four for finn

Downtown food hall heats up with bento boxes, crafty burgers, and cranky carrots

Craft Burger and Pecking Order lead the new tenants at Finn Hall.

Photo by Julie Soefer

Downtown dining destination Finn Hall has switched things up again. The food hall has welcomed the return of one of its original tenants and made space for three new concepts that replace some that quietly shuttered earlier this year.

First, chef Shannen Tune has brought Craft Burger back to Finn Hall. One of the food hall's original tenants when it opened in 2018, Craft Burger's new location joins its brick and mortar outpost in Katy. The restaurant is known for its decadent creations like the Truffle Butter Juicy Lucy and rich milkshakes. In October, the Chopped champion will open Pecking Order, a new chicken concept serving fried chicken, chicken sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, grilled jerk chicken, and more.

Joining them is Maui Bento Box, a Hawaiian-inspired concept that serves combination meals built around proteins such as ahi poke, loco moco, spicy bbq pork, and others. Its lead by chef Henry Hamor, who previously worked at downtown Le Meridien hotel.

“[Hamor] was ready to revive his Hawaiian concept that he had pre-COVID,” Miranda Cartwright, an executive for Finn Hall manager Midway said in response to CultureMap’s request for comment. “We knew that he had amazing culinary acumen, and it was a great fit to round out the diverse concepts that we like to have in the hall.”

In addition to Maui Bento Box, farmers market favorite Cranky Carrot Juice Co. will open its first permanent location at the food hall. Known for its cold-pressed and nut-milk lattes, Cranky Carrot will add açaí bowls, smoothies, and toasts to its menu when it opens in October.

“Cranky Carrot gave us the opportunity to bring in healthy options, which had been feedback we received from our tenants in the building,” Cartwright added. “More importantly it gave us the opportunity to support an up-and-coming local business.”

The four new tenants join Finn Hall’s existing operators: modern Mexican restaurant Papalo Taqueria, Korean concept Yong, cocktail bar Swallow’s Nest, Pizza Zquare, and Greenway Coffee. Earlier this year, the food hall bid farewell to Lit Chicken and Vietnamese restaurant Pho Binh. They’re the latest changes for a food hall that opened in December 2018 and retooled its structure and tenant mix in March 2020, just before the pandemic emptied out downtown office buildings and temporarily closed the facility.

Currently, downtown has three other food halls: Underground Hall, Bravery Chef Hall, and Post Market at Post HTX, which has been earning raves for restaurants such as West African concept ChòpnBlọk, upscale seafood concept Golfstrommen, and dessert shop Lucy Pearl’s. The new additions keep Finn Hall in the mix for diners’ dollars.

“I can't speak for the successes or failures of other food hall concepts in Houston, but I can say how excited I have been to contribute to the culinary culture at Finn Hall,” Finn Hall culinary director David Buehrer said. “Our vendors represent Houston as a whole, and with our new additions we are accommodating diners of all age demographics and income brackets, something I think is particularly exciting for more people.”

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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