin, and Los Angeles, but it’s time working for James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Bianco that most shaped Angie’s Pizza. Made with Texas-milled flour from Barton Springs Mill and topped with locally sourced ingredients, Emiliani’s pies offer a distinctly flavorful crust with just the right amount of wood-fired char. Although he’s temporarily put away his pizza peel to open a new all-day cafe in the East End, he promises they will return.

    Christina Au
    After working locally at restaurants such as The Pass & Provisions and Common Bond, Au headed west to work at some of the finest Four Seasons properties in California. Houstonians with a sweet tooth have been the beneficiary of the pandemic shutdowns that compelled her to return home to Pearland. Au’s oversized pop tarts that combine a flakey, buttery crust with creative fillings such as strawberry, calamansi, and passion fruit have drawn long lines and fast sell outs. She continues to diversify her offerings with a new line of candy bars that are similarly can’t-miss.

    Dawn Burrell - Pivot/Lucille's Hospitality Group
    When Burrell decided to step away from Kulture, the downtown restaurant where she earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination, she created a meal kit delivery service that offered chef-level comfort food to diners practicing social distancing. With her profile on the rise nationally due to her stellar performance on Top Chef, the former Olympian has been popping up to preview Late August, the new restaurant she’ll open in partnership with Lucille’s chef-owner Chris Williams. In her “free time,” count on Burrell to appear at any number of charity-focused culinary events to lend her growing celebrity to a range of worthy causes.

    Emmanuel Chavez - Tatemó
    This talented chef has earned wide acclaim for his craft tortillas that he sells every Saturday at the Urban Harvest Farmers Market. Made with artisan corn that’s imported from Mexico, Chavez uses a traditional nixtamalization process to create tortillas that are as flavorful as the fillings he pairs them with. A recent appearance on a Texas-themed episode of Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted could be the next step in a journey that will hopefully give his tacos, tlayudas, and other masa-based creations a permanent home.

    Evelyn Garcia - Kin
    When the Politan Row food hall closed, Garcia found new ways to bring her South East Asian flavors to diners. She developed a line of sauces and spices that are sold locally at farmers markets and retail shops. Monthly tasting menus allow her to present elevated takes on familiar dishes.

    Josh Deleon - Underground Creamery
    The more ice cream Deleon tasted the more he became interested in making his own flavors that are inspired by a mixture of Houston’s diverse culinary scenes and a certain nostalgic irreverence. After initially selling to a small group of friends and family, he made the leap to a commercial kitchen and more mainstream recognition. His flavorful creations — recent options have included dark cocoa ice cream with marshmallow fluff and Ritz cracker swirls as well as funfetti cake batter ice cream with cream cheese frosting swirls and Mothers frosted animal cookies — have become such a sensation that each week’s allotment of approximately 300 pints sell out in under five minutes.

    Luis Mercado and Paolo Justo - Neo
    These two former Uchi chefs have been quietly wowing in-the-know diners with their innovative tasting menus built around dry-aged fish. Held in a Montrose clothing store for groups of four to six people, a meal at Neo features between 15 and 20 courses that mix individual pieces of nigiri — madai that had been aged for two weeks, kampachi that had been aged for 27 days, and bluefin tuna that had been aged for 32 days — with composed plates. The intimate atmosphere and an almost one-to-one ratio of cooks to diners make Neo unlike any other sushi counter in Houston.

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    Sasha Grumman - Sasha's Focaccia
    Diners had just been getting to know this talented chef when the pandemic prompted the C. Baldwin hotel to close Rosalie, the restaurant where Grumman worked as executive chef. She began baking her signature bread for friends and family; intrigued by its rich, buttery texture and airy crumb, they encouraged her to sell it. Now, fans flock to farmers markets for slabs of focaccia, and Grumman is looking to grow into retail and shipping. Backed by an appearance on Top Chef that showcased her personality, she might just become America’s next bread sensation.

    Angie's Pizza will return in the future.

    Angie's Pizza margherita
      
    Courtesy of Angie's Pizza
    Angie's Pizza will return in the future.
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    Immersive, speakeasy-style tiki bar brings the underworld to Montrose

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 24, 2025 | 6:00 am
    Endless Bummer tiki bar
    Photo by Sergio Trevino
    Houston artist Neon Thrash (Brian Dibala) created the bar's interior.

    This year has already been a good one for Houstonians who enjoy well made cocktails, as new bars such as Starduster Lounge, The Kid, and Augustine Lounge have given the city some intriguing new drinking dens. Other recent openings, ranging from Brennan’s refreshed bar to Latin American-inspired Botonica, demonstrate that the trend won’t be slowing down any time soon.

    Add veteran Houston restaurateur Chris Cusack to the list. Known as a co-founder of the late, lamented Heights restaurant Down House and for his intergalactic pizza and cocktail spot Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, Cusack is preparing to unleash a speakeasy-style, immersive tiki bar on Montrose.

    Called Endless Bummer, it’s currently in a quiet soft opening ahead of a grand opening on Wednesday. July 2. Cusack collaborated with Houston artist Brian Dibala (aka Neon Thrash) to transform a 700-square-foot room at Betelgeuse’s Montrose location into a 50-person space that’s equally inspired by tropical destinations and purgatory.

    “Our original thought was along the lines of, ‘How can we make this special?’ and ‘What unique experience can we create that will be unlike other places in Houston?” Cusack said in a statement. “I had known Brian a little bit from mutual friends, his work at Meow Wolf, and a design project we worked on several years before. I reached out and it was really an instant click where our ideas lined up and he really took it from there.”

    Fittingly for an experiential bar, patrons enter through an unmarked entrance that’s accessed by using a code they’ll receive when booking a reservation on Resy (limited walk-ins are also available). Once inside, people will sit at either one of the cozy booths or the 10-seat bar. Either way, they’ll be surrounded by vignettes and other artifacts curated by Dibala. Just like Meow Wolf, the room has a few easter eggs for those will to explore.

    “I was so lucky to get a chance to bring one of my dream bars to life, and even luckier to get to include several other Houston artists to really make it magical,” Diabala added. “Houston is having a big art moment and hopefully, with this project, we're able to show people what the artists in this city are capable of creating.”

    Just as the decor is anything but traditional, Endless Bummer puts its own spin on familiar tiki drinks and other classic cocktails. The drinks have a strong emphasis on presentation, as in the Pistachio Mai Tai, which is flamed tableside, or the Silver Surfer, which has a LED light dropped in that sparkles like a star (please don’t drink it). Other options include a Brown Butter Rum Old Fashioned and the This Sunset Should be Illegal, a mezcal-based riff on the Tequila Sunrise.

    Endless Bummer will be open from 5 pm-12 am Wednesday through Saturday. As noted above, reservations are recommended but not required.

    Endless Bummer tiki bar
      

    Photo by Sergio Trevino

    Houston artist Neon Thrash (Brian Dibala) created the bar's interior.

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