west u's new taqueria

Local Foods owner maximizes tacos at newly-opened modern Mexican restaurant in West U

The wait is over for the new Mexican-inspired restaurant from the owners of Local Foods. Maximo is now open daily for lunch and dinner.

Located in the former El Topo space at 6119 Edloe in West University Place, Maximo blends the best parts of El Topo with the expertise of Local Foods owners Dylan Murray and Benjy Levit and the company’s culinary director Seth Siegel-Gardner. The result is a family-friendly, counter service restaurant based around Mexican flavors, Texas ingredients, and tortillas made with nixtamalized heirloom corn.

“Every item on this menu was carefully selected to ensure all our ingredients are from nearby farms and producers that reflect the bounty of the Gulf Coast region,” Levit said in a statement. “From farm-fresh vegetables to locally sourced meats and cheeses, every ingredient embodies the ethos of local foods.”

Led by executive chef and former El Topo owner Tony Luhrman, the former restaurant’s signature barbacoa taco remains, but the rest of its lineup is new. They include two tempura-fried tacos made with a gluten-free batter — one, a fish taco topped with avocado-pea puree, lime crema, and more, and the other, a hen-of-the-woods mushrooms topped with corn nut chili crisp and pickled beech mushrooms. Other choices include smoked chicken with corn rajas and pepitas and a sweet potato taco with bagna cuada and shaved kale salad. Those looking for a touch of luxury with find a king crab taco dressed with edamame, asparagus, chive flowers, baja crema, cornichon, and nasturtium.

Starters include a selection of salads and shareables, including Caesar salad, watermelon salad with fresh cotija cheese, campechana, and chips with salsa, queso, or guacamole. Even the El Topo smash burger has been reworked to include a topping of onions, lettuce, and remoulade that’s partially inspired by the Edloe Street Deli and partially inspired by a Big Mac. For dessert, the restaurant will offer a rotating selection of soft serve ice cream with toppings as well as horchata rice krispie treats.

Maximo restaurant smash burger The burger features two beef patties, special sauce, lettice, onions, and cheese.Photo by Julie Soefer

Beverage options include housemade agua frescas and cocktails such as a frozen margarita, the Peacemaker (bourbon, mezcal, Montenegro), and the Red Dawn (rum, prickly pear).

All that eating and drinking takes place in a space that’s been completely redesigned by Brittany Vaughn of Garnish Design, who also created the signature looks for Levit’s Rice Village French restaurant Eau Tour and its adjacent wine bar Lees Den. Inspired by the setting of a desert oasis, the 35-seat dining room incorporates mid-century modern elements and features art from Houston’s Southern Kindness Gallery. The patio has been covered and reworked with booth-style seating and a fountain.

Photo by Julie Soefer

Maximo is now open for lunch and dinner daily.

Maximo restaurant patio The patio has been covered and now features a fountain.Photo by Julie Soefer

Prior to partnering with Levit and Murray, Luhrman operated El Topo first as a food truck and then as a restaurant. As he told CultureMap last year, the restaurant struggled financially despite praise that included making Texas Monthly’s best new restaurant list in 2021, multiple CultureMap Tastemaker Award nominations, and Luhrman twice winning the Golden Cleaver at the Butcher’s Ball food festival. He saw partnering with Murray and Levit as the way to focus on his strengths while gaining expertise in other aspects of restaurant operations.

“Ultimately, I love food. I love cooking. It’s one of the things I’m best at. I’ve been working really hard for almost two decades to make the best food possible. I had to step away from that to keep the business running,” Luhrman said last year prior to closing El Topo to convert it to Maximo. “Launching this restaurant is an opportunity for me to refocus on the food I really want to cook.”

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a CultureMap Exclusive

Houston's 'Chinese takeout bar from the future' touches down in Webster

Courtesy of The Rice Box

A rendering previews The Rice Box's new location in Webster.

Houston’s Chinese takeout bar from the future is coming to the Bay Area. The sixth location of The Rice Box will open in Webster later this summer.

Located at 114 El Dorado Blvd, the new location will be called Rice Box Space Center after NASA’s headquarters at the nearby Johnson Space Center. Founder John Peterson tells CultureMap that it’s a bit of a homecoming for him and his wife/business partner, Jenny Vo, as they grew up in the area. As with every new location, the restaurant created a movie-style poster to announce its opening.

Rice Box Webster movie poster The Rice Box Space Center is expected to open later this summer.Courtesy of The Rice Box

For its first truly suburban location, Peterson plans to offer a more efficient pickup system for to-go orders. Dubbed The Rice Box Pickup Reactors, the system applies Rice Box’s sci-fi aesthetic to curbside ordering. As seen in the rendering above, the building will have six slots that drivers will pull into to get their orders.

“The goal is to have guests in and out with food in hand in around 90 seconds,” Peterson writes in an email. “It’s still pickup, but we’re trying to make that moment feel more intentional and more connected to the digital side of Rice Box instead of treating it like an afterthought. We’re looking at this opening as both a new store and a prototype for how Rice Box can work in more suburban markets without losing the part of the brand that makes it feel like us.”

Bay Area-area diners can expect the same menu as the Rice Box’s other locations. That includes staples such as General Tso’s chicken, sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, and orange peel beef. The restaurant also serves traditional Chinese-inspired fare such as Chongqing chicken, cumin beef, mapo tofu, and chow fun noodles.

Recently, Peterson rolled out a new version of Rice Box’s dumplings. Available in chicken, pork, or vegetable, each style of dumpling comes with a different wrapper that enhances the filling’s flavor. They’re also available either steamed or fried.

The Rice Box started as a food truck in the early 2010s. After moving to a permanent location in the Greenway Plaza food court, it has opened brick-and-mortar locations in the Heights, River Oaks, Rice Village, and Memorial.

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