new heights tex-mex

Goode Co. announces opening date for highly anticipated new Heights Tex-Mex restaurant

The wait is almost over for Goode Company’s debut in the Heights. Kitchen & Cantina, the company’s Tex-Mex restaurant, will open for dinner on Tuesday, November 8 with lunch to follow on November 10.

For Goode Company Restaurants president and chef Levi Goode, the time is right to be in the Heights.

“I really enjoy all that the Heights has offered in the past and where it’s going,” Goode tells CultureMap. “Being that we’ve been in the community for as long as we have, just seemed like a natural fit to have Kitchen and Cantina here.”

Goode Co. first announced its plans to occupy the former Down House space at 1801 Yale St. last summer. Since then, the building has undergone extensive renovations to match the look of Kitchen & Cantina’s existing locations in Memorial and The Woodlands.

The biggest change is relocating the bar closer to the entrance, which more clearly divides the restaurant into a bar-forward “cantina” and the dining “kitchen.” In addition, the patio has been renovated and is now covered, giving it all weather utility. Diners won’t see the full kitchen renovation that allows for grilling over mesquite wood, but they will appreciate the flavor it adds to many of the restaurant’s dishes.

First opened in The Woodlands in 2017, Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina serves Tex-Mex fare such as fajitas and enchiladas alongside Goode Co. classics like seafood campechana and grilled redfish on the half shell. The menu also nods to the Goode family's South Texas roots with dishes such as pork and green chile empanadas and grilled Texas quail.

“As far as what we have on the menu, a lot of it goes back to our time in the restaurant business and our border experiences. We used to have a hunting lease across the border. Going down there over the holiday season to hunt in Mexico was a memorable time for me,” Goode says.

“All those great memories inspired the food we do. We go to great lengths to make sure we’re putting our best foot forward on the hand crated nature of our food from rolling tortillas to fresh masa for our tamales. It’s been a labor of love. It’s something we’re really looking forward to sharing with the Heights.”

The cantina aspect isn’t limited to decor. Expect a range of mostly agave-based cocktails that includes eight shaken margaritas, frozen margaritas, palomas, and tequila-based takes on drinks like the Moscow Mule and Old Fashioned.

“Agave spirits [are some] of my favorites. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Mexico and developed an appreciation for the craft,” Goode says. “What’s available is really fantastic. It says a lot about the culture that it goes so well with this type of food.”

As noted above, the restaurant will be open daily for lunch and dinner beginning November 10. In a nod to the neighborhood, it will stay open late on Friday and Saturday nights to feed people looking for a bite after concerts at the nearby Heights Theater.

The past few months have been a busy time for Goode Co. Earlier this year, it opened Fish Camp, a new seafood restaurant in The Woodlands. More recently, it reopened the Cypress location of Goode Co. Barbeque.

Photo by Jody Horton

Goode Co is bringing its fajitas to the Heights.

openings the-heights news-you-can-eat

Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

crime interview