don't bother knocking

New Southern-fried restaurant rocks the Galleria area with cranked-up classics, cool cocktails, and live music

The team behind The Warwick is bringing live music to the Richmond Strip. Rockhouse Southern Kitchen will open Monday, March 20, in the former Billy Blues/Diablo Loco space at 6025 Richmond Ave.

First announced last year, Rockhouse unites a group of partners with extensive experience in Houston’s hospitality industry. They include Prospect Park co-owner Rob Wright, Bar 5015 owner Steve Rogers, Slowpokers co-owner Mazen Baltagi, and local attorney Kurt Agomuo. Collectively, the group has operated everything from coffee shops to steakhouses and brings more than 20 years of experience to their new endeavor.

Just as The Warwick included elements of the building’s status as a former Houston’s into its menu and design, Rockhouse taps into its history with an outdoor stage that will regularly host live music. Nicki Dooms of NHI Design created an interior that features velvet booths and copper tabletops.

“We’re excited to re-open this historic location and show Houston what we did with it,” Wright said in a statement. “We’ve spent a lot of time reviving the design, focusing on elevating the atmosphere, and zeroing in on those little details that truly make all the difference.”

The menu starts with Southern classics such as fried chicken and fried catfish served with smoked collard greens and mac and cheese. Signature items include oxtail egg rolls, lobster sliders, and a Cajun ribeye topped with cream sauce. Pair them with an extensive cocktail menu inspired by classic Southern drinks.

“We want to go back to the roots of Southern culture, where music and good food are the celebration,” Wright said in a statement. “We have created an experience where our culinary farm to table offerings, hand-crafted cocktails, and nightly musical oblations will leave you coming back for more.”

Rockhouse opens at 4 pm Monday-Thursday and 11 am Friday-Sunday.

Rockhouse Southern Kitchen fried lobster tail

Photo by Raydon Creative

Try a fried lobster tail.

a martini experience

Posh Houston seafood spot stirs up 2 over-the-top $100 caviar martinis

Courtesy of Truluck's

Diners have the choice of either a gin or vodka martini.

A Houston seafood restaurant has added some extra luxury to its martini offerings. Truluck's Ocean's Finest Seafood & Crab, the Galleria-area restaurant known for its steak and crustaceans, recently added two different $100 martinis to its menu, as well as a significantly less expensive way to zhuzh up its cocktails with caviar-stuffed olives.

Dave Mattern, Truluck’s partner and beverage director, tells CultureMap that he wanted to build an experience around the trend of martinis garnished with caviar-stuffed olives that he’d seen on social media. He began tinkering with two cocktails, a vodka martini made with Belvedere 10 and a gin martini made with Nolet’s Reserve, which retails for around $700 a bottle.

“When someone orders a martini, we hand-stuff four olives with caviar, and then we put them in a cute, little porcelain bathtub. Then we wheel the cart to the table and stir a vodka martini. We have a bottle of Belvedere 10 that lights up. It makes for a really nice experience,” Mattern says.

Similarly, the gin martini is presented with blackberry, a lemon twist, and other garnishes that highlight the different botanicals used in distilling the spirit.

Truluck's martinis Each martini is served with four caviar-stuffed olives.Courtesy of Truluck's

Truluck’s goes all out for its hand-stuffed caviar olives, too. The restaurant uses extra-large Spanish olives that, in Mattern’s words, “soak up a lot of caviar.” So much that Truluck’s uses a full ounce of caviar for every six olives.

“You get a burst of caviar when you bite into the olive,” he says.

Each of the $100 martinis comes with four caviar-stuffed olives. Diners can add an olive or two at an à la carte price of $10 for one olive. “It’s almost a little appetizer when you think about it,” Mattern says about the four olives that come with each martini.

Currently, the offering is only available at Truluck’s location on Westheimer. Since Mattern is the company’s beverage director, he’s hearing from colleagues at other locations who want to add it to their menus.

“I’m trying to figure out how to take it to every location so we do it right and use the freshest of caviar,” he says. “When you waste caviar, an angel cries in heaven. We have to make sure we’re using it all.”

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