Houston's Hottest Food

The last days of a hot food festival produce a foodie panic: Where to get your fix

Hatch chilies rock. They just do. I get so excited every year during Hatch season, which includes the 18th annual Hatch Chile Festival at Central Market featuring the New Mexico beauties (it runs through Tuesday).

There are also several local restaurant menu items that have caught my eye that celebrate the hatch.

First, let’s talk about the chilies. Hatch chile refers to the varieties of chiles grown in the Hatch Valley, an area stretching north and south along the Rio Grande from Arrey, N.M. in the north end of the state to Tonuco Mountain towards the south of Hatch, N.M.. Most of the varieties of chile cultivated in the Hatch Valley have been developed at New Mexico State University for more than a century.

I use the mild ones more so than the hot ones and am almost paranoid about running out.

They range in heat from very mild to quite hot and growing conditions in the Hatch Valley contribute greatly to the consistent flavor, which is unique. Most importantly, distribution outside of the region is limited, so when I can get them, I get happy. They’ve received the “New Mexico True” stamp of approval from the New Mexico Tourism Department so the Hatch Chile Festival is the real deal and not something to be taken for granted.

For years, I have taken the opportunity during the Hatch Chile Festival to buy the roasted onsite chiles (both mild and hot), do a rough puree in the food processor and then keep the treasures in small freezer bags to use throughout the year. In everything from soups and stews to burgers, corn chowder chicken enchiladas and au-gratin potatoes, or just stirred into mayo for a sandwich spread, I find that the chiles add a unique flavor — sweet, clear and defined.

I use the mild ones more so than the hot ones and am almost paranoid about running out.

Through the years, Central Market has continued to expand Hatch product offerings during the festival and this year there are more products than ever. Some that have obtained holy-grail status include the Beemster Gouda from Holland studded with the roasted chiles; a crazy-good apple/Hatch chile cobbler from the bakery; an incredible yummy spread I’m dying to put on crab cakes and a fabulous limited-edition bar of chocolate by small-batch producer Patric American Handcrafted Chocolate.

I was also excited to learn that Hotel Icon's Line & Lariat's mixologist Houston Farris is currently pouring a new cocktail called the Hatch-22, using the seasonal chile in an infusion cocktail. Hubcap Grill is doing a Hatch Tamale Burger on random nights during the season and I’ve fallen in love with the Hatch Green Chile Double Cheeseburger at Del Frisco’s Grille that's on both the lunch and dinner menu.

Hatch chiles, fresh from the field

Central Market

Hatch chiles, fresh from the field

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Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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