One of Canada’s most popular restaurants is coming to Houston. Cactus Club Cafe will open its third U.S. location in the BLVD Place development.
Located next to North Italia in a former Verizon store, Cactus Club Cafe will occupy a two-level space with more than 12,000 square feet. Founded in Vancouver in 1988, the restaurant, which describes itself in press materials as "Canada’s leader in elevated casual dining" is known for its wide range of comfort food, lively environment, and excellent service.
Christine Mastandrea, president and COO for real estate development firm Whitestone REIT, tells CultureMap that the company wanted to add a restaurant to increase traffic at the Whole Foods-anchored development.
While many of the restaurants on Post Oak Blvd. are fine dining — a list that includes The Annie Cafe, Uchiko, and Caracol (among many others) — Whitestone decided a more casual restaurant would serve the neighborhood well.
“You have to mix in locations people can go back to, because it has a broad range of offerings. You have a place where people connect,” Mastandrea says. “It’s a price point where you can come often. You can meet up with your neighborhood friends there or go after work, because it doesn’t break the bank.”
Whitestone had a lot of interest from operators who wanted to join North Italia, True Foods Kitchen, and The Original Ninfa’s in the development, Mastandrea adds. When she traveled to Toronto to visit Cactus Club, she liked what she found.
“What I saw is, number one, they’re comfortable in two stories. They’re also aware of how to operate in a multi-level building. They design to be a good neighbor,” Mastandrea says. “The consistency across locations was the same. The quality of food, the flow of people coming in and out. The other thing is, people are looking for healthier options. They have choices.”
For its part, Cactus Club saw an opportunity to add Houston to its growing list of American locations that, for now, only includes Miami and Boston.
“Our dedicated team is working hard to bring Cactus Club Cafe’s elevated everyday dining to Houston,” president Andrew Latchford said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing our upbeat and stylish vibe — fueled by energetic music, magnetic people, and spaces that feel as good as they look. On the culinary side of things, our future Houston guests can look forward to our chef-driven menu to deliver bold, refined dishes with something for every craving.”
That menu, created by executive chef of culinary development Gregory McCallum, offers a crowd-pleasing array of dishes that includes sushi, shareables such as chicken wings and lettuce wraps, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pastas, steaks, and seafood. In particular, Mastandrea says the signature Truffle Parmesan Chicken and Blackened Creole Chicken shows off the restaurant’s ability to serve flavorful versions of familiar fare.
“They walked me through this whole process of how they brined it and treated it prior to cooking,” she says about the chicken dishes she tried. “For a meat that can be bland tasting, I thought it was really good.”
Mastandrea also praised the restaurant’s interior. Cactus Club gives each location a unique look by purchasing original art to enhance the restaurant’s ambiance.
“They pay special attention to bringing the outdoors into the space,” she adds. “I think they’ll surprise us with some things that are unique to the area that people will appreciate.”
