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    Grand Opening Wednesday

    First look (with video): H-E-B Montrose Market is a food lover's delight

    Joel Luks
    Clifford Pugh
    Nov 15, 2011 | 8:51 pm
    First look (with video): H-E-B Montrose Market is a food lover's delight
    play icon

    When showing off the new H-E-B Montrose Market prior to its Wednesday grand opening, Scott McClelland looked like a kid who just gotten all of his favorite toys for Christmas.

    The H-E-B Houston Division president just couldn't stop pointing out the many features of the flagship store he has been working on for much of the past two years. During a sneak peek of the supermarket located at West Alabama and Dunlavy Tuesday afternoon, McClelland proudly pointed out the Fresh Cut Fruit bar with 21 different freshly squeezed juices, the sushi bar featuring 20 individually-wrapped types of raw fish so shoppers can mix and match selections, the demonstration kitchen where chefs whip up recipes that can be made at home, the cheese shop with 500 different varieties, and the meat shop showcasing Kobe beef and other prime cuts.

    The new H-E-B Montrose Market is like a Central Market with toilet paper and Tide because it offers everyday staples along with the more exotic items.

    He singled out a hundred brands of barbecue sauce that stretched for 20 feet along one aisle and 32 choices of hummus in the refrigerated section. "Trader Joe's has only 22," he says about the potential competitor that is rumored to be opening down the street.

    McClelland is so proud of his new store that he even showed a reporter the warehouse area in the back that is usually off limits to the public and insisted that a visit to the restroom facilities was in order to see the windows that allow lots of natural light to flow in.

    "Is this not the best H-E-B store you've ever seen in your life?" he asked two employees from corporate headquarters in San Antonio who were in Houston to help the hundreds of workers get ready for the opening.

    Though not offering as many different varieties of olives, cheeses and other goodies as the chain's top-of-the-line Central Market, the new store comes close. I think of it as Central Market with toilet paper and Tide because it offers everyday staples along with the more exotic items.

    In 26 years at the supermarket chain, Bill Triplett, vice president of design and construction, has been involved with the construction of more than 200 H-E-B markets across Texas. But this store "clearly has a uniqueness about it," he says.

    As previously reported on CultureMap, H-E-B officials solicited neighborhood input on the store and held a vote where area residents picked the design from three choices by Lake/Flato architects. The winning choice features a low-slung building with lots of glass and wood features.

    The exterior includes an outdoor area with tables and seating for 160 and a stage where area entertainers will perform. A number of large trees were saved on the seven-acre property (power lines were rerouted around a Magnolia tree after one man asked H-E-B officials to make a special effort to keep it because he had proposed to his wife under the tree). Some of the felled trees were made into wooden benches.

    The parking lot also includes an area for bicycles, with an air pump and tools to repair a tire, a charging station for electric automobiles and a food truck dubbed "Fork in the Road."

    "It has been challenging to integrate (the store) into an urban neighborhood, but I think we've done a great job," Triplett says. "It's something the neighborhood can be proud of as well."

    Just about everything will be in place for Wednesday's grand opening except wine and beer because the store is still waiting for its TABC license.

    For a sneak preview of the new H-E-B Montrose Market, click on the video above.

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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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