What's Eric Eating Episode 200

Houston's Top Chef star teases hot new restaurant, plus smokin' Spring Branch BBQ

Chef Dawn Burrell is this week's guest.

Photo by Jenn Duncan

On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," chef Dawn Burrell joins CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss both her appearance on Top Chef and her upcoming restaurant Late August. Burrell, who earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for her work at Kulture, made it to the finals of Top Chef season 18.

The conversation touches on many aspects of Burrell's time on the show, including her motivation for joining the cast, her favorite challenges, and how her life has changed with her expanded celebrity. She also responds to those who have said she should be named Top Chef after sexual harassment allegations emerged about winner Gabe Erales.

After breaking down the show, Burrell and Sandler move on to Late August, the restaurant she'll open in partnership with Lucille's chef Chris Williams later this year. Sandler asks the chef to elaborate on the "Afro-Asian" cuisine she plans to serve there.

"What I like to say is that this is going to be food from the African diaspora with Asian techniques or flavor profiles, but we will also discover those cross sections where cuisines are similar like the useage of rice, the useage of specific vegetables, and the uses of very similar sauces and fermentation processes," Burrell says. "We're going to develop a new style, which is Afro-Asian cuisine. A lot of cultures like Guyana, they have all those flavor profiles because of migration."

Prior to the interview, Sandler and co-host Michael Fulmer discuss the news of the week. Their topics include: the upcoming closures of Spanish Village and Tony Mandola's; the deal that will keep over 30 locations of Luby's open statewide; and chefs Angelo and Lucianna Emiliani's plans to open Cafe Louie in the East End.

In the restaurant of the week segment, the two hosts discuss the new, Spring Branch location of Feges BBQ. They discuss when a restaurant crosses from being a barbecue joint to being a restaurant that serves barbecue.

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BBQ and lion dancers

Heights restaurant celebrates Lunar New Year with epic barbecue collab

Agnes and Sherman Khoi Barbecue Lunar New Year dinner

Photo by Vivian Leba

Agnes and Sherman owners Lisa Lee and Nick Wong with Khoi Barbecue's Don Nguyen and Theo Nguyen.

For many members of Houston’s Asian community, February is a time to celebrate the Lunar New Year. At Agnes and Sherman, the Asian American diner in the Heights, Lunar New Year provided the restaurant with its first opportunity to host its first collaboration since it opened in April 2025 with Khói Barbecue, the Houston pop-up that puts a Vietnamese spin on traditional Texas barbecue.

“We have always admired what Khoi Barbecue has done in the Houston scene,” Agnes and Sherman co-owner Lisa Lee tells CultureMap. “We think, very similar to us, they are presenting something that is thought of as traditional and really making it their own through family history and helping people to see another side of barbecue.”

Created by Agnes and Sherman chef and co-owner Nick Wong and Khói Barbecue founder Don Nguyen, the three-course menu included appetizers such as smoked duck wonton soup, sichuan lamb sausage, cha lua mortadella, and bun bo hue pig’s head torchon. The entree course included smoked brisket, smoked duck breast a l’orange, and char siu pork ribs. Dessert featured a cafe sua da panna cotta paired with a traditional whole orange and a fortune cookie.

The dinner drew a who’s-who of members of Houston’s restaurant community, including former CultureMap Tastemaker Award winners and nominees such as Raffi Nasr (Craft Pita), Ashley Lai (Dumpling Haus), KK Nepomuceno (formerly of Refuge), Annie Hoshiko (Subo), Josh Deleon (Underground Creamery), Christina Au (Blacksmith), and Omar Arellano (March).

A portions of proceeds benefited Asian Texans for Justice, an AAPI political organization devoted to promoting civic engagement, advocacy, youth leadership development, and coalition building. “This organization does critical work to educate the public and fight for issues that affect the community,” Lee says.

Beyond the celebration, the dinner marked an important moment in the restaurant’s evolution. The whirlwind first year has come with considerable acclaim, including an enthusiastic review in Texas Monthly and a Recommended designation from the Michelin Guide. With operations flowing more smoothly, Lee explains that she and Wong felt it was time to revive the collaborations they participated in prior to the restaurant’s opening.

“When we opened the restaurant, one of the tenets is being part of the community. It’s one of our core values,” Lee says. “We needed to make sure we were sustainable first before we started to branch out. If we can do more, we want to.”

Next up, Agnes and Sherman will host a pop-up with Food Mahjong Club, a New York City-based organization that’s held pop-ups in Chinatown. Taking place March 2, it will feature a mahjong tournament and food and drink specials. Details will be released soon.

Photo by Vivian Leba

Agnes and Sherman owners Lisa Lee and Nick Wong with Khoi Barbecue's Don Nguyen and Theo Nguyen.

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