local eats at HOU

Hobby Airport takes off with 10 new favorite Houston restaurants, from farm-to-table to 'fat' ice cream

Dish Society is coming to Hobby.

Photo by Kimberly Park

Visitors to Hobby Airport will soon be able to get a true taste of Houston during their layovers. This week, Houston City Council approved a new, 10-year contract that will bring 10 new restaurants to the airport.

LaTrelle’s Galley, LP., a division of Houston-based LaTrelle’s Management, has partnered with local restaurants, including:

Dish Society, a casual, farm to table restaurant
Common Bond, the bakery and cafe known for its pastries and sandwiches
The Rustic, the Texas comfort food bar and restaurant that counts musician Pat Green as an owner
Velvet Taco, the Dallas-based restaurant known for its creative combinations
Pinks Pizza, a Houston pizzeria with seven locations
Fat Cat Creamery, the retro-inspired ice cream shop that uses Texas eggs, dairy, and produce

National brands coming to the airport consist of Peet’s Coffee, Jersey Mike’s, Wendy’s, and Dunkin’.

Each restaurant in the 17,000-square-foot space will have branding and signage consistent with its other locations. For example, The Rustic will have a stage for live music performances. Overall, the renovations are expected to take approximately two years to complete. Food service will not be disrupted by the construction.

Hobby Airport pinks pizza rendering Each brand will feature distinctive signage. Courtesy of Houston Airports

LaTrelle’s Management started its airport business in 1985 with a bakery at Hobby. Now, it operates more than 30 restaurants in airports across the country, according to a release.

“We are bringing ourselves to this project, and we are Houston,” LaTrelle’s operations director Cameron James said in a statement. “We put together a proposal that aims to do right by our restaurant operators and the airport alike — everyone wins. When a local, family-owned and operated business like us is given the opportunity to spearhead a venture like this, it also sends an important message to other entrepreneurs: This is something that can happen in this city.”

The new restaurants should help Hobby Airport maintain its prestigious reputation. Last year, it became the first airport in North America — and one of only 16 in the world — to receive a prestigious 5-star rating from the Skytrax World Airport Star Rating.

“As the first and only 5-Star airport in North America, it’s imperative that Hobby Airport continues to elevate the passenger experience through unique, diverse, and delightful culinary options,” Houston Airports COO Jim Szczesniak stated. “Because LaTrelle’s is rooted in Houston, I am confident that the variety of local, regional and national concepts will raise the bar on our world-class customer experience while ensuring all of our guests experience the ‘‘Houston friendly’ hospitality that comes with Hobby Airport being a five-star global service gateway.”

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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