Southern Smoke 2023

Southern Smoke Festival fires up highly anticipated 2023 lineup for downtown showcase

Houston’s biggest, most star-studded food festival returns for 2023 with two new locations in the heart of downtown. The Southern Smoke Festival will take place October 13 and 14 with two events devoted to food, wine, and raising a lot of money for hospitality workers.

As always, the event is loaded with James Beard Award winners, top Texas chefs, and some of America’s most talented pitmasters. The event raises money for the Southern Smoke Foundation, the non-profit that Houston chef Chris Shepherd and his wife Lindsey Brown started to provide cash assistance to hospitality workers in crisis situations like medical emergencies, natural disasters, lost wages, and other unexpected events. To date, the foundation's Emergency Relief Fund has distributed more than $10 million to recipients nationwide.

The event aims to build on the success of last year’s three-day Southern Smoke Festival, the organization’s first in-person event since 2019. It raised a staggering $1,620,000.

This year’s events are:

Friday, October 13: Respect The Rosé wine dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel Houston
Saturday, October 14: The Throwdown at Discovery Green

Friday night’s wine dinner revives an event that had been a staple of Southern Smoke founder Chris Shepherd’s tenure at Underbelly, the pioneering Houston restaurant where he won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. Pitched as a 007/Monte Carlo-themed event, the event will raise money for Behind You, the Southern Smoke Foundation’s program that provides no-cost mental health counseling to food and beverage workers nationwide.

Its lineup includes James Beard Award winners Sarah Grueneberg (Monteverde, Chicago), Ryan Prewitt (Pêche, New Orleans), Jason Stanhope (FIG, Charleston), and Stephen Stryjewski (Cochon, New Orleans) as well as Memphis chefs Michael Hudman and Andy Ticer and acclaimed Houston pastry chef Rebecca Masson.

Tickets are priced at $500 for an individual ticket, $5,000 for a table of 10, and $7,500 for table of 10 with special wines. They go on sale June 7.

Saturday’s Throwdown will feature more than 40 chefs serving dishes made with live fire along with wine, beer, cocktails, and live music. Headliners include returning favorites such as James Beard Award winners Aaron Franklin (Franklin BBQ), Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco), and Ashley Christensen (Raleigh, NCr). Other notable chefs include Mason Hereford (Turkey & The Wolf, New Orleans), Cheetie Kumar (Ajja, Raleigh), and Top Chef fan favorite Claudette Zepeda.

New to this year’s event are Reem Assil (Reem’s California), Angel Barreto (Anju, Washington, D.C.), Ana Castro (Lengua Madre, New Orleans), Nina Compton (Compère Lapin, New Orleans), and Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel (Birdie’s, Austin). They’ll be joined by a number of top Houston chefs, including Bun B (Trill Burgers), Aaron Bludorn (Bludorn), Dawn Burrell (Late August), Patrick Feges and Erin Smith (Feges BBQ), Evelyn Garcia (Jūn), Benchawan Painter (Street to Kitchen), Chris Williams (Lucille’s), and more. Participating pitmasters include Leonard Botello IV (Truth Barbeque), Matt Horn (Horn Barbecue), Evan LeRoy (LeRoy and Lewis), Greg Gatlin (Gatlin’s BBQ), Pat Martin (Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint), and the three owners of Blood Bros. BBQ, pitmaster Quy Hoang and brothers Robin and Terry Wong.

Tickets are priced at $175 for general admission and $500 for VIP, which includes early admittance, a dedicated VIP area, and more.

The Southern Smoke Foundation team celebrates.

Photo by Emily Jaschke

The Southern Smoke Foundation team celebrates at last year's festival.

Lineup Announcement Southern Smoke fundraisers festivals

What's Eric Eating Episodes 518 and 519

Meet the men behind River Oaks' new destination for bowls and broth

Photo by Becca Wright

Find Honest Mary's in the River Oaks Shopping Center.

On this week’s episode of “What’s Eric Eating,” Honest Mary’s founder Nelson Monteith and COO Andrew Wiseheart joined CultureMap editor Eric Sandler to discuss the Austin-based restaurant that just opened its first Houston location in the River Oaks Shopping Center (2047-A West Gray St).

Monteith shares that he started the restaurant in 2017 in order to fulfill his vision of a restaurant which could serve food that’s fast, fresh, and affordable. A trained chef who operated pioneering Austin restaurant Contigo, Wiseheart joined the group to bring both culinary expertise and operational acumen to the grouping company.

Part of what sets Honest Mary’s apart is that diners can add cooked vegetables to the rice and proteins at the heart of every bowl. The “Market Sides” section includes an array of roasted vegetables — including sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, beets, and Brussels sprouts — as well as black beans, maple-glazed carrots, and green lentils. Bowls can be further enhanced with toppings such as Texas pecans, crispy chickpeas, goat cheese, avocado, and apples as well as sauces such as creamy poblano, cashew lime crema, sesame vinaigrette, spicy peanut, chimichurri and apple cider vinaigrette

Monteith explains that looking at the ingredients on display usually inspires him when he’s deciding what to eat at Honest Mary’s.

“I will almost always look at the line and see what looks fresh and good,” Monteith says. “Today, I got the salted kale with white rice. Then, I got garlic-pepper steak. I added on lentils — they’re my go-to in the winter. They blend everything together, and I love it Then Brussels sprouts looked green. I got some jalapenos. Avocados, cause that’s healthy. Then I got the chimichurri sauce.”

Honest Mary’s is also known for its hearty broths, a classic chicken and a vegetarian option made with seaweed and mushroom. Sandler raves about the chicken broth to Wiseheart, who shares how it’s made.

“We spent six or seven months testing recipes and drinking it ourselves to see if it’s a good idea,” Wiseheart says. “I talk about it as a great complement to the menu. It’s healthy. It’s really simple. Most of the kitchens I came up with were rooted in French cuisine. This is just chicken stock with salt in it.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about Honest Mary’s plans for additional locations in Houston and Dallas. Then Monteith asks a Sandler a few questions about the Houston dining scene.

In this week’s other episode, Sandler and co-host Mary Clarkson discuss the news of the week. Their topics include Home Slice Pizza opening a new location in the Heights; the closures of Brett’s BBQ Shop in Katy and Killen’s Barbecue in The Woodlands; and Esquire including ChòpnBlok on its list of America’s best new restaurants.

In the restaurant of the week segment, the two friends discuss their recent meal at Hypsi, the Italian restaurant in the newly-opened Hotel Daphne. Listen to the episode to hear their favorite dishes and other thoughts on the meal.

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Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hear it Sunday at 9 am on ESPN 97.5.

Photo by Becca Wright

Find Honest Mary's in the River Oaks Shopping Center.

news-you-can-eat podcasts interview