calling all wine lovers

Southern Smoke reveals new fundraiser devoted to all things wine

Editor’s note: Long before Chris Shepherd became a James Beard Award-winning chef, he developed enough of a passion for wine to work at Brennan's of Houston as a sommelier. He maintains that interest to this day. In this week's column, he invites you to join him at an epic wine tasting and fundraiser. Take it away, Chris.

I can’t even stand it anymore. I have to tell you a secret that is two years in the making. First, I have a few questions for you. Do you like wine? Do you like a party? Do you like auctions? Do you like doing good for others? Do you like all of these things with a tax write off? I do too!

For the past two years, the team at the Southern Smoke Foundation and I have been researching and planning an event that is going to take this area by storm. Since 2015, we’ve hosted our Festival every fall, and we invite chefs from all over the country to come cook with us and raise money to help people in the food and beverage industry across the country. We provide financial assistance when crisis happens and also work to provide no-cost mental health care. The festival always happens in the fall but that really leaves out most winemakers, winery owners and most people in the wine industry because that is harvest time in most places in the Northern Hemisphere. We have worked diligently to come up with and research a new event that is fun, delicious and, in time, will be just as amazing as the Fall Festival.

The first Festival was fewer than 10 chefs and we raised $181,000. This past year (2023), we had nearly 70 chefs and raised more than $1.8 million! See how things can grow when people believe in the mission?

Here is where I would like to introduce you to our newest event — Southern Smoke Decanted. On April 20, more than 50 wineries will come together at The Eldorado Ballroom for one epic afternoon (yes, this is a daytime event!) presented by our friends at Lexus.

Photo by Mark Champion

The doors will open at 1 pm for the Grand Cru guests (VIP) and 1:30 for the Premier Cru guests. We’ll take over the entire first floor with all the wineries pouring for a walk-around tasting! Let’s talk some of the wineries: Dunn, Hirsch, Miner, Heitz, Robert Sinskey, Amalie Robert, Arcadian, Cobb, Dalla Valle, Jonata, Morlet, Matthiasson, Spottswoode, Duchman, Turley — I can keep going on and on with this list. It’s insane how many amazing wineries want to be a part of this and it’s just the first year!

At 3 pm, after we have tasted these amazing wines, we will go upstairs to the ballroom for a seated auction, where we have Moriah Spicer from Hart Davis Hart in Chicago rocking the house as our auctioneer. There will be amazing lots to bid on — both silent and live — from wine to amazing trips and experiences. It’s going to be high flying fun!

Will there be food? Who do you think we are? We will be dropping snacks from Shaun King (Uchiko), Yotam Dolev (Hamsa), Anita Jaisinghani (Pondicheri), Victoria Elizