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    Major Chef Change

    Highland Village restaurant hires a new chef with big credentials, but it refuses to get trendy

    Eric Sandler
    Oct 11, 2013 | 2:33 pm

    Up Restaurant has hired former Katsuya/Goro & Gun chef David Coffman to run its kitchen, but owner Haidar Barbouti doesn't see big changes ahead for the stylish Highland Village spot. At a time when the most well-regarded restaurants in Houston typically reflect the intensely personal vision of a chef or owner, Up marches to its own drummer.

     

    "Maybe it doesn’t make sense. Maybe I’ll sort of capitulate on it," Barbouti tells CultureMap. "I’m going to hold out as long as I can, and I think it’s working.

     

    "I’ve never wanted this restaurant to be theme-based. Meaning, we are a certain cuisine and we are this kind of experience."

     

    Barbouti wants his customers to be able to choose what to eat, whether that's a snack from the $9 bar menu or a Prime steak.

     
     

      "I’ve never wanted this restaurant to be theme-based. Meaning, we are a certain cuisine and we are this kind of experience." 

     
     

    "I did not want to impose a concept on the customer," he explains. "I wanted to be open to everybody. I didn’t want to be, oh, this is fine dining and therefore it should go after that demographic of customer. Or, alternatively, it’s fun dining, and it should go after a different kind of customer.

     

    "I still want to be a place where people can drop by multiple times per week. If you go into one of those very finite type of cuisines, I think you lose a lot of customers, and I think it becomes more faddy."

     

    As for why he decided to hire Coffman, Barbouti says, "I think for sure David’s phenomenal as far as plating, presentation, composition. I see a lot of David’s influence (on the dishes). I’m looking forward to that."

     

    Those skills show up in a few recent additions to the menu, including a tomato-foam-accented caprese salad that uses house-made mozzarella and stacked, Osaka-style sushi rolls. Coffman says he's using the same suppliers the shuttered Katsuya did for fish, and that reflects Barbouti's philosophy when it comes to ingredients. He explains: "If there was a concept, I’d say we always want to serve the best that we can, using the best ingredients . . . So, I’ve never wanted — and we don’t do that — is a cheap wow.

     

    "You have a dish, and we’ll throw something that has nothing to do with the dish to get a write-up or a cheap wow from a customer.

     

    "That will be, to me, the ultimate selling out. We’re not doing that."

    Chef David Coffman started working at Up Restaurant two weeks ago after stints at Katsuya and Goro & Gun.

    Chef David Coffman plating the Truffle Mushroom Raviolini
      
    Photo by © Debora Smail DeboraSmail.com
    Chef David Coffman started working at Up Restaurant two weeks ago after stints at Katsuya and Goro & Gun.
    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    HRW Menu Day 2025

    10 eateries participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks for the first time

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 15, 2025 | 12:22 pm
    Kitchen Rumors restaurant lobster dumplings
    Photo by Chris Furia
    These lobster dumplings are available as a supplement at Kitchen Rumors.

    One of the most eagerly anticipated days of the year for people who love Houston restaurants has arrived. Houston Restaurant Weeks has released the first wave of menus for its 2025 event.

    Held from August 1 until Labor Day (Monday, September 1), the charity dining event recruits as many as 400 Houston restaurants to serve two, three, or four-course, prix-fixe menus at set prices — $25 for lunch and brunch and $39 or $55 for dinner. HRW organizer The Cleverley Stone Foundation collects a $1 donation for every $25 menu sold, $3 for every $39 menu sold, and $5 for every $55 menu sold. It uses that money to make a substantial donation to the Houston Food Bank — just over $2 million from the 2024 event alone and over $22 million in the event’s 22-year history.

    Prior to her death in 2020, HRW founder Cleverley Stone described the event as a “win-win-win.” That is, a win for the restaurants who turned the traditionally slow month of August into a busy time. A win for diners who got good deals on meals at some of the city’s top restaurants. And a win for the Houston Food Bank, which turns every dollar raised into three meals for Houstonians in need.

    Now under the direction of her daughter, Katie Stone Cappuccio, Houston Restaurant Weeks maintains its status as the city’s premier charity dining event. Participating restaurants include all four restaurants in Bludorn Hospitality — Bludorn, Navy Blue, Bar Bludorn, and Perseid — all four of James Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega’s restaurants — Hugo’s, Caracol, Xochi, and Urbe — and two of the five Houston restaurants that hold one Michelin star — BCN and Le Jardinier.

