Downtown Ramen Joint Closes

Ramen joint closes; will return as new bar in emerging downtown entertainment district

Downtown izakaya Goro & Gun served its final meal Tuesday night. Rising star chef J.D. Woodward has resigned his position as Goro's executive chef. On Wednesday night, Goro's curtains were drawn and a sign that simply reads "Intermission" hung in the window.

After what owners Brad Moore and Ryan Rouse promise will be brief amount of time, the space at 306 Main will reopen with a new name (and some new decor) as a bar under the direction of Goro's current general manager Alexander Gregg, who was recently named one of 10 bartenders to watch by Beverage Media.

Gregg tells CultureMap that he's seen people walk up to Goro, look in and leave. "Ooh, that's a restaurant. We want a bar," he's heard them say.

Woodward took over at Goro after founding chef David Coffman's sudden departure only a couple of months after opening. He stabilized the menu and introduced signature dishes like the "phat ass ham hock" and crispy duck for two, but a summer slowdown in pedestrian traffic in the area put too big a dent in food sales.

"I no longer have the budget to run a food program that is indicative of my standards or ability," Woodward writes in a statement. "I would like to thank Ryan Rouse and Brad Moore for the opportunity. I have no regrets about my time there. I think we took a food program that was on the ropes and made it into something we could all be proud of."

When Joshua Martinez, the person who originally defined Goro's concept as a ramen shop and cocktail bar, left the restaurant in May to focus on upcoming fried chicken restaurant The Chicken Ranch, Moore told CultureMap he anticipated moving into more of a bar direction. "We think it could certainly act more like a bar. If you think people are perceiving it as a bar, good, we’ll take it." The decision to close Goro and revamp the space completes that transformation.

While a new downtown restaurant district could emerge a few blocks south with El Big Bad, Springbok and the imminent openings of Prohibition and Main Kitchen and 806 Lounge at the J.W. Marriott, the partners think most patrons view the 300 block of Main as an entertainment destination rather than for food. Bad News Bar, The Pastry War and Little Dipper have established themselves as bars on the block, which will soon be joined by another bar called The Nightingale Room.

The Original OKRA Charity Saloon is just around the corner on Congress. While recently opened The Honeymoon offers food, it's a breakfast and lunch-oriented menu that matches the coffee shop atmosphere created by the presence of Boomtown Coffee's roasting operation in the space.

Gregg tells CultureMap that he's seen people walk up to Goro, look in and leave. "Ooh, that's a restaurant. We want a bar," he's heard them say, which further influenced the decision to change directions.

For Rouse, it's a chance for him, Gregg and Moore to do what they know. "What we do best is bars," he says.

"Losing J.D. is one of the hardest things we've ever done," Rouse adds, but he notes that the new bar will have a prep kitchen unlike any other in the city. It will allow Gregg to expand his syrup business and recently launched hand cut ice program as well as provide new abilities for the Moore and Rouse's other concepts on the block, Bad News Bar and The Honeymoon. They declined to offer many details about Gregg's new direction until the bar is ready to open.

Woodward isn't sure what the future holds, but he plans to take a week or two off "and hang out with my kid . . . I can tell you one thing for sure — I won't be cooking ramen," he adds with a laugh.

"Me and Brad and Ryan are still buddies," Woodward tells CultureMap. "I'm setting them up with a couple guys to get their food program up at Grand Prize with Sandy Witch leaving.

"I had a really good time there," Woodward says. "I had a really good run."

Goro & Gun has closed and will reopen as a bar soon.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Goro & Gun has closed and will reopen as a bar soon.

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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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