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    More Charitable Dining

    Three top Houston restaurants offer their own take on dining for charity with special menus

    Eric Sandler
    Aug 3, 2016 | 1:16 pm

    With over 200 participating restaurants, Houston Restaurant Weeks dominates dining in August, but over the past couple of years a few establishments have harnessed the charitable impulses created by HRW to raise a little money for causes that are important to them.

     

    This year, Houston’s best deli has established a national movement to highlight Jewish cuisine, a Memorial-area neighborhood restaurant is supporting education, and a Montrose French restaurant has chosen four different charities that are important to it. Here are the details.

     

     Kenny & Ziggy’s
    With interest in Jewish delicatessens growing thanks to the success of the Deli Man documentary, Kenny & Ziggy’s chef-owner Ziggy Gruber has rounded up 10 delis across the country to establish New York Delicatessen Month. Each restaurant has created its own three-course menu and selected a charity.

     

    In Houston, Kenny & Ziggy’s will donate $4 from each $37 menu to the The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston's Jerome Robinson Family Young Adult Division. Gruber, who served as the master of ceremonies at the group’s culinary-themed fundraiser earlier this year, tells CultureMap that he was inspired by the way the organization shares his commitment to perpetuating Jewish culture.

     

    Towards that end, Kenny & Ziggy’s three-course menu (plus a side) offers up lesser known Jewish classics like a potato knish, kishke (stuffing made with rendered beef fat, barley, and spices), and Roumanian steak that even regular visitors might not have tried before.

     

    “People are looking for interesting menus. I decided to come up with my own heimische approach,” Gruber explains. “We didn’t put any of the corned beef, the pastrami, the Nova, the usual suspects. Everyone has eaten that. I really want to showcase the traditional stuff that normal people usually don’t get and wouldn’t think of getting . . . The whole idea is to showcase Jewish food, and I think Jewish food is more than a pastrami sandwich or a bagel and lox.”

     

    Of course, the portions are so substantial that they’re easy to share. After all, everyone should try Gruber’s signature items like chopped chicken liver or Hungarian goulash at least once.

     

     Jonathan’s the Rub
    After participating in HRW last year, Jonathan’s the Rub owner Jonathan Levine tells CultureMap that this year he’s choosing to support Memorial High School with a three-course, $45 menu ($5 to MHS). The school will determine how the funds are allocated.

     

    “We get such great support at The Rub from the Memorial/Spring Branch people and we continually donate to the schools, churches, and local organizations,” Levine writes in an email. “So I thought perhaps it would be great to give back to those that do so much for us. We would not be here if it wasn’t for them, and MHS is the hub of our community.”

     

    As diners have come to expect from Jonathan’s, the offerings are an eclectic mix. Starters include meatballs marinara, Chinese-style dumplings, and a strawberry caprese salad. Mains include a 10-ounce, USDA Prime sirloin with herbed polenta, Provencal-style lamb shank, and stuffed quail. Oreo cream pie, cheesecake, and tres leches make up the dessert choices.

     

     L’Olivier
    The French restaurant that was removed from HRW in 2014 over a dispute about its menu still has its charitable spirit intact. This year it will donate 10 percent of all sales to one of four different charities: Volunteer Houston, Urban Harvest, Casa de Esperanza, and The Catastrophic Theatre. The restaurant requires that diners choose their charity when they make their reservations.

     

    L’Olivier owner Mary Clarkson tells CultureMap that she and chef Olivier Ciesielski selected the charities based on their personal relationships with them. For example, Ciesielski buys produce from Urban Harvest vendors, and Clarkson began volunteering for Casa de Esperanza during her time as a student at the University of Texas.

     

    Towards the middle of August, each charity will select a night for a dinner with a special menu created in partnership with Ciesielski. These nights will allow patrons who want to learn more about a charity to meet its key members.

    Choose glazed salmon over Bessarabian risotto during Deli Month at Kenny & Ziggy's.

    Kenny and Ziggy's deli month grilled salmon
      
    Photo by Eric Sandler
    Choose glazed salmon over Bessarabian risotto during Deli Month at Kenny & Ziggy's.
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    What's Eric Eating Episode 476

    Award-winning Houston chef dishes on season 4 of hit show The Bear

    CultureMap Staff
    Jul 15, 2025 | 6:00 am
    The Bear cast photo
    The Bear/Facebook
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    On the most recent episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu joins CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss season four of The Bear, the FX series set in a Chicago restaurant. It’s become an annual tradition for the two men.

    (Spoilers ahead for all episodes of season four of The Bear.)



    In season four, which debuted on June 25, the show’s eponymous restaurant is struggling to find its footing after a review in the Chicago Tribune criticized the inconsistencies of chef Carmy Berzatto’s constantly-changing menu. The stressful environment leads chef de cuisine Sydney Adamu to contemplate leaving for a new restaurant. Yu relates to the other chef’s desire to hire Sydney away from The Bear.

    “This constantly happens in the restaurant business. We become both friends with and fans of people working under other people. You envision opening something new and having that person work for me. How do we get them to move over,” Yu says. “The ability to create is one thing. Money is a big thing. The promise of work-life balance is one thing. Those are ways to get people to move from one place to another.”

    The duo also take up the topic of sous chef Tina Marrero’s struggles to get the timing down on the pasta course that’s part of The Bear’s tasting menu. Sandler asks Yu about encouraging cooks to improve their skills

    “It’s trust but also training and the ability to have them understand what each dish means, the way it should taste and why, and how fast or slow it should go. A long time ago when we were being trained, we were told to cook the food and not given a reason for why it should be done that way. Whereas, we try our very best these days to explain the reasoning behind having a dish with fewer components so it can be plated up more quickly to get another turn on a table.”

    Listen to the full episode to hear Yu’s thoughts on Carmy’s decision to step away from The Bear. He also provides an update on some big changes come to the menu at Theodore Rex, his restaurant in downtown Houston’s Warehouse District that earned a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide.

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