Benjy Levit is switching things up in Rice Village. The veteran restaurateur behind Local Foods will close his French restaurant Eau Tour and convert it to a new Italian restaurant named Milton’s.
Eau Tour will close after service this Sunday, June 2. After a series of renovations, Milton’s will open later this summer. While Milton’s is under construction, Lees Den, Levit’s Rice Village wine bar, will serve some of Eau Tour’s most popular dishes and serve as a testing ground for Milton’s.
Once Milton’s has opened, Lees Den will temporarily close for renovations that will both better integrate it with Milton’s and transition it from a lounge-style environment devoted to wine into a speakeasy-style cocktail bar with an actual bar where patrons may sit. Bartender Máté Hartai, a veteran of Tongue-cut Sparrow and Refuge (among others), has been hired as the beverage director who will create the cocktails for both Milton’s and Lees Den. Wine director Chrisanna Shewbart will oversee the lists for both Milton’s and Lees Den.
It may seem like an abrupt series of changes — Eau Tour has only been open since March 2023 — but Local Foods Group culinary director Seth Siegel-Gardner tells CultureMap the decision to convert Eau Tour into Milton’s reflects both customer demand and the group’s own creative impulses.
“When we were looking at our sales month to month, we kept noticing this trend of, I think the guests want us to be an Italian restaurant,” Siegel-Gardner says. “It’s a food that we love. When Benjy and I were speaking about plans for the rest of the year, it just started coming up. What if we created this and brought the two spaces closer together?”
Pastas will be at the heart of Milton’s menu. The restaurant, which will by led by chefs Kent Domas and Geoff Hundt, will extrude all of its own pastas and make all of its egg-based pastas by hand. Siegel-Gardner adds that the restaurant will source its eggs from Swift Hill Farms in Nacogdoches. “They’re some of the better eggs I’ve seen in a long time,” he says.
Fans of Siegel-Gardner’s work at Provisions will be cheered to know at least one of its signature pastas will reemerge at Milton’s. “I got the okay from Terrence [Gallivan, the chef’s former business partner] to put the cresta da gallo with the mushrooms on there,” he says.
In addition to making pastas for Milton’s, the program will allow Local Foods Market to sell pastas and sauces for both dine-in and to-go. Chefs at individual Local Foods locations will be able to work with Siegel-Gardner to develop specialty pastas dishes that they can run as specials.
The restaurant will also utilize a wood-burning Josper grill and oven to cook steaks and seafood. Italian-American classics like chicken parmesan and meatball subs are also possibilities. Diners might even see a pizza or two.
“It’s the food that I crave to eat, and food I love making as well think we noticed that trend with our team as well. We’ve got a really solid group of people who are all about that style of food. It seemed like an easy way for us to pivot,” Siegel-Gardner says.
“We love going out to eat. We love restaurants. We wanted to transform this into a place that more people could love and enjoy.”
Brittany Vaughan of Garnish Designs will create the new looks for both spaces. She’s been involved with Local Foods Group on a number of projects, including Eau Tour, newly opened Mexican concept Maximo Canteen, and the new Local Foods that opened near the Galleria.
The group has some urgency to complete its work quickly. Local Foods Group will begin operating at Rice University’s Brochstein Pavilion on September 1. Details on what it will serve are still being finalized, but Rice faculty, students, and staff should expect some combination of Local Foods sandwiches and salads with a pasta or two from Milton’s.
Photo by Carla Gomez
Chef Geoff Hundt shows off his grill skills.
