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    Lunch at SaltAir

    SaltAir adds lunch and brunch menu: Is a steakhouse in popular restaurant group's future?

    Eric Sandler
    Oct 3, 2016 | 1:28 pm

    Never let it be said that Clark/Cooper Concepts doesn’t give its customers what they want. After a year of requests, the company has introduced lunch and brunch at its popular Upper Kirby seafood restaurant, SaltAir Seafood Kitchen.

     

    “Part of our business is listening to see what people like. Over the first year of business, one of the main things that kept coming up is when we were going to be opening up for lunch,” co-owner Grant Cooper tells CultureMap. “We’ve had a lot of great success at lunch with our other restaurants. I think people enjoy going to lunch because of our value, first of all with our wine pricing, and the atmosphere we create.”

     

    Lunch at SaltAir offers some overlap with the dinner menu, but the options have been designed to appeal to a wide arrange of diners. Sandwiches, including a lobster roll and a cheeseburger, join salads and starter plates like tuna poke, crab louie, and $1 Gulf Coast oysters. Brunch features egg dishes like a crab cake benedict, a lobster BLT, and a smoked salmon plate.

     

    “It’s a more approachable dining experience,” Cooper says about the new lunch menu. “At lunch, I think you have to have more diversity. At lunch, you may not have a group of people who always dine together. You may have someone who wants a burger and doesn’t eat seafood.”

     

    Since SaltAir opened last summer, a number of new restaurants have arrived that compete for its upscale, see-and-be-seen crowd, including State of Grace and River Oaks District hit spots like Steak 48 and Le Colonial. Still, the restaurant is riding high, securing the 16th spot on Chronicle critic Alison Cook’s list of Houston’s top 100 restaurants.

     

    “There’s always competition. There always will be. I embrace it. I think it brings the best out of people,” Cooper says. “It gives you the creativity you need. The more the merrier. We enjoy that. There’s always going to be restaurants. Houston is growing in the restaurant scene. It brings more attention to the city, which I think is great.”

     

    Even in the face of all those new options, the company has been busy. Over the last few years, it’s opened Coppa Osteria and Punk’s Simple Southern Food in Rice Village, brought SaltAir to Upper Kirby, and opened this year’s can’t-miss lunch and brunch destination at The Dunlavy on Buffalo Bayou. So what’s next? Cooper isn’t quite ready to say.

     

    “We’re always working on concepts. I generally cultivate the concepts, what we like, what we feel like works in the city of Houston. A lot of the inspiration comes from what we enjoy, but we have to think about does it work in Houston? Does it work in a certain location? How does it work in our company,” Cooper says. “We’re about 75 percent ready on our other concepts. When do we feel ready to pull the trigger? When it feels like a sure thing, I’m happy to talk about it. To be talking about it now, would be throwing out ideas that may or may not happen.”

     

    Some diners have expressed an interest in seeing what Clark/Cooper could bring to a steakhouse. After all, the genre remains popular — just look at the crowds flocking to Steak 48 — and a restaurant that blended chef Brandi Key’s deft touch with seafood and vegetables with the company’s signature, barely-over-retail wine pricing could be a real game changer. Cooper isn’t ready to make announcements, but he allows that’s something they’ve considered.

     

    “We always talk about doing a steakhouse with a slightly different twist, more of a local angle,” Cooper acknowledges. “Maybe not as huge or as big as some others. It has to be the right location, and it has to be the right deal financially.”

     

    Whatever Cooper, Key, and business partner-chef Charles Clark decide to do and wherever they decide to open it, expect a crowd — for both lunch and dinner.

    From left, Brandi Key, Grant Cooper, Charles Clark.

    Brandi Key, Grant Cooper, Charles Clark at SaltAir
      
    Photo by Shelby Hodge
    From left, Brandi Key, Grant Cooper, Charles Clark.
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    Matcha News

    TikTok star Keith Lee crafts matcha latte for Hill Country flood relief

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jul 11, 2025 | 9:30 am
    Keith Lee and matcha drink
    Instagram
    Keith Lee hoists his special matcha drink.

    The devastating floods that swept across Central Texas on July 4 are bringing out all kinds of charitable endeavors — and that includes a limited-edition beverage from Texas-based TikTok food influencer Keith Lee.

    Lee, a social media sensation whose online food reviews have benefited hundreds of small restaurants, is partnering with La La Land Kind Cafe on a special drink: Called the La La Land X Keith Lee Latte, it's a matcha drink in which 100 percent of the proceeds will go towards Kerr County flood relief.

    La La Land is the coffee chain founded in Dallas in 2019 with a mission to provide opportunities for fostering youth and individuals in need. It has three locations in Houston, along with 10 across Dallas-Fort Worth and six in Southern California.

    The new Keith Lee Latte will consist of double ceremonial matcha, with secret syrup, matcha cloud, a whole fresh strawberry, flaky salt, and matcha powder. (See Lee enjoy the latte in the video below.)


      
     
     
     
     
     
     
    View this post on Instagram
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    A post shared by Keith Lee (@keith_lee125)
     


    Matcha is the Japanese green tea powder that has experienced a surge in popularity, appearing in everything from drinks like the matcha latte to desserts like matcha mousse.

     Keith Lee Latte Keith Lee Latte is a matcha drink.Instagram 

    Lee, who relocated to Dallas in 2024, has been on a matcha kick ever since he tried it in Chicago, which he says "led me down a rabbit hole," and it has become his trademark drink. In May, he visited seven cafes across DFW in search of the perfect matcha in town, and that included La La Land, where he ordered a matcha with almond milk.

    He also has a charitable history, including a special visit he made to Taste Project in Fort Worth to donate $4,000 to support the nonprofit's mission to fight food insecurity.

    The Keith Lee Latte will be available at all La La Land cafes beginning Friday July 11, for a limited time only. From July 11-27, 100 percent of all proceeds will support flood relief efforts in Kerr County — "a community in our home state that’s hurting," La La Land Cafe says.

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