Bon App love for Lucille's

Beloved Museum District restaurant's charitable works score national award from Bon Appetit

Chris Williams is "the epitome" of the new awards.

Photo by Bear Hands Media

A national food magazine has recognized a Houston restaurant group for its good works during the pandemic. Bon Appetit named Midtown restaurant Lucille's and Lucille's 1913, its affiliated non-profit, as one of 12 national recipients of its Heads of the Table awards.

Given instead of its annual list of America's best new restaurants, Bon Appetit restaurants editor Elyse Inamine describes the Heads of the Table winners as follows:

They are the ones that sprang up (or quickly recalibrated) in the pandemic to help their communities and others in the industry who needed it most. We’re choosing these people and places not because they’re making the best food (though we’d argue that they are and we have recipes that prove it) but because they are giving opportunity to formerly incarcerated people, fighting for fair wages, and feeding their neighbors in personal and respectful ways.

Speaking to CBS This Morning, Bon Appetit editor-in-chief Dawn Davis added her own praise for Lucille's chef Chris Williams. "What I love is that [Williams] makes fantastic food. He's traveled the world, and his global influences show up in his restaurant in Houston," she says.

"But he also takes care of the elderly, he took care of essential workers. When Texas had a shutdown, he opened his really beautiful patio to other restaurants . . . and he continues to work with other institutions and organizations that are helping the food insecure. He is the epitome to me of Head of the Table."

The magazine also published Davis' interview with Williams where he discusses some of his other initiatives, such as letting unemployed bartenders hold pop-ups on Lucille's patio to earn money while bars remained shutdown.

"We put close to $53,000 directly in their pockets," Williams says. "We ate all the costs, but we were thinking about sustainability and how we can help others — not making a profit."

Williams founded Lucille's 1913 last year to feed seniors in neighborhoods such as Sunnyside, Acres Homes, Fifth Ward, and Third Ward. Since then, it has served hundreds of thousands of meals and participated in events such as distributing meals after this year's winter storm, giving away 2,000 meals on Juneteenth, and serving 5,000 meals during the holiday season in partnership with the Kinder Foundation.

The coming months will be a busy time for Williams and the Lucille's Hospitality Group. Later this year, Williams and Top Chef finalist Dawn Burrell will open Late August, their new restaurant in The Ion, Rice University's innovation-focused mixed-use development. Next year, LHG will open Rado Cafe, which will serve coffee, cocktails, and "cuisine with a purpose."

awards

Relish responds

Houston restaurant breaks silence about wage theft allegations

Photo by Julie Soefer

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A Houston restaurant has broken its silence about a lawsuit that accuses it of wage theft. Relish Restaurant & Bar issued a statement about allegations made by an employee that it improperly allocated money from the restaurant’s tip pool:

For more than a decade, we've worked hard to build a restaurant where our employees feel valued and respected. Our team is central to everything we do, and we take our responsibilities to them seriously. We remain committed to fair and lawful employment practices, and firmly deny the allegations that have been made. Given that this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not comment further at this time. Thank you for understanding.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, employee Michael Baron alleges that Relish and its owners, Addie and Dustin Teague:

Used his and other employees’ tips to pay the maitre’d, who also had managerial roles, such as disciplining employees. The maitre’d was allegedly paid at least $21,000 in 2026 from pooled tips, according to the lawsuit. The maitre'd position is not included in the restaurant's notice about which workers get paid from the pool, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that the practices at Relish’s Town & Country location violated the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law that governs how tipped employees are paid. Under the law, restaurants are allowed to pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 per hour, because the vast majority of their income is generated by customers’ tips. The law also governs which other employees — such as bartenders and other customer-facing positions — are eligible to receive a share of an employee’s tips. Salaried managers or employees in supervisory roles are not eligible to receive tips.

Baron is represented by attorney Josef F. Buenker, whose firm specializes in employment law, as noted by its domain name houstonovertimelawyer.com.

In March, a federal court ruled that Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille must pay $21 million for misallocating tips to more than 700 servers.

Relish is known for its classic American fare such as burgers, fried chicken, steaks, salad, and seafood. Its River Oaks location, which has been open since 2016, will soon close before moving to the RO mixed-used development next year. Relish’s Town & Country location will remain open.

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