Introducing Flower Child

Healthy eating restaurant sets opening day for Uptown Park outpost

The Houston area is the midst of a mini-boom in the number of restaurants touting their healthy eating options. With newcomers like Vibrant in Montrose and Herb & Beet in Spring, it’s never been easier to feel good about dining out.

Those restaurants will soon be joined by a new-to-Houston concept with a strong pedigree. Flower Child, a fast casual establishment from North Italia owners Fox Restaurant Concepts, will make its debut in Uptown Park on September 12. Although it’s the first Houston outpost, the restaurant has already won fans in Austin and Dallas.

Head chef Don Bowie is a Third Ward native who once managed downtown’s Red Cat Jazz Cafe (now the OKRA Charity Saloon). After leaving Houston to attend culinary school in Atlanta, the chef worked in New York and Los Angeles before returning home to help open the Sweetie Pie’s soul food restaurant. Initially, he was skeptical about working for Flower Child, but one visit to the restaurant swayed him.

“I got a chance to try the food and I was blown away by the flavor profiles,” Bowie tells CultureMap. “Everything I tasted I was like wow. I see why so many people frequent this spot. It’s healthy food but it tastes good. That’s why I decided to be a part of this. It will blow people away.”

Bowie cites a number of examples of favorite dishes that are good for you and still tasty, such as the Rebel wrap (steak, charred onion, French Port Salut Cheese, and horseradish yogurt) and the Mother Earth bowl (sweet potatoes, portobello mushrooms, avocado, broccoli pesto, and red pepper miso vinaigrette). By making everything from scratch and incorporating lots of global flavors, the restaurant keep things fresh for its customers. Bowie says it’s not unusual to see customers dine at the restaurant two or three times a week.

The menu also offers a diverse set of options for diners who are looking to eat vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free. “I’m a meat eater through and through but I find myself eating the vegan dishes because I enjoy the taste so much,” Bowie says.

Coming from a soul food restaurant, Bowie has high standard for mac and cheese, and Flower Child’s version, which uses a three cheese blend, exceeded them. “It has to be one of the top three cheese sauces I’ve ever tried. It’s something you have to try not to dip a spoon in throughout the day,” Bowie says.

At lunch, wraps and salads are possible. The summer seasonal salad, which combines watermelon and farro with heirloom tomatoes, pomegranate, and a preserved lemon vinaigrette, as proven to be particularly popular.

Those seeking a heartier meal may opt for a plate, which combines one, two, or three of the vegetable sides with an optional protein. Feeling healthy? Go for grilled asparagus, spicy Japanese eggplant, and organic tofu. Want to indulge a little more? Opt for mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, glazed sweet potato, and grass-fed steak.

Even the desserts are gluten-free. Bowie brags about the texture of both the brownie and the vegan chocolate pudding, which is topped with coconut. Together, they’re just one more sign of Flower Child’s commitment to providing its customers with satisfying meals.

“It’s a fast casual experience, but what we do in the back will rival any full service restaurant you go to,” Bowie says.

Flower Child is known for its bowls.

Photo courtesy of FRC

Flower Child is known for its bowls.

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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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