Houston has a lot of restaurants, but none of them are quite like Blue Tuba. The restaurant, which is opening soon in the former Harold’s in the Heights space on 19th St., will bring a fresh perspective by blending European and Texan culinary traditions.
Photo by Eric Sandler
Texas and Europe come together at Blue Tuba.
Before diving in to the menu, a bit of background. Blue Tuba owners Vlado Kolenic and Giga Leszayova come to Houston via New York, where they operated an Italian restaurant called Bettola. Prior to entering the restaurant business, Kolenic worked for years as a musician and composer — that’s him playing bass on ‘80s classic “Somebody’s Watching Me” — who had a successful career in Europe as well as in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He became a professional chef when he met Leszayova, who worked as a manager at restaurants around New York.
After surviving the pandemic in New York, they decided to move to Texas. They quickly fell in love with Houston and saw an opportunity to open a new restaurant, but it took awhile to find the right space.
“Nobody gave us a chance. We lost three spaces, because they gave it to groups,” Kolenic tells CultureMap. “Except Alli [Jarrett, the owner of Harold’s], she took a chance on us. She’s fantastic. She really helped us.”
Jarrett explains that she appreciated the couple’s background it hospitality. “They’re delightful people. I think they really are the American dream,” she says.
Part of what appealed to Jarrett is the couple’s vision for the restaurant’s cuisine. Blue Tuba will pull from a range of European influences — “everything from Scandinavia to Greece,” Kolenic says — and blend it with Texas traditions. For example, the menu includes a number of tacos, but they’ll be filled with options such as escargot, smoked kielbasa sausage, schnitzel, and octopus and served on “Slovak tortillas” made with a mixture of wheat and potato flour. Similarly, Blue Tuba’s take on fajitas will be made with sausage and shrimp that are wrapped in a crispy potato pancake instead of a flour tortilla. For another entree, the chef plans to bring Spain and Texas together with his take on paella, which will take some inspiration from jambalaya.
“Texas paella, which is like a Spanish jambalaya, I’ll mix it with crawfish tails,” Kolenic says. “It’s like music. I improvise. In New York, we were always creating some different stuff.”
Other dishes will be more classically European, such as a Hungarian-style chicken paprikash and traditional schnitzel made with chicken or pork tenderloin. For the self-taught chef, the goal is to focus on flavors rather than what’s considered traditional.
“It’s food. It’s not rocket science,” he says. “You put love into it, it shows. My grandmother didn’t go to school, she cooked great. We just have fun.”
Jarrett agrees. She thinks Houstonians are ready for something new.
“I think Houston is saturated with restaurants, but I think what they’re doing is interesting. There’s no one doing that type of cuisine, taking European dishes and putting a Texas flair on them,” she says. “I think that coupled with their operating experience and hospitality, hopefully the neighborhood will support them.”
Commercial real estate broker David Littwitz, who represented the couple in their search for a space, thinks the Heights will also appreciate the couple’s upbeat attitude.
“The Heights has always struck me as a very wide ranging population,” Littwitz writes in an email. “They also seem to be a neighborhood that likes to ‘eat local.’ I believe the Heights will warmly embrace Vlado’s personality! Hopefully, they will also embrace his creative menu.”
When he’s not in the kitchen, Kolenic plans to perform in the dining room with other musicians. The couple aspire to be the kind of place where chefs and artists hang out. They hope to cultivate a strong group of regulars.
“In New York, we knew 70 percent of the people by their first name. That’s what I want here,” he says. Later, he adds, “When we came from Europe, we didn’t know anybody. It’s exciting. I’ve moved thirteen times in my life. To me, it’s no problem. I was born on Earth.”
Blue Tuba will initially open for dinner. Brunch, which will feature Leszayova’s classic Czech recipe for traditional kolaches, and lunch will follow once the restaurant is more established.
