On the most recent episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” chef Shawn Gawle joined CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss Camaraderie, his new restaurant in the Heights. It’s the first solo project for the chef, who’s best known locally for his time as the executive pastry chef for Goodnight Hospitality (March, Rosie Cannonball, etc.).
The conversation begins with Gawle explaining how time spent working in his father’s Boston-area deli inspired him to pursue a career in cooking. Eventually, he worked at some of America’s most acclaimed restaurants, including three-star Michelin establishments such as L20 in Chicago (two stars) and two, three-star restaurants in San Francisco, Saison and Quince.
Lured by Goodnight Hospitality partner June Rodil to Houston, he worked alongside chef Felipe Riccio to develop the menus for Rosie Cannonball, March, and Montrose Cheese & Wine. After four years with the company, the time had come to make a switch from pastry to savory and open his first solo restaurant.
“I like cooking, whether it’s with sugar or salt, flour or pastries. Whatever the ingredient is, I like the technique and the cooking and getting my hands in it. And also sharing it with people,” Gawle says about being both a savory and pastry chef.
Camaraderie has an unusual format. In the main dining room, Gawle is serving a three-course, $75 prix-fixe menu that’s built around shared, mostly vegetable-based appetizers with a choice of four entrees and a couple of desserts. In the bar and lounge, the restaurant serves an a la carte menu of snacks and entrees. For Gawle, serving both bridges the gap between the tasting menu restaurants where he’s spent much of his career and the more casual restaurants he likes dining at when he’s not working.
“I’m trying to think of restaurants a little differently. How can I think of the restaurant where I can do similar quality and experience but with a price point that’s more approachable and the time spent in the restaurant, too,” he says.
“The food style, I don’t think guests want to dine for three-plus hours, of if they do, it’s once a year. I want people to come more often than that. We can give people a full experience in an hour or an hour-and-a-half and have that same Michelin-quality food but very approachable.”
Listen to the full interview to hear Gawle discuss creating the salt-baked celery root that earned a shout out from former Chronicle critic Alison Cook in her recently-launched newsletter. He also shares how Austin’s acclaimed restaurant Birdie’s inspired some of Camaraderie’s direction regarding wages and work-life balance.
In another recent episode, Sandler and co-host Mary Clarkson visited Chardon, the new French restaurant in the Thompson Hotel. They found a lot to like about chef E.J. Miller’s menu, including Dover sole served tableside, Miller’s creative uses for Texas wagyu beef, and a mostly French wine list overseen by sommelier Renato Bringas.
Salt-baked celeriac.
Salt-baked celeriac is an early favorite on the prix fixe menu.
