Foodie News

Where to eat right now: 10 hot, must-try restaurants for August

Sweet Paris
Photo by Julie Soefer
Roots Juice
Photo by Karen Burd
Hugo Ortega
Photo by Julie Soefer/Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau
Dolce Delights
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Triniti
Photo by Kimberly Park

August is ripe with heat, but there are plenty of reasons to brave the air. Need a lunch or dinner recommendation?

Here’s where you should eat right now in Houston.

Roots Juice
Roots Juice quietly opened last month as the “crunchy little sister” to next-door neighbor Roots Bistro. Stop by this combo juice bar + café for a breakfast juice or smoothie, vegan zucchini muffin or granola with coconut yogurt and seasonal fruit.

Or try a few items from the lunch menu, like cold soba salads, nori rolls, or our favorite: The chevre, avocado and sprout sandwich on house-made focaccia.

Dolce Delights
Thanks to Dolce Delights, Midtown is sweeter — but just a little bit. This new bakery specializes in not-too-sweet treats: Gorgeous mini layer cakes filled with mousses and fruit purees, which give the cakes plenty of flavor and texture without a whole lot of sugary sweetness.

Dolce Delights also offers coffees, teas and a basic sandwich list.

Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar
We hear the just-opened Heights location of Sonoma will be more food-driven than its Richmond counterpart, and indeed the menu’s got a little something for everyone: Salads, small plates, pizzas and sliders, plus an excellent list of cheeses and charcuterie.

Add in a jaw-dropping wine and beer list, and you’ve got a great place to spend an evening.

The Refinery Burgers & Whiskey
Houston always has room for another burger place. Or so it would seem. Perched just off I-45 on the edge of downtown, The Refinery makes a play on Houston’s deep oil history.

The place offers burgers and hot dogs, onion rings and fries, chips and salsa. If the burger doesn’t turn you on, you can always belly up to the whiskey bar (which also boasts a nice selection of craft beers).

Monster PBJ
The diversity of Houston’s food truck scene continues to astound, and now there’s even a PB&J truck to behold. Monster PBJ is all vegetarian and quite vegan friendly.

The menu is DIY-style: Choose your bread, a freshly-ground nut butter and a local jam or fruit. You can add a sweetener and even dictate how you’d like your sammich cut (triangles, y’all!). Check the Twitter feed for a daily location.

Hugo’s
It’s always nice to see good things happen to great people, which is why we were thrilled to see Hugo Ortega and Ruben Ortega (executive chef and pastry chef at Hugo’s) rockin’ the August issue of Saveur Magazine. Hugo’s consistently turns out some of the most appealing cuisine in Houston.

Stop by this month to see why its national spotlight is so well deserved.

Sirena Seafood
Few things are as refreshing as cool ceviche on a hot day. Houston’s got plenty of heat this month, so it’s a good thing we also have Sirena Seafood, a food truck offering fresh ceviches, campechana, fish tacos and the like.

While the standard items are plenty deserving of praise, the creative fish specials are where it’s at. Follow Sirena Seafood on Twitter for a daily location.

Line & Lariat
The restaurant space in the Hotel Icon has been something of a revolving door. We offer our best wishes to Line & Lariat, which moved into the beautiful space (previously occupied by Voice) last month.

Most of the menu’s produce, fish and meats are sourced locally. The output is a classic list of dishes with a few modern touches thrown in for good measure.

Sweet Paris
Two years ago you couldn’t find a crepe in Houston, yet now there are plenty of top-notch options, Sweet Paris among them.

The Rice Village creperie offers sweet and savory, lunch and dinner, all for about $7 to $8 apiece. We love the prosciutto-mozzarella crepe, though nothing beats the dulce de leche with bananas.

Somewhere for Houston Restaurant Weeks
The annual meal deal is back, giving us a nice opportunity to try restaurants that might be too spendy for our usual budgets.

This year’s list includes Concepcion, Mockingbird Bistro, Kata Robata and Triniti, plus scores of others. Each offers a special menu — $20 for a two-course lunch, or $35 for a three-course dinner — with a portion of each meal’s cost going to the Houston Food Bank.

Need more recs? Try our lists from previous months:

December – January – March – May – June – July

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in like the rose

Elevated Mexican American cocktail bar blooms in historic downtown space

Courtesy of Concrete Rose

Concrete Rose is now open in downtown Houston.

The creative mind behind Monkey’s Tail and Trash Panda Drinking Club is stepping things up for his new project. Concrete Rose, the new bar from Greg Perez, is now open in downtown Houston.

Located on the ground floor of the historic Purse building (1701 Commerce), Concrete Rose is an elevated cocktail bar that’s inspired by Perez’s heritage as a Chicano and first generation Mexican American. It’s a big change for the bar owner, who’s best known as one of the founders of Mexican American sports bar Monkey’s Tail and the proprietor of Trash Panda Drinking Club, the Lindale Park bar known for its quirky sense of humor and creative pop-ups.

Perez tells CultureMap that’s Trash Panda’s success paved the way for Concrete Rose. With the bar running smoothly, he was able to travel for the first time in five years. When the property’s owners presented him with the ability to open a new concept, the inspiration from those travels helped fuel the design, menu, and overall direction of Concrete Rose.

“After my London trip, I started to feel comfortable with executing an ambitious project. I decided to go back to what I know best, which is myself,” Perez says. “When you walk in, you’ll see a lot of callbacks to me and Trash in a very elegant way.”

Rather than a conventional bar, Concrete Rose takes much of its design inspiration from streetwear boutiques. Framed photographs honor different aspects of Chicano culture, such as low riders and religious imagery.

“We have a really dope picture of an altar. It’s a little bit of a show stopper,” Perez says.

That streetwear theme continues with Concrete Rose’s cocktail menu. Styled after a lookbook, it uses lifestyle photography that shows the drinks but doesn’t make them the image’s sole focus. One section consists of eight, “boundary pushing” cocktails that are inspired by The Rose That Grew from Concrete, a posthumous collection of poems written by Tupac Shakur. For example, the “No One Else Cared” puts a spin on guacamole by using avocado ice cream, fried avocado skins, and tomato.

Another section, dubbed “Kickbacks,” features more familiar flavors, including one drink inspired by the guava danish at Perez’s favorite bakery in Mexico City. Classics are just that,r efined versions of staples like the margarita and ranch water.

Soon, the bar will roll out a food menu of dishes that blend various global culinary traditions with Mexican flavors and techniques. It’s created by chef Fernanda Alamilla, who worked for Perez as sous chef at the short-lived, critically-acclaimed Mexican American restaurant Chivos. Dishes include beet tacos, fish crudo, and the “BJ Sandwich.”

“The execution is there. And the creativity is there. You won’t see us trying to catch a trend. We put a lot of attention into the details. There’s a lot of Easter Eggs,” Perez says.

Concrete Rose won’t be Perez’s only new concept at the Purse building. In the coming weeks, he’ll introduce Uncle Charlie’s Athletic Club, a Mexican American sports bar that applies the lessons he learned from Monkey’s Tail in a new format.

Courtesy of Concrete Rose

Concrete Rose is now open in downtown Houston.

“I wanted the feeling to be your cool uncle’s bar,” Perez says.

For now, bar goers can head downtown to meet Concrete Rose, which is open daily from 4 pm-1 am.

openings news-you-can-eat cocktails nightlife

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in like the rose

Elevated Mexican American cocktail bar blooms in historic downtown space