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    Breakfast News

    Over-the-top breakfast restaurant serves up 2 Houston-area locations

    Teresa Gubbins
    Apr 10, 2024 | 10:15 am

    A new-to-Texas breakfast chain is coming to the Houston area: Called Hash Kitchen, it's an Arizona-based concept that will open locations later this year in Pearland (9300 West Broadway St.) and Webster, where it will join restaurants such as Shake Shack and Velvet Taco in the Shops at Baybrook development (1065 W Bay Area Blvd.).

    Hash Kitchen french toast
      

    Courtesy of Hash Kitchen

    Banana split brioche French toast.

    They're two of six new locations across three states the chain will be opening in the next two years, including two more in Texas: Fort Worth, opening in May, and San Antonio, opening in 2025.

    Founded in 2015 in Arizona, Hash Kitchen is known for its over-the-top brunch experience, including a build-your-own Bloody Mary Bar, resulting in those excessive bloody Marys precariously stacked with various foodstuffs.

    Other signatures include their disco-ball decor theme, plus DJs spinning on site. Plus:

    • hash available in eight options: with brisket, pork chop, carnitas, ham, birria, a "stack" hash with eggs & chorizo-mashed potatoes on tortillas, and a "hangover" hash with braised beef, jalapeño cornbread & potato hash, poached eggs & onion rings
    • doughnuts, in decadent and unusual flavors such as cannoli

    The menu features playful cocktails and dishes such as fried chicken & waffle, birria bao buns, pineapple upside down pancakes, souffle pancakes, benedicts, breakfast potato tacos with eggs & avocado, frittatas, oatmeal, and an "Ah-sigh-ee" bowl, so thoughtful to have the pronunciation of acai spelled out.

    There's also a Nashville hot chicken sandwich and a burger served on a croissant.

    Hash Kitchen is part of The Maggiore Group, a restaurant company from husband-and-wife Joey and Cristina Maggiore, who've also created concepts such as The Sicilian Butcher, The Sicilian Baker, and The Mexicano. In 2021, they partnered with Utah-based Savory Fund, which owns Swig, Via 313, Pincho, and Mo’ Bettahs, to expand the brand into neighboring states.

    They currently have seven locations: six in Arizona, and one in Utah which they opened in 2023. Their plans also include opening two Texas locations of The Sicilian Butcher in Dallas and San Antonio.

    Savory Fund co-founder Andrew K. Smith calls Hash Kitchen a "one-of-a-kind dining experience."

    “We were born to be in Texas. Everything’s bigger in Texas, and everything’s bigger at Hash Kitchen and The Sicilian Butcher!” Joey Maggiore added “From the world’s biggest Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar to 5-foot charcuterie boards, our dishes bring the flavor, the party, and the wow factor.”

    Maggiore comes from a restaurant background: His father was Tomaso Maggiore, founder of Tomaso’s Italian Restaurant in Arizona. Since Hash Kitchen debuted, Joey and Cristina have conceptualized The Sicilian Butcher, The Sicilian Baker, The Mexicano — which has experiential food like a 3-foot quesadilla — and their most recent creation, a fine-dining Italian concept called The Rosticceria.

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    he finished the job

    Houston chef Tristen Epps dishes on his Top Chef victory — and what's next

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 13, 2025 | 9:05 am
    Top Chef Tristen Epps
    Photo by David Moir/Bravo
    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

    Houston has played a leading role in America’s culinary scene, but the city has never been home to a Top Chef winner — until last night. In the final episode of season 22, chef Tristen Epps earned the title and a $250,000 cash prize.

    Epps secured his victory by remaining true to the Afro-Caribbean cuisine that helped him secured an impressive four Elimination Challenge wins and $35,000 in additional prize money from two Quickfire wins and as a member of the team that won the show’s signature Restaurant Wars challenge. His four-course menu took a panel of celebrity judges on a journey that also referenced the finale location of Milan, Italy.

    In particular, Epps wowed the panel with his second course — Chicken “Durango” with injera shrimp toast and shellfish jus — that referenced both the Ethiopian chicken stew doro wat and the Italian dish pollo durango, a sly nod to the history of imperialism between the two countries. He finished his savory offerings with Oxtail Milanese Crepinette with Carolina Gold rice grits, curry butter, and bone marrow gremolata, which earned praised from the panel.

    “Historically, we’ve been underserved oxtail,” Top Chef alum and James Beard Award winner Gregory Gourdet said during the episode. “Tristen took the time to pull it, create that beautiful, huge, maybe too big, portion of oxtail. And cover it with that gremolata. He did not forget the bone marrow. That’s very, very smart.”

    Throughout Top Chef’s run, Epps has been holding a series of pop-ups devoted to everything from hot dogs to steakhouses. Now, he can turn his attention to Buboy, a tasting menu concept that will celebrate the Afro-Caribbean cuisine he championed throughout his time on the show.

    CultureMap caught up with Epps on Friday morning for a brief chat about his victory and what’s next.

    CultureMap: What do you remember from the day you cooked that final dinner?
    Tristen Epps: It was an extreme amount of focus. A lot of writing in my notebook. I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t want to cry or do anything except finish the job, regardless of whatever the outcome would have been. I remember wanting to call my mom. I really wanted to talk things out so I could calm myself down and stay within my focus. Once I got into cooking, I felt so much at ease. It’s my happy place. It’s my serenity.

    CM: How did you feel when you saw Gregory Gourdet on the panel? Did you feel like you had an advocate in the room?
    TE: I’ve cooked with gregory before, a long time ago. It was really fun. I loved what he was doing.

    I felt like I had kind of an advocate. I was worried my food wold be too spicy or too overpowering [for the European chefs]. Seeing Gregory was really good, especially with what I was doing.

    CM: Other chefs, including Gregory Gourdet and Houston chef Dawn Burrell, have done well on the show with Afro-Caribbean cuisine but they didn’t win. How important was it to you to finish the job and use those flavors to win the title?
    TE: To me that was super important. There’s adventurous people who make phenomenal food. They’ll go once because it’s interesting, bu they’re usually skeptical. When you don’t nail it, they say, that’s why I go to the regular places that are familiar.

    Finishing the job was really important to me. People have come up short on this. I wanted to get this right for everyone who’s made that step forward and created the ladder.

    CM: What have your last 12 hours been like since the episode aired? Have any celebrities reached out to you?
    TE: A lot of calls, a lot of good luck. A lot of everything. It’s been amazing.

    A lot of past Top Chef winners reached out to me, giving me a lot of support and telling me what they did after they won.

    [ESPN football commentator] Mina Kimes did, which was really cool.

    CM: What are your plans for the prize money?
    TE: It’s going to go to Buboy. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, it can go a little faster.

    CM: You’ve been holding a series of pop-ups that range from tasting menus to hot dogs? What’s next?
    TE: Part of getting the restaurant open has been introducing myself to all of Houston. These pop-ups represent my interests and my fun. They’re the things that Buboy is going to represent. It can be fun, it can be a conversation, it can be educational, it can push the limits of cuisines we know. It’s an expression of culture in whatever way I see fit that day.

    The hot dog concept will probably be a separate venture, but who’s to say there’s not a hot dog at the end of that meal?

    Top Chef Tristen Epps
      

    Photo by David Moir/Bravo

    Kristen Kish, Tristen Epps, Gail Simmons, and Tom Colicchio.

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