GJ Tavern shuttered

Prominent Houston restaurant group suddenly shutters intimate downtown tavern

GJ Tavern has closed.

Photo by Claudia Casbarian

A prominent Houston restaurant group has bid farewell to its downtown location. Underbelly Hospitality announced it has closed GJ Tavern effective immediately.

“Closing GJ Tavern was an incredibly difficult decision to make but we ultimately realized that operating a 40-seat restaurant in downtown Houston was financially unsustainable,” Underbelly Hospitality president Nina Quincy said in a statement. “We loved building the GJ Tavern brand and are hopeful that it will someday have a place within Underbelly Hospitality.”

An Instagram post announcing the closure offers a longer tribute to the restaurant’s staff and customers.

First opened in the summer of 2021 as Georgia James Tavern, the restaurant aimed to serve as an intimate establishment for Theater District patrons and an amenity for residents of the Market Square Tower high-rise. The company changed the restaurant’s name to GJ Tavern in the spring of 2022 to prevent consumer confusion with Georgia James, its luxurious steakhouse. To further differentiate the new GJ Tavern from the original Georgia James Tavern, then-Underbelly Hospitality founder Chris Shepherd recruited chef Tim Reading to lead the kitchen.

Bringing experiences from Boston chef Michael Schlow’s restaurants and Caracol, James Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega’s Galleria-area seafood restaurant, Reading refined GJ Tavern’s menu with classic dishes such as duck fat potatoes, hand-rolled cavatelli pasta, and a mushroom-Swiss burger. He earned a Rising Star Chef of the Year nomination in the 2023 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards for his work at GJ Tavern. Sadly, his time with the company has also come to an end.

GJ Tavern Tim Reading UBH laid off chef Tim Reading. Photo by Julie Soefer

“Tim is an excellent chef with an extraordinary talent. As it stands, we have no executive chef positions available within Underbelly Hospitality. For that reason, he has been laid off,” Quincy said in response to CultureMap’s request for comment. “We are very appreciative of Tim and wish him all the best.”

Despite today’s news, Underbelly Hospitality has been growing since Shepherd’s departure last year. It recruited star chef Scott Muns to serve as culinary director and recently opened Pastore, an Italian seafood restaurant that’s located next to Georgia James in the Autry Park mixed-use development. It will open Spring Branch locations of Underbelly Burger and Texas comfort food restaurant Wild Oats later this year.

closings downtown news-you-can-eat

we gotta go

Beard Award-winning Houston chef's new restaurant now open in Montrose

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

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Houston may be home to an ever-increasing number of James Beard Award-winning chefs, but a new restaurant from a JBA winner is still a special moment in the city’s culinary landscape.

Which means the city’s dining enthusiasts are undeniably excited to welcome House of Louie, the new project Justin Yu, winner of Best Chef: Southwest in 2016 for Oxheart, his groundbreaking, vegetable-focused tasting menu restaurant. He placed it with Theodore Rex, a modern American restaurant that holds a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide. Part of Thorough Fare, the company he co-owns with Anvil founder Bobby Heugel, House of Louie is the group’s first new restaurant since Squable opened in 2019 and first opening since Heights cocktail bar Donna’s debuted last year.

As Yu explained on a July episode of CultureMap’s “What’s Eric Eating” podcast, the decision to open House of Louie came about from the opportunity to buy the property at 1931 Fairview that had been home to the original location of healthy-eating concept Vibrant.

“The real estate came at the right time. The space is beautiful. We’re so lucky to be part of this neighborhood,” Yu explained.

As for the name, Yu is honoring a Chinese restaurant his aunts operated in Southern California for more than 30 years. The original House of Louie hosted many family celebrations, and it’s also the first restaurant he worked in as a dishwasher.

“It was one of those places where there was a little more to it than what you expected. That’s the restaurant I want to have here,” Yu said. Later, he added, “It’s how I fell in love with restaurants.”

Inspired primarily by French and Italian cuisine, meals at House of Louie begin with cold dishes such as the house salad with lettuce, cheese, charcuterie, and quail eggs; marinated plums; yellowtail crudo; or “Nervetti,” thinly-sliced beef tendon with onions that’s finished with sherry and vinegar.

“I think beef tendon is really accepted in Houston, especially because we have a strong pho culture. Tendon can be a little out there, but it has a beautiful melting texture,” Yu said.

From there, diners may choose from a selection of shareable small plates such as mushroom and peppers with spicy ratatouille, squash with king salmon, or one of three pastas, all of which are made in house. The pici pasta is a thin, handmade pasta that gets some crunch from crispy chicken skin.

Entrees lean classic, with items like red snapper with beurre blanc, grilled duck that gets a boost of umami from colatura (an Italian take on fish sauce), and a Texas wagyu couotte that’s served with a sauce of madeira and onions. The French dip from Yuston’s, Yu’s homage to celebrated American grill Houston’s, is also available.

“The type of place we want to be is — if you feel like you’re a little underdressed, it’s okay to come in and get amazing service and great food. And also spend hours ahead of time picking out your outfit and coming out for a date night or a friend’s night or a night out with the guys,” Yu said.

“It’s a place that’s going to have a sandwich and makes its own fries. We’re also going to have really aggressive dishes that swing for the fences and push the limits of creativity, even though its slightly rustic.”

Yu worked with Garnish Design (Milton’s, Tiny Champions), ObjektFab, and Ford Design Finishes to transform Vibrant into House of Louie. Overall, the room has a modern feel — almost like your cool uncle’s living room. The design speaks to the kind of atmosphere Yu is aiming to achieve.

“More than anything, I want people to connect with the restaurant. If we accidentally get a Michelin Star because we do all the things the right way, and cook excellent food, and take care of all the little details . . . I wouldn’t be mad. That’s our goal in the first place,” he said.

Joining the project are general manager Tyler Jay Wang (most recently of Donna’s) and executive chef Kirk Thompson, who worked for various Underbelly Hospitality concepts and served as the executive chef at Leo’s River Oaks when it won Best New Restaurant in the 2025 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards. Diners may also recognize bartenders Lainey Collum (most recently of Monkey’s Tail) and Máté Hartai (Lee’s, Refuge).

House of Louie is currently open for dinner daily beginning at 4:30 pm. Friday lunch and weekend brunch service will begin in the coming weeks.

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

House of Louie is now open in Montrose.