A taco tuesday to remember

Rising star Mexican chef collaborates with artisan tortilla maker on 2-night taco pop-up

Alex Bremont will be popping up at Tatemó on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Courtesy of Alex Bremont

This week one of Houston’s most talked about Mexican restaurants will host a two-night pop-up with a chef who has led the kitchen at one of the world's best restaurants. Tatemó, chef Emmanuel Chavez’s corn-obsessed restaurant and tortilleria, will host chef Alex Bremont for a taco pop-up that’s taking place this Tuesday and Wednesday, July 19 and 20, from 7 pm until 10 pm (or sell out).

Bremont served as head chef at celebrity chef Enrique Olvera’s acclaimed Mexico City restaurant Pujol. During his five year tenure, the restaurant earned a consistent spot in the top 20 of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, including its current ninth place ranking.

The chef also has Houston ties, having lived here for 10 years between 2004 and 2014. Bremont worked at a number of local restaurants, including the Hyatt Regency downtown, South American restaurant Samba Grille, and Oxheart, the downtown restaurant where chef Justin Yu earned his James Beard Award.

Bremont tells CultureMap that he had never cooked Mexican food professionally prior to working at Pujol. Instead, he brought experiences from American fine dining restaurants and a year at Martin Berasategui, a three-star Michelin restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain.

“It was challenging at the beginning,” Bremont says about his time at Pujol. “I feel really happy when I say I was hired as the chef de cuisine who didn’t know much about Mexican cooking, but it gave me a different perspective on how to approach things. That’s what helped me when we wanted to improve our cooking and our techniques, the way we approached menu planning and creativity.”

As he prepares for his next project in Mexico City, Bremont is taking the opportunity to reintroduce himself to Houstonians. Working in collaborating with Chavez, he’s created a menu of five dishes that combine Tatemó's artisan tortillas made with nixtamalized corn with seasonal ingredients, including some sourced from the Urban Harvest farmers market.

Beetroot tostada with chintextle, black garlic, and macadamia
Cauliflower taco with encacahuatado and xnipec
Huitlacoche taco with black truffle and avocado
Eggplant taco with hoja santa, guacachile, and chicatanas
Wild mushroom taco sudado with black beans and chile mulato

All of the dishes are vegetarian except for the flying ants on the eggplant taco.

“I’m excited to cook with chef Emmanuel, who is doing something really special with corn in Houston,” Bremont says. “We want to keep it sort of simple because it’s the first pop-up that we’re going to do. I would say this won’t be the only one. We want to test the waters.”

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Tatemó is located at 4740 Dacoma St., Ste F.

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Anthony's song

Prolific Houston pizza chef fires up a new Italian restaurant in River Oaks

Courtesy of Anthony's New York Italian

Anthony's New York Italian is now open near Central Market.

One of Houston’s most prolific pizzaiolos has quietly opened a new restaurant in River Oaks. Anthony Russo, founder of Russo’s New York Pizzeria, has opened Anthony’s New York Italian in the former Pie Tap Pizza space at 3748 Westheimer.

While Russo is known primarily for his fast casual restaurants that sling New York-style pies, Anthony’s New York Italian is both more personal and more upscale. It takes inspiration from his Italian heritage — his father grew up in Naples and his mother grew up in Sicily — as well as Russo’s Italian Restaurant, the Galveston eatery his parents operated for almost 20 years.

“We had veal, lobster, Gulf snapper, a lot of nice, classic dishes. There’s where I grew up in the kitchen,” Russo tells CultureMap. “I was always around fine dining restaurants. My mom and dad used to bring in chefs from Italy. They were excellent chefs. That’s what we had in Galveston for 18 years.”

With Russo’s at more than 50 locations, the time felt right to open a more upscale concept. Partially inspired by New York restaurants such as Carbone and Quality Italian, Russo thinks Houstonians will appreciate his high-end take on Italian American fare.

The menu includes lobster fra diavolo, a 24-ounce prime porterhouse, bone-in veal parmesan, frutti di mare (shellfish with tomato sauce over pappardelle), and more. In addition, the dish utilize Italian olive oil that’s pressed by one of the chef’s friends. Anthony’s also makes all of its doughs, sauces, and sausage in house.

Of course, Russo is making pizza, too. They’re baked in imported Italian ovens using slightly different dough and sauce recipes — along with imported mozzarella and burrata — than his more casual restaurants.

And, no, Russo isn’t concerned that a pizzeria lasted less than a year in the space.

“I feel confident this location is going to be a killer for us. We make homemade pasta on site here, fresh from scratch.” he says. “We're bringing fresh lobster. We're bringing fresh clams. We got a nice veal chop. I mean, these are all chef-selected ingredients. I don't think anybody's doing that in town right now.”

The restaurant is still in such early days that it doesn’t have its own website or social media pages yet. For now, diners can follow Russo on Instagram for updates.

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Anthony's New York Italian is open for dinner Monday-Thursday beginning at 4 pm. It’s open for lunch and dinner on Friday and Saturday beginning at 11 am. Reservations are available on OpenTable.

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