What's Eric Eating Episode 27

Restaurateur's big move, Astros Series win, and foodie road trip are hot podcast topics

On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," Killen's Restaurants director of operations Graham Laborde joins CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss his role helping acclaimed local chef Ronnie Killen manage his growing company. Laborde, who won the CultureMap Tastemaker Award Rising Star Chef of the Year in 2016, shares some of his family history that led him to the kitchen, as well as the professional experiences he had in New Orleans and Houston prior to joining up with Killen.

So why did Laborde choose to sign on with Killen's after closing Bernadine's, the Gulf Coast-inspired restaurant he led for the Treadsack Group?

"He offered me something that didn't necessarily exist with a number of other offers I had, and that was the ability to really, really learn something," Laborde says. "The ability to learn different kinds of concepts that I hadn't done in the past. I'd never done a fast casual concept. I've never done a burger restaurant. I've never done barbecue before. Not only learning those cuisines, but really learning how to run those different businesses and the different challenges that come with it."

Prior to the interview, Houston Life producer/reporter Stephanie Gerry and Sandler discuss the news of the week. Even though the podcast primarily discusses food, Gerry and Sandler take a couple of minutes to discuss the Astros World Series victory. Then, they move on to Brasserie 19's plans to mitigate the effects of construction at its shopping center, celebrity chef Michael Mina's announcement that International Smoke, his globally-inspired barbecue restaurant with cookbook author Ayesha Curry, is coming to Houston next year, and the latest addition to UberEATS: caviar and truffles from DR Delicacy.

In the restaurant of the week segment, Sandler shares his impressions of two Dallas restaurants: Town Hearth, an over-the-top steakhouse that features a 300-gallon fish tank, and Zoli's, the New York-inspired pizza restaurant from the owner of Cane Rosso. Gerry recommends taking a road trip to Pete's Burger Place in Porter for a classic chili cheeseburger done right.

Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to it every Saturday at 11 am on SportsMap 94.1.

Killen's Restaurants director of operations Graham Laborde is this week's guest on "What's Eric Eating."

Courtesy photo

Killen's Restaurants director of operations Graham Laborde is this week's guest on "What's Eric Eating."

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a CultureMap Exclusive

Houston's 'Chinese takeout bar from the future' touches down in Webster

Courtesy of The Rice Box

A rendering previews The Rice Box's new location in Webster.

Houston’s Chinese takeout bar from the future is coming to the Bay Area. The sixth location of The Rice Box will open in Webster later this summer.

Located at 114 El Dorado Blvd, the new location will be called Rice Box Space Center after NASA’s headquarters at the nearby Johnson Space Center. Founder John Peterson tells CultureMap that it’s a bit of a homecoming for him and his wife/business partner, Jenny Vo, as they grew up in the area. As with every new location, the restaurant created a movie-style poster to announce its opening.

Rice Box Webster movie poster The Rice Box Space Center is expected to open later this summer.Courtesy of The Rice Box

For its first truly suburban location, Peterson plans to offer a more efficient pickup system for to-go orders. Dubbed The Rice Box Pickup Reactors, the system applies Rice Box’s sci-fi aesthetic to curbside ordering. As seen in the rendering above, the building will have six slots that drivers will pull into to get their orders.

“The goal is to have guests in and out with food in hand in around 90 seconds,” Peterson writes in an email. “It’s still pickup, but we’re trying to make that moment feel more intentional and more connected to the digital side of Rice Box instead of treating it like an afterthought. We’re looking at this opening as both a new store and a prototype for how Rice Box can work in more suburban markets without losing the part of the brand that makes it feel like us.”

Bay Area-area diners can expect the same menu as the Rice Box’s other locations. That includes staples such as General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, and orange peel beef. The restaurant also serves traditional Chinese-inspired fare such as Chongqing chicken, cumin beef, mapo tofu, and chow fun noodles.

Recently, Peterson rolled out a new version of Rice Box’s dumplings. Available in chicken, pork, or vegetable, each style of dumpling comes with a different wrapper that enhances the filling’s flavor. They’re also available either steamed or fried.

The Rice Box started as a food truck in the early 2010s. After moving to a permanent location in the Greenway Plaza food court, it has opened brick-and-mortar locations in the Heights, River Oaks, Rice Village, and Memorial.

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