White plates?

Food fight: Critic Alison Cook banned from highly anticipated new restaurant

Liberty Kitchen ground rules... no smoking and no Alison Cook.
Photo via Liberty Kitchen/Facebook
Liberty Kitchen marks the newest venture for owners Lance Fegen and Lee Ellis,whose BRC Gastropub and Petite Sweets have enjoyed considerable local foodiebuzz.
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Allison Hiromi was kicked out of Down House, by the way, not Alison Cook.
Down House/Facebook, Allison Matsu/Facebook
Alison Cook?

Walking up to Liberty Kitchen and Oyster Bar, customers are greeted with two stern warnings — no smoking and no Alison Cook.

The highly-anticipated Heights restaurant marks the newest venture for owners Lance Fegen and Lee Ellis, whose BRC Gastropub and Petite Sweets have enjoyed considerable buzz in the local foodie community.

Open only a week, Liberty Kitchen has yet to be reviewed by the noted Houston Chronicle food critic.

On Friday, Cook discussed the ban with a mixture of confusion and pride, suspecting her lukewarm review of BRC in 2010 may have sparked the preemptive un-invitation. The "Warning: We use white plates" on the sign banning Cook further alludes to her review that suggested BRC serve its pimento cheese dip in ramekins rather than on white plates.

"I'm a little nonplussed that Fegen seems to think I have it in for him," Cook wrote on her blog, noting that while she criticized BRC, she did praise its burger in her Burger Friday post. She also wrote a positive review for Fegen’s popular Glass Wall in 2006.

The critic received a barrage of online commentary, ranging from supportive to nasty.

"I've got to admit I'm amused to see my name on a restaurant door with a red slash through it," Cook wrote on her blog. "I mean, I was once hung in effigy at a restaurant banquet, and I felt strangely honored."

One post mistook Cook for Allie Matsu (aka Allison Hiromi), whose late night tweets brought scandal to Down House this summer. The commenter admitted the mistake only to mention a 2010 incident in which the critic was asked to leave Jonathan's The Rub.

Allison Hiromi declined to comment on the confusion with a Twitter post: "Thx CultureMap journalist, but I don't really want to make a statement or answer Qs regarding why @alisoncook or I got banned from a place."

CultureMap spoke with Ellis, who confirmed the No Alison Cook sign, but said he was unable to give further details at this time. He promised to get back with us soon.

Efforts to contact Cook, who in a long career has written for Texas Monthly, the Houston Press, Esquire, the New York Times Sunday magazine, Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, House & Garden and Vogue, were unsuccessful. But she appears to be taking the sign and comments in stride.

"I've got to admit I'm amused to see my name on a restaurant door with a red slash through it," she wrote on her blog. "I mean, I was once hung in effigy at a restaurant banquet, and I felt strangely honored."

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a major award

Houston sushi spot's Dubai outpost named to prestigious 50 best list

Courtesy of Duckstache Hospitality

Kokoro's original Dubai location received the award.

The Dubai location of a Houston-based Japanese restaurant has been named one of the best restaurants in the Middle East. Kokoro ranks No. 15 on the Middle East & North Africa’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

Presented by the same organization as the prestigious World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, Kokoro earned recognition for its location in Al Quoz, Dubai, one of three locations in the city. Considered to be the city’s first handroll bar (according to press materials), the list’s authors praise the restaurant’s whimsical design and the signature temaki that Houstonians know well.

“Pristine nori-wrapped parcels packed with crunchy, creamy and zesty elements — Kokoro's hand rolls are the highlight of the menu,” the entry reads in part. “Made to order with the likes of Japanese yellowtail, salmon, Hokkaido scallop and marbled A5 wagyu beef, each cone-shaped offering combines the freshest of ingredients with masterfully prepared rice to create a handheld package that's big on precision, but small on pretence.”

Chefs Daniel Lee and Patrick Pham opened the original Kokoro in Houston’s Bravery Chef Hall in 2019. Since then, the duo’s Duckstache Hospitality has expanded with three locations of handroll concept Handies Douzo, Garden Oaks sushi restaurant Himari, Kokoro Handroll Bar in The Woodlands, Doko and Bar Doko in Autry Park, and Aiko, their Washington Avenue restaurant that won Best New Restaurant in the 2023 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

In Dubai, the company partnered with FYTE Hospitality. Like its Houston locations, the Dubai restaurants are adorned with Duckstache’s signature “duckies” — a whimsical element that bridges the more than 8,000 miles that separates the two cities.

“Dubai’s food scene is one of the most diverse in the world. The culinary landscape of this city is always evolving, and we saw an opportunity to bring something new to the market while staying true to what we’ve built in Houston,” Lee said in a statement. “Kokoro is all about quality, precision, and that made-to-order experience and now we get to share that with Dubai while still giving Houstonians something familiar to smile about when they walk in.”

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