A national food magazine has shined its light on a prominent Houston restaurant. Food & Wine features March, Goodnight Hospitality's fine dining restaurant, on the cover of its September 2022 issue.
Inside, deputy editor Melanie Hansche authors an article titled How a Menu Is Made that takes a close look at the elegant, tasting menu restaurant. It includes a visit to Goodthyme Farm, which is owned by Goodnight Hospitality partners Bailey and Peter McCarthy, along with interviews with chef-partner Felipe Riccio and master sommelier and partner June Rodil. Readers can also try their hand at recipes with suggested wine pairings.
Hansche gets a preview of the restaurant's new menu that will serve dishes inspired by cuisine from islands such as Corsica, Sardinia, Cyprus, and The Canary Islands. Riccio shares some insight into the research that goes into creating each menu, including a reading list of books he uses for research. Later, Rodil offers her perspective on the intricate service that goes into presenting six and nine-course tasting menus with wine pairings.
"I think about the tasting-menu experience at the restaurant like the season on a runway," Rodil says. "It has to flow and have its entrance, middle, end, and a grand finale."
Hansche also dines at the restaurant, sampling dishes from the Occitania menu that March served this spring and summer. Needless to say, she's delighted by the experience.
"March is a place where food, design, hospitality, and ambiance combine in the most harmonious of ways," she writes. "It excels at subtlety and nuance, at surprise and delight."
Being featured in Food & Wine is only the latest national attention March has received. Last year, Esquire named it America's sixth best new restaurant, and the Robb Report ranked it as the country's second best new restaurant in June. In addition, March earned nominations in five categories of the 2022 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, including Chef of the Year and Restaurant of the Year.
Houstonians will get a chance to dine on the new menu beginning September 15. It draws from a 2,000-mile area, but does not include Sicily or Greece, which will each receive their own treatments in the future. Rather than blend influences, each dish will offer an interpretation from one specific island.
“This is a huge part of what we are trying to do at March, constantly exploring the Mediterranean and everything it has to offer while encapsulating it to showcase the best parts of each region within it," Riccio says. "With the Islands menu, we get to play with more tropical flavors than we have in past menus. I’m particularly looking forward to working with unique ingredients like myrtle, chestnuts and mastic.”
The sommelier team has added new wines to pair with the menu, and tropical cocktails will draw upon bright, citrus flavors. The latest version of March's signature martini will use Mahón Gin, from Menorca, along with a new version of the bar's vermouth.
Prices are up slightly: the six-course menu now costs $185 and the nine-course costs $245. Wine and premier wine pairings are available at $80 and $160 for the six-course and $95 and $195 for the nine-course.
Balearic Islands: Sepia - Squid Ink, Salsa Juvert, Farro.
