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.
Courtesy of Austin Simmons/Tris
Chef Austin Simmons poses with the steak board he served Joe Rogan.
