all day, every day

River Oaks-area favorite restaurant goes casual with new all-day menu, weekend brunch, and laid-back vibe

Eloise Nichols has updated its interior.

Photo by Alex Montoya

A River Oaks-area restaurant is making changes designed to give it all day appeal. Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors has adopted a more casual format.

The changes, which will see the restaurant serve breakfast daily and the same menu for both lunch and dinner, solidify Eloise Nichols as a family-friendly, relatively affordable dining option for residents of places like Afton Oaks and Highland Village. While it remains full service, the shift brings it more in line with sister restaurant Adair Kitchen, the popular all-day cafe with locations in Tanglewood and West U.

Changes include removing the restaurant’s raw bar and dropping dishes like cast iron chicken and fish and chips. In their place, Eloise Nichols has more shareable items and a simplified cocktail menu that’s grounded in classics. The restaurant’s interior and patio have been refreshed, too.

“Our intention was to be a go-to neighborhood destination with a laid-back atmosphere, high-quality food and classic cocktails,” said Nick Adair, president and co-founder of Eloise Nichols’ owner Adair Concepts. “The enhanced interior and merged menus are a natural evolution to an all-day café, which is predicated on great meals and fun times with friends and family in a stylish and relaxed atmosphere. We want our customers to feel as comfortable as they would in their own living rooms any time of day and stay as long as they’d like.”

At breakfast, which is served until 11 am on weekdays, diners will find dishes such as avocado toast, salmon Hoppin’ John, breakfast tacos, and a biscuit breakfast sandwich. Things get a little more robust at weekend brunch with choices that include a biscuit benedict with pulled pork, chicken and waffles, horchata toast, a French toast riff with horchata custard, blueberries, cajeta, and maple syrup.

Turning to lunch and dinner, customers can start with items like split pea hummus, venison sausage, and the Not Jennifer Aniston’s Salad that’s made with farro, pistachio, chickpea, parsley, mint, cucumber, olive oil, feta, red onion, and lemon. Eloise Nichols’ chicken and dumplings use a family recipe, as does the Betsy’s favorite pasta that includes linguine, olive oil, sun dried tomato, and cheese.

Entree choices include sandwiches (cheeseburger, crispy chicken, turkey club, or fried fish) along with salads and bowls. In addition to pastas, look for grilled salmon, a bone-in pork chop, and two steaks.

Beverage options include wines by-the-glass, carafe, or bottle, draft beers, and classic cocktails such as a gin and tonic, margarita, and martini. Drawing on Adair Concepts’ experiences at both Adair Kitchen and Bebidas, diners will find a full coffee program and a cold-pressed juice.

Eloise Nichols opens for breakfast Monday-Friday at 7 am and for weekend brunch at 9 am. Happy hour, served daily from 3-6 pm, features a $5 burger, $7 glasses of wine, and other specials.

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the more things change

Houston's essential Jewish diner looks better than ever after refresh

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

It’s tricky to renovate a restaurant that’s as essential to its community as New York Deli. A staple of Houston’s Jewish community for almost 50 years, the tiny restaurant near Meyerland will serve as many as 400 people during a busy Sunday brunch.

Still, the time had come, as the tape on the deteriorating banquettes and peeling wallpaper illustrated. With the restaurant’s lease up for renewal, co-owner Michael Saghian saw an opportunity for some updates.

“I couldn’t be the new guy who ruined the place by moving it,” he tells CultureMap. “We worked out a deal with the landlord [to stay] and did a big refresh.”

The most noticeable change is the removal of the restaurant’s front door and vestibule. Instead, diners enter through the restaurant’s companion bagel shop. Separate entrances made sense when the bagel shop was certified kosher by local religious authorities, but now that designation only applies to the Bellaire location that opened in 2020. Not only is the new setup easier for people with mobility issues to navigate, it allows more light into the dining room, brightening the place considerably..

Saghian and co-owner Riana Sherman worked with interior designer Erin Hicks on the refresh. Tables, chairs, and banquettes are all new, but the color scheme remains the same. The process yielded 10 more seats, and the furniture is a little more durable, too.

“People have flipped chairs because they’re so lightweight,” Sherman says. “We got a sturdier chair.”

Behind the scenes, an expanded kitchen allows for the restaurant’s cooks to work faster and more efficiently. An additional egg cooker should cut down the amount of time people wait for their food to arrive.

“The kitchen had one of everything. Now we have two of everything. We can pump out a lot more food,” Saghian says.

Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers such as the “bagel girls,” a group of woman who’ve eaten breakfast at the restaurant since the ‘80s. A piece of old wallpaper has been framed and hung on the wall, too, as a nod to the space’s history.

New York Deli interior changes Photographs on the walls honor longtime customers.Photo by Sergio Trevino

Photo by Sergio Trevino

The dining room has more light than ever.

Saghian says he suffered from sleepless nights as he worried about people’s reactions to the changes, but so far his customers have been effusive.

“It still feels like an old school diner,” Saghian says. “It has pieces you remember. Even the new stuff is old school.”

While the physical environment is new, the staff remains the same. To ensure he kept the same team of cooks and servers, Saghian paid their wages for the two weeks the restaurant was closed for renovations.

Even more importantly, the prices are the same. That’s something that will make even the oldest regulars happy.

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