bringing it all back home

Houston's mad scientist chef resurrects his modern restaurant in Kemah

Houston chef David Skinner is switching things up at his Kemah complex. The chef, who earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for his Native American-inspired tasting menu concept Ishtia, is bringing back Eculent, his modernist tasting menu concept — sort of.

Instead of reviving Eculent’s original concept of a theatrical, 20-plus course tasting menu, a new name, Eculent Restaurant + Liquid Lab, points to its new iteration as a cocktail bar and restaurant with an inventive approach to drinks that are paired with tapas-style small plates, including some of the fan favorite bites. Before diving into the details, let’s clarify a few salient points.

First, when it opens on October 1, Eculent Restaurant + Liquid Lab will occupy the space that had been dedicated to Th Prsrv, the historical tasting menu restaurant Skinner opened in partnership with James Beard Award-winning chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter and her husband Graham Painter of Street to Kitchen. While Th Prsrv has served its final meal, Skinner emphasizes that his personal and professional relationship with the Painters remains strong and the trio will collaborate again in the future.

Second, when Skinner announced his plan to close Eculent and replace it with Ishtia, he said at the time that he was ready to move on after a successful 10-year run. Although Ishtia’s menu is grounded in Native American techniques, including some that Skinner adapted from his Choctaw grandmother's recipes, he continued to use modern elements such as sous vide to maximize the ingredients’ flavors. While Eculent lived on at large-scale private events, both the chef and his customers realized they missed the experience of dining there on a regular basis.

“I have a decade’s worth of customers who’d say ‘I miss the Caesar salad. I miss the BLT. I wish you’d bring it back,’” Skinner tells CultureMap. “I kind of missed making them.”

Specifically, he started making cocktails that were inspired by his visits to some of the world’s most innovative cocktail bars. They include familiar flavors like a blackberry mojito and rosemary gimlet as well as more avant garde offerings like the Floating Fire, which is served in a Tesla coil and paired with cotton candy.

The food menu starts with some of the small bites that had been part of Eculent’s experience, including the Caesar salad, the smoking mushroom soup, and the BLT. Skinner has also dreamed up some new creations like a duck in mole taco on a house made red corn tortilla and and a beef Wellington flatbread.

Diners who opt for the Taste of Eculent will receive 13 bite-sized dishes for $75. Skinner jokes that it could appeal to people taking GLP-1 medications that limit their appetites.

“The DNA of Eculent never went away,” Skinner says. “Sabbatical is the best way I can describe it. We’ve kept the science-driven whimsy, layered with inspiration from the world’s best bars. We have a much more interesting story to tell now. Story telling is more front and center with this version of Eculent. That comes from the experience with Ishtia.”

In addition to being a la carte rather than a tasting menu, Eculent 2.0 will also distinguish itself in the ordering experience. Skinner has created a website and app that allows diners to control every aspect of their meal — choosing not just what they order but when it will arrive. If someone isn’t interested in any of the cocktails on the menu, they can create their own custom concoction. If Skinner and Eculent’s staff like it enough, they’ll put the drink on the menu and name it after its creator.

“The app allows guests to create a completely bespoke experience. If you don’t like what we have on the menu, create your own. The goal is that we get a lot more regular guests,” he says.

“We may have an AI component where you can tell it [about your day and your tastes], and it will say, ‘here’s a cocktail we recommend or here are some bites we recommend,’” he adds.

Courtesy of Eculent

Eculent is reopening October 1.

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bring on the Bacalhau

Michelin-starred Houston restaurant heads to Portugal for new season

Photo by Zach Horst

No conversation about Houston’s best restaurants would be complete without mentioning March, Goodnight Hospitality’s Mediterranean-inspired, fine dining, tasting menu restaurant in Montrose.

For its 12th season, which begins this Friday, August 7, March will take a broad look at Portugal. Over the course of pre-dinner snacks in its lounge, seven courses in its dining room, and take away desserts, chef-partner Felipe Riccio and his team will guide diners through all aspects of Portuguese cuisine, including its trade routes with China, India, and North Africa.

Riccio tells CultureMap that Portugal was the logical follow up to March’s 11th season, which examined northern Spain. He began the research process a few months ago, drawing upon published literature, cookbooks, and his own experiences as a stage at a restaurant in Lisbon. More than a menu update, seasons at March also include changes to the beverage offerings and creating service touches that enhance the experience.

Photo by Zach Horst

Rabbit cozido.

“Portugal is so close geographically to the north of Spain, and there’s a lot of similarities,” he says. “The menu really explores a lot of places outside of the Mediterranean where the Portuguese had influence and were influenced by. It’s all these trade routes.”

Priced at $230 plus drinks, tax, and gratuity, a meal at March begins in the lounge with four snacks, including a peri peri-spiced duck rillette, a delicate tart with lobster and caviar, a tempura-fried fish (peixinhos da horta) and the Macau-inspired porcho balichao made with manilla clams.

As always, March brings premium ingredients to its take on classic dishes. For example, it sources Japanese Almaco Jack for a crudo that’s inspired by Portuguese salt cod (bacalahua). Cozido, a slow-cooked stew that’s a staple of Portuguese cooking, gets reinterpreted as a house made rabbit sauce with foie gras. Riccio acknowledges that diners expect a certain level of luxury at this price point, but diners may not always realize how valuable properly-sourced ingredients are.

“I don’t think it always has to be so overt. I think the majority of people, the experience as a whole delivers that value,” Riccio says.

Similarly, the Portugal menu continues March’s move to a set, seven-course menu instead of giving diners the choice of either six or nine courses. Riccio see that as another sign of the restaurant’s maturity.

“A tasting menu is restrictive. We needed to earn that trust and give people options. I felt like people trust us and we’ve proved we can create an experience,” he says.

Since part of the criteria for a Michelin star is consistency across visits, March’s ability to hold its star while still changing its menu twice a year is a testament to the kitchen’s skill. Add in the server’s deep knowledge of every dish on the menu, its comprehensive beverage offerings, and a dining room that features museum- quality art, and it’s reasonable to think that March might become Texas’ first restaurant to earn a two-star rating. For his part, Riccio would welcome the recognition.

“I think March as an entire experience, as a restaurant day-in and day-out, we can be at that level. We strive to give people that experience to where they have that menu and feel it’s well worth it,” he says. “That recognition. I’ve seen what it means for the team, for the guests, and for the validation of the experience, and, obviously, for my career and the restaurant as a business.”

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