rumor no more
Prominent Midtown restaurant plans artful move to iconic Galleria-area eatery's shuttered space
A rendering previews the new Artisans on Westheimer.
One of Midtown’s most prominent restaurants will soon have a new home near the Galleria. Chef Jacques Fox has purchased the recently closed James Coney Island location on Westheimer to transform it into a new home for his French fine dining restaurant Artisans.
If all goes according to plan, Artisans will operate at its current location on Louisiana Street until early May. It will reopen in June in the new space.
Fox tells CultureMap he spent more than two years searching for the right property. The location’s proximity to the Galleria, its generous parking lot, and being near other popular fine dining restaurants like Pappas Bros. Steakhouse and Amalfi all made it the right decision.
“We’re excited . . . We’re taking a restaurant that’s an icon in Houston and turning it into a French restaurant,” Fox tells CultureMap. “It’s very iconic. If people don’t know where the restaurant is, we can say, it used to be Coney Island, but it’s going to look totally different.”
"Midtown is a beautiful restaurant but it has never quite performed relative to expectations," restaurant real estate expert David Littwitz adds. 'We are hoping that a new restaurant building located two doors over from Pappas Brothers and a block west of Capital Grille, Truluck’s. and Ruth’s Chris should draw the Tanglewood crowd as well as out of town business people from Galleria-area hotels."
Fox turned to global design firm Gensler to transform the space into the new Artisans. For the first time, the restaurant will have a patio. In addition, a 10-foot tall rooster (the restaurant’s logo), will greet diners as they enter.
Other details will address flaws with the current location, such as a verandah over the entrance to facilitate arrivals and departures during rainstorms. One element he’s keeping from the old location is the chef’s table that looks into the kitchen.
“The chef’s table is our baby,” Fox says. “Not many restaurants offer this type of show. When you come, you can see the chefs in action. You can see plate after plate after plate coming.”
Those plates reflect Fox’s almost 50 years of experience in the restaurant business. Born in North Africa and raised in France, the chef has worked at restaurants in Europe and America. After stints as executive chef at local institutions such as the Briar Club and the University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership, he opened Artisans in 2010. Joining Fox in the kitchen is Artisans executive chef Russell Kirkham, who has been with the restaurant since 2011. Together, they create cuisine that Fox describes as “French eclectic.”
“I’m using all the techniques I did in Paris in the late ‘70s and beginning of the 80s with a little bit more spice,” Fox says. “It’s French cooking, French technique, French sauces, with a little more spice.”
Over the years, the chef says he’s developed an appreciation for high quality American ingredients such as Colorado lamb, Hudson Valley foie gras, and Gulf Coast seafood. Diners will even find a few American cheeses on his menu.
“Domestic cheeses in America have incredible quality,” he says. “I’m using American products [with] French recipes.”
Artisans will make one major change to its offerings when it moves. For the first time, the restaurant will serve brunch. Fox hopes that parishioners at the nearby churches will stop by for eggs Benedict and “any other delectable that we’ll have.”
Regardless of who makes their way to Artisans, the time had come for a change.
“We’ve been paying rent for the last 11 years,” he says. “It was time for us to buy a piece of land and open a new restaurant.”
