Foodie News

Family flavors: New Galleria area restaurant brings simple flavors, topingredients and sibling love

Katie Adair Barnhart and Nick Adair are siblings getting into the familybusiness with Adair Kitchen.
Photo by Kim Coffman
The pig logo is in homage to the Adairs' mom, who is "obsessed with them."
Photo by Kim Coffman
Adair Kitchen occupies the corner spot in the Sage Plaza Shopping Center
Adair Kitchen/Facebook
Prosciutto breakfast pita
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Adair Kitchen
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Chorizo and avocado toast
Photo by Sarah Rufca

Siblings Nick Adair and Katie Adair Barnhart are no strangers to the service industry — their parents own local chains Skeeters Mesquite Grill and Los Tios Mexican Restaurants and they grew up in the restaurants.

But when they were approached to open another Skeeters in a Tanglewood-area shopping center, Barnhart suggested creating a new concept based on some of her favorite restaurants in her adopted home of California.

Before long Barnhart was back in Houston and the Galleria-area Adair Kitchen was born, opening quietly this week in the corner of the Sage Plaza Shopping Center in the former Habaneros space.

Eventually Adair Kitchen will expand to offer dinner (with table service), adding wine to the current coffee bar as soon as permitting allows.

Currently open for breakfast and lunch, Adair features counter service and an open dining room that has a minimalist, slightly rough aesthetic dotted with adorable details: Chalkboard menus, fresh flowers and a bowl of lemons greeting guests at the entrance and spare, slightly retro light fixtures hanging in mason-style jars. There's also an enormous pig outline dominating one wall.

"Our mother is obsessed with pigs, so it just seemed like a natural fit," Barnhart says.

Eventually Adair Kitchen will expand to offer dinner (with table service), adding wine to the current coffee bar as soon as permitting allows. Right now, it is serving casual American classics mixed with healthy choices.

"Simple favorites is sort of our deal. We're deliberately simple but we want to use the best kind of ingredients we can, known dishes but made the best that we can do it," Adair says. "It's kinda how we grew up eating, our mom is like that and loves to cook. A lot of these plates are things we ate growing up."

At breakfast that includes not only omelettes, a granola parfait, breakfast tacos and fluffy, just-sweet-enough French toast but also unexpected choices like a flavorful prosciutto breakfast pita and a thick French bread toasted and topped with avocado, chorizo, lime and cilantro.

"The same with breakfast: The men come in early and the women show up a little later."

At lunch guests can build their own salad with a Brown Bag Deli-style worksheet or choose from a half-dozen choices on the menu. There are also light options like a black bean burger and a grilled chicken and quinoa bowl, plus heartier burger and sandwich choices.

With its niche somewhere between Down House and Black Walnut Café, Adair Kitchen feels like a smart addition to the neighborhood, catering to both Memorial moms and the professionals who work nearby.

"Our lunches have been men at 11:30, a lot of professional, corporate people that work around here, and then around 12:45 it switches to women, I think before they pick up kids from school," Barnhart says. "It's kinda funny.

"The same with breakfast: The men come in early and the women show up a little later."

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firing up Montrose

New Houston seafood restaurant adds live-fire flair to Japanese flavors

Photo by Becca Wright

Spanish sea bass, scallop crudo, nigiri, bluefin binchotan, and bluefin crudo.

An ambitious new seafood restaurant is coming to Montrose next week. Casa Kenji will open on Tuesday, December 9.

Located in the former Andiron space (3201 Allen Pkwy), Casa Kenji is the first Houston project for New Orleans restaurateur Malachi DuPre, a former LSU standout who played briefly in the NFL before establishing Kenji and Kenji Kazoku restaurants in New Orleans. Together with former LSU teammate John “B-John” Ballis and Houston chef Bigler “Biggie” Cruz, Casa Kenji will blend Latin and Japanese influences while also incorporating live-fire elements into the restaurant’s dishes. Cruz, whose resume includes a lengthy stint at Uchi as well as working at critically acclaimed Houston seafood restaurant Golfstrømmen, tells CultureMap that Casa Kenji’s approach is the first time he can be himself in the kitchen.

“My perfect restaurant was always based on the live fire and sushi combination,” Cruz says. “My mom cooked with wood for my entire life. The live fire creates completely different flavors. The smoky flavors, the sear from the charcoal — they create a different type of memory for me.”

The use of live fire techniques will permeate Casa Kenji’s menus in ways both big and small. For example, diners will be able to feast on prawns grilled directly on charcoal and served with yuzu chili garlic, or savor lightly seared Japanese wagyu tataki paired with mushrooms. Even raw dishes will benefit from the restaurant’s wood-burning grill and stove.

“Every vegetable we peel, we make into an ash that’s a topping for the dishes. It adds a different layer of flavor,” Cruz says. Look for it in the scallop aguachile, among others.

Even vegetables get a smoky component, as in a cabbage dish that’s braised with dashi and soy sauce before being roasted and served with an onion soubise that Cruz says he developed based on techniques he learned from Golfstrømmen chef Christopher Haatuft.

“It’s rich, super savory, with smoky layers, and you get brightness from the shiso gremolata. I think it will be a signature dish for us,” the chef says.

One change to the interior is the addition of a six-seat omakase counter that looks into the kitchen. Cruz promises those diners will have an even more elevated experience than the restaurant’s regular menu, including ingredients such as Japanese wagyu and premium fish flown in from Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market.

Beyond its cuisine, Casa Kenji hopes to stand out with its spacious outdoor patio. Since very few Japanese-inspired restaurants in Houston offer outdoor seating, it should appeal to diners who want a little vitamin D along with their tuna crudo.

“We’re proud to showcase the craft and creativity that defines Casa Kenji,” co-founders Cruz, Ballis, and DuPre said in a statement. “With chef Bigler Cruz at the helm — blending live-fire technique with the discipline of Japanese tradition — we’re equally honored and excited to share a unique concept that is truly rooted in passion, culture, and community.”

Casa Kenji will be open for dinner Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 4 pm. Reservations are available on Resy.

Photo by Becca Wright

Spanish sea bass, scallop crudo, nigiri, bluefin binchotan, and bluefin crudo.