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    Joe Rogan's epic steak feast

    Joe Rogan devours 'one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life' at steak-obsessed Woodlands restaurant

    Eric Sandler
    Aug 9, 2023 | 12:42 pm

    Podcaster, comedian, and media personality Joe Rogan dined at Tris in The Woodlands ahead of last night’s Post Malone concert at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. He shared his thoughts on the meal with his 17.6 million Instagram followers:

    “One of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life at @triswoodlands, courtesy of @chefaustinsimmons. The steak was sensational. The oysters were sublime. The service was amazing. Can’t recommend it enough. If you’re in Houston, this place is the bomb diggity. Don’t miss out.”

    The post has gone viral, garnering over 290,000 likes as of Wednesday morning.

    Tris executive chef Austin Simmons tells CultureMap that Rogan came to the restaurant to try its signature Gyulais wagyu beef. Simmons has worked with rancher Larry Ludeke to develop the hybrid of Black Wagyu and French Charolais cattle. The chef explains that Rogan had studied up on the program.

    “He knew a whole lot more than I expected, Simmons says. “He’s such a carnivore who loves properly raised animals.”

    As seen in the photo above, Simmons served Rogan a steak board that contained Gyulais strip, ribeye, and filet alongside A5 wagyu beef from Japan’s Miyazaki prefecture, a prime beef rib from Double R Ranch, and a prime pork chop. Rogan’s meal started with oysters, bone marrow, and Tris’s signature Korean Butter Poached Crab. Simmons added a couple of desserts, since Rogan will celebrate his 56th birthday on Friday.

    “I made him the steak board because I wanted him to see the differences in Gyulais and A5 from Japan. What’s important to me about Gyulais is to showcase the beefiness. That’s why we crossbreed the animals,” Simmons explains.

    “I put our prime pork chop on there because it looks awesome. The pork chop is really good for what it is,” he adds.

    Simmons is proud of the Gyulais program, which he began developing before the Covid pandemic. Initially, only Tris served the beef, but now it can be found in a small group of restaurants across the state. The cows are raising in Angleton and harvested by the ranch’s butcher shop, giving Simmons and his partner complete control of the process.

    “Raising animals is not easy, but I believe we have one of if not the best wagyu program on the market. It’s not efficient, but we do it the way we do it for the guest,” he says. “For someone like him to appreciate and understand that, it made it all the more special to me regardless of anything else.”

    The chef acknowledges that he’s cooked for any number of prominent people throughout his career, but he rarely asks for a photo. Rogan’s enthusiasm for what he ate — he shared the Instagram post while he was still dining in one of the restaurant’s private rooms — impressed the chef.

    “I’ve cooked for a lot of awesome people. I typically never ask for a photo. My job is to serve them a great experience and let them a dining experience with whoever they’re dining with,” Simmons says. “But because he was so excited about it, when I dropped the board, I asked for a photo. He said absolutely and wanted one of his own.”

    Although it’s already busy due to participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks, Tris is already seeing an increase in reservations from the post. Expect to see a lot more steak boards coming out of the kitchen.

    Austin Simmons Joe Rogan
      

    Courtesy of Austin Simmons/Tris

    Chef Austin Simmons poses with the steak board he served Joe Rogan.

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    Immersive, speakeasy-style tiki bar brings the underworld to Montrose

    Eric Sandler
    Jun 24, 2025 | 6:00 am
    Endless Bummer tiki bar
    Photo by Sergio Trevino
    Houston artist Neon Thrash (Brian Dibala) created the bar's interior.

    This year has already been a good one for Houstonians who enjoy well made cocktails, as new bars such as Starduster Lounge, The Kid, and Augustine Lounge have given the city some intriguing new drinking dens. Other recent openings, ranging from Brennan’s refreshed bar to Latin American-inspired Botonica, demonstrate that the trend won’t be slowing down any time soon.

    Add veteran Houston restaurateur Chris Cusack to the list. Known as a co-founder of the late, lamented Heights restaurant Down House and for his intergalactic pizza and cocktail spot Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, Cusack is preparing to unleash a speakeasy-style, immersive tiki bar on Montrose.

    Called Endless Bummer, it’s currently in a quiet soft opening ahead of a grand opening on Wednesday. July 2. Cusack collaborated with Houston artist Brian Dibala (aka Neon Thrash) to transform a 700-square-foot room at Betelgeuse’s Montrose location into a 50-person space that’s equally inspired by tropical destinations and purgatory.

    “Our original thought was along the lines of, ‘How can we make this special?’ and ‘What unique experience can we create that will be unlike other places in Houston?” Cusack said in a statement. “I had known Brian a little bit from mutual friends, his work at Meow Wolf, and a design project we worked on several years before. I reached out and it was really an instant click where our ideas lined up and he really took it from there.”

    Fittingly for an experiential bar, patrons enter through an unmarked entrance that’s accessed by using a code they’ll receive when booking a reservation on Resy (limited walk-ins are also available). Once inside, people will sit at either one of the cozy booths or the 10-seat bar. Either way, they’ll be surrounded by vignettes and other artifacts curated by Dibala. Just like Meow Wolf, the room has a few easter eggs for those will to explore.

    “I was so lucky to get a chance to bring one of my dream bars to life, and even luckier to get to include several other Houston artists to really make it magical,” Diabala added. “Houston is having a big art moment and hopefully, with this project, we're able to show people what the artists in this city are capable of creating.”

    Just as the decor is anything but traditional, Endless Bummer puts its own spin on familiar tiki drinks and other classic cocktails. The drinks have a strong emphasis on presentation, as in the Pistachio Mai Tai, which is flamed tableside, or the Silver Surfer, which has a LED light dropped in that sparkles like a star (please don’t drink it). Other options include a Brown Butter Rum Old Fashioned and the This Sunset Should be Illegal, a mezcal-based riff on the Tequila Sunrise.

    Endless Bummer will be open from 5 pm-12 am Wednesday through Saturday. As noted above, reservations are recommended but not required.

    Endless Bummer tiki bar
      

    Photo by Sergio Trevino

    Houston artist Neon Thrash (Brian Dibala) created the bar's interior.

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