    For diners, one of the most exciting aspects of the event is the opportunity to try a new restaurant with the certainty of a fixed price (plus beverages, tax, and tip). Towards that end, CultureMap has compiled a list of many of the first-time participants to help guide people’s selections. Diners are encouraged to keep checking the HRW website, because more establishments will be added between now and August 1.

    Bar Bludorn
    Aaron Bludorn’s Memorial-area tavern is serving a three-course, $55 dinner menu. Starter choices consist of shrimp tartine, chilled corn soup, or arugula salad with watermelon. For an entree, select ricotta gnocchi, branzino, or pork loin. Finish with blueberry cake, chocolate mousse, or ice cream.

    Barbacana
    Chef Christian Hernandez’s downtown restaurant that celebrates Houston’s diversity will serve both a two-course lunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. Choices include jicama salad, wagyu carpaccio, mushroom donburi, and grilled vermillion snapper. Supplements include octopus with mole poblano and a Texas wagyu Denver cut steak.

    Derby
    Located at a storage facility for collector cars, this restaurant is serving a three-course, $39 dinner menu. Choices include bacon with maple glaze and cayenne, apple walnut salad, fried green tomatoes, blackened chicken pasta, and a wagyu burger.

    Doko
    Part of Duckstache Hospitality (Handies Douzo, Aiko, etc.), this sushi restaurant in Autry Park is serving a four-course, $55 menu. Start with scallop aquachile, scallop ceviche, or a tomato salad. Choices for the second and third course include yakitori-style skewers with proteins such as short rib, chicken meatball, and wagyu ribeye as well as one of three sushi rolls — wagyu beef, avocado, or fried shrimp. Finish with one of three desserts.

    Kitchen Rumors
    This inventive, Indian-inspired restaurant from the team behind acclaimed Woodlands restaurants Amrina is serving a three-course, $55 menu. The first course offers five regular choices and two supplements, including lamb keema infladita, blue cheese chicken kebabs, scallop ceviche, and lobster dumplings. Choose from seven different entrees such as pan fried paneer, goat biryani, prawn curry, and bison short rib nihari.

    Maven Coffee & Cocktails
    This neighborhood restaurant that touts Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr as one of its owners will serve a four-course, $55 menu. Choices include a gazpacho shooter, bread and butter, “Caesar cups,” deviled eggs, steak au poivre, spicy rigatoni pasta, and a cheeseburger.

    Okto
    Part of Sof Hospitality (Doris Metropolitan, Hamsa), this Mediterranean restaurant in the Montrose Collective mixed-use development is serving a two-course brunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. At brunch, look for dishes such as ricotta toast, frena bread with pistacchio butter, beet-cured lox, and shakshuka. At dinner, the choices include hamachi tartare, octopus carpaccio, squid ink linguini with crab, and steak frites.

    Perseid
    Bludorn Hospitality’s French restaurant at the Hotel Saint Augustine is serving both a two-course lunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. Both menus include options such as white gazpacho, smoked salmon dip, tomato risotto, and the signature chicken paillard with fingerling potatoes and arugula salad. Dinner adds three desserts, including a chocolate entremet with salted caramel and coffee ice cream.

    Pizzana
    The Los Angeles-based, neo-Neopolitan pizzeria is serving a three-course, $39 menu that includes one of three pizzas — margherita, pepperoni, or the signature cacio e pepe — paired with a choice of three salads and three desserts. We recommend the little gem Caesar and the tiramisu, but that’s entirely up to you.

    Solarium
    Lance McCullers’ pickle ball bar in Midtown is also participating in HRW with a two-course brunch and a three-course, $39 dinner. Both meals include choices such as a chicken skewer with jalapeno-dill yogurt, Caesar salad, and cheeseburger. Brunch adds breakfast options such as pancakes or an egg sandwich, while dinner adds chicken tenders, a pulled pork sandwich, and choice of dessert.

    Kitchen Rumors restaurant lobster dumplings
      

    Photo by Chris Furia

    These lobster dumplings are available as a supplement at Kitchen Rumors.

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