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    Discount Dining in July

    Top restaurants slash prices, offer special menus for one of the hottest months of the year

    Shelby Hodge
    Jul 4, 2016 | 3:00 pm

    If it's just too hot for you to think about fine dining or chowing down on a hunk of beef, you might want to consider several restaurant offerings this month guaranteed to take the heat off of your wallet.

     

    In this era of climbing restaurant prices (with some entrees going as high as $68), a three-course dinner with wines for $59 is something of a shocker. But that's exactly what you'll get when you sit down at one of the linen-covered tables at Tony's. Proprietor Tony Vallone has introduced for the month the "Haute July at Tony's" menu.

     

    Having checked it out on July 1, for the first course, I chose the Orecchiette Genovese (hen of the woods mushrooms, proscuitto riserva and English peas) over the Insalata Milano comprised of burrata, proscuitto and figs. The entree offering was between seared Mediterranean branzino with Tuscan beans and salsa verde or "Tony's Way" center cut filet with sauteed bone marrow. (I opted for the fish.) The Texas blackberry dessert — homemade angel food cake with limoncello cream — was beyond dreamy. All three courses were home runs that had my dining companions rethinking their orders.

     

    As part of the package, the wines were nicely paired with the food and the meal began (summer soda) and concluded (house infused grappa) with shot glasses of liquid delight.

     

     Unlimited Kobe beef

     

    It's an offer we can't refuse. Tradicao Brazilian Steakhouse, in celebration of its fifth anniversary in Fort Bend County and in Clear Lake, is pulling out the culinary stops in celebration. July 7 through July 10, the specialsare on — $5 wines by the glass, $5 desserts, and $5 caipirinhas. But the true celebration for diners is the unlimited Texas Kobe beef ribeye which is available with the purchase of a full Brazilian dinner.

     

    "Texas Kobe beef is noted for being the best quality steak in the market," Melissa Abrantes, Tradicao marketing director, said in a statement. "We wanted to celebrate our 5 year birthday with an exciting addition, but grill it with a Brazilian twist!"

     

     Lunch break

     

    Midtown lunch and dinner oasis Artisans and chef Jacques Fox are enticing workers out of their air-conditioned cubicles this month with a 25 percent reduction in his already wallet-friendly lunch specials. Throughout July, the three-course chef's business lunch is priced at $21.75. That includes soup de jour or salad, business entree and dessert du jour.

     

    As a special bonus for those who brave the heat for dining out, Artisans is offering, through August, gift cards with a 20 percent discount.

    Artisans business lunch reduced 25 percent throughout July.

    News_Artisans Restaurant_exterior_night
      
    Photo via Artisans Restaurant/Facebook
    Artisans business lunch reduced 25 percent throughout July.
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    roll out

    Self-taught chef slices into Houston with high-quality sushi to go

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 17, 2025 | 5:57 pm
    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston
    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

    The ghost kitchen phenomenon may have diminished somewhat since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the idea of a delivery and to-go-only restaurant still draws talented chefs who want to focus on food at a lower overhead than a traditional brick-and-mortar. One of those chefs is Sunny Bertsch, whose restaurant Kaisen Sushi Houston is already drawing buzz from inner loopers looking for a more affordable, at-home sushi experience.

    Located at the Blodgett Food Hall in Third Ward, Kaisen Sushi serves typical nigiri, maki, and temaki (hand rolls), along with a steak bowl. Prices are a little lower than what someone would find at a typical sushi restaurant, with an eight-piece nigiri set priced at $18.99 when ordered through the Blodgett Food Hall website (expect to pay more if ordering via a third-party delivery service such as Uber Eats or DoorDash).

    While Bertsch’s food may be familiar, his story is not. The diners who’ve rated Kaisen with 4.9 stars on Google may be surprised to learn that he’s only been cooking professionally for two years. As Bertsch tells CultureMap, prior to becoming a professional chef, he worked in fields as varied as aerospace and dog walking.

    “I’d always been interested in cooking,” he says. “I was blessed to be born into a great Korean American family. My dad and my grandparents always cooked great food. I learned by osmosis.”

    Bertsch began his career as a private chef by working for friends. He built his business by catering lunches to powerhouse law firm Vinson & Elkins. Eventually, his clients asked for private sushi dinners, and he had to figure things out.

    “I got an opportunity to do a sushi omakase. It was brutal. It was messy. But I knew once I did that, I wanted to dedicate my life to sushi,” he says. “Since then, I have studied and practiced. I threw a lot of money and time and fish at it.”

    Bertsch improved his speed and knife skills by taking a $13-per-hour job at Japanese grocery store Seiwa Market. While there, he says he made thousands of pieces of nigiri, rolls, and sushi bowls. That experience, along with meals from similar to-go-only concepts in New York and San Francisco, convinced him to open Kaisen as a ghost kitchen.

    “So far, I’ve spent $90,000. That’s more than the average investment for a food hall kitchen,” Bertsch explains. “I’m a clean freak. I’m a technology freak. I’m an authenticity freak. I outfitted my kitchen in the way I thought was necessary for long-term success.”

    Just as he spared no expense in specing out his kitchen, Bertsch puts thoughtful touches into his food, too. For example, every order of nigiri comes with a dipping sauce Bertsch makes himself from low sodium soy sauce, kombu, vinegar, and sake.

    “It’s a complex sauce that’s less salty and tastes good,” he says. “You know when you don’t have it and you’re given cheap soy sauce.”

    Similarly, his California rolls use imitation crab (as do most restaurants), but it’s seasoned with a housemade, Japanese-style kewpie mayo, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and sesame oil for more umami and less sweetness. Since the chef uses more crab mix than other restaurants do in their rolls, Kaisen’s California roll not only tastes better — at $11.99, it’s a better value, too.

    The chef showcases Japanese techniques and Korean influences with his $25 steak bowl. A USDA Choice ribeye or strip is cooked sous vide with a marinade made from garlic, tamari, and seasoning salt. Once a diner orders the entree, the steak is seared in a pan, basted with Kerrygold butter, seasoned with furikake and sesame oil, and served with short-grain sushi rice and microgreens from local farm Zero Point Organics.

    Word of mouth has been building. Even though it’s only been open for a month, Kaisen already has over 2,000 followers on Instagram. Once he’s able to hire a full roster of cooks, Bertsch plans to expand the menu and offer lunch service. Despite some challenges, he’s pleased with the restaurant’s progress.

    “The support I've gotten on social media has blown me away,” he says. “It’s been amazing. I could not have done it without Instagram. It blows my mind.”

    Kaisen Sushi Houston nigiri
      

    Courtesy of Kaisen Sushi Houston

    Each order of nigiri comes with a house made sushi sauce.

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