Memorial City’s new Texas-inspired restaurant has set its opening date. Haywire will debut on May 20.
Courtesy of Haywire
Haywire serves food sourced from Texas farms and ranches.
Part of FB Society, the Dallas-based restaurant group behind Whiskey Cake and Sixty Vines, Haywire has transformed the former Vallone’s space at Gateway Memorial City into a massive, two-story, 20,000-square-foot restaurant and bar that includes both an outdoor patio and the Party Barn, a 2,000-square-foot event space that will seat up to 100 people. The Houston location joins Haywire’s other outposts in Dallas and Plano.
“It’s a Texas-inspired restaurant,” FB Society CEO Jack Gibbons tells CultureMap. “When you have family in town and you want to take them somewhere that gives them an experience of what Texas is like, you’d take them to Haywire. The design is inspired by the state itself. The food is inspired by it. The bars are inspired by it. It gives us a unique vibe and feel for the state we live in.”
When Gibbons says that Haywire’s food is Texas-inspired, he means that in a couple of ways. First, the menu includes statewide favorites like queso blanco, chicken fried steak, and blackened catfish. Second, the menu lists all the Texas farms, ranches, and fisherman who supply the restaurant with its produce and proteins.
Other items on the menu include salads, burgers, and steaks that range from a six-ounce filet to a 33-ounce tomahawk ribeye. At brunch, look for dishes such as pecan brown butter pancakes, short rib chilaquiles, and barbacoa grilled cheese.
The beverage program features a selection of Texas wines and Texas-distilled spirits. In total, the bar pours more than 400 wines and 200 spirits.
“A lot of people from California or people who are coming into our cities, they have different ideas [about Texas],” Gibbons says. “When they see we’re making a lot of our own local food or pouring drinks that were distilled in Texas, it creates an interesting experience.”
In terms of design, diners will encounter a bar near the entrance. Another bar upstairs looks over the spacious outdoor patio that includes fire pits. Multiple private rooms should appeal to Energy Corridor executives looking for places to host corporate dinners. Of course, work by Texas artists will be hung on the walls.
“We’ve leaning into everything local we can,” Gibbons says. “We think our art is better than other people’s art. And the artists are wicked cool guys.”
While FB Society is based in Dallas, it has found considerable success in Houston with both Whiskey Cake and Sixty Vines. It’s a city Gibbons knows well, too. He graduated from the University of Houston, worked for Pappas Restaurants for 25 years, and even met his wife in the Bayou City.
“I love Houston. Love the city. Love the food scene. I’ve always felt very connected to it,” he says. “I really can’t tell you how excited we are about this project. We think it will be beautiful. We think it will fit the community really well. Just looking forward to getting open.”
Haywire is one of several new restaurants opening in the Memorial area. Both Austin-based pizzeria Via 313 and luxury tavern Bar Bludorn have recently opened in the neighborhood. In the weeks and months to come, both a second location of Montrose barbecue favorite The Pit Room and Credence, a luxurious steakhouse from Goode Co. Restaurants president Levi Goode, will open near Haywire.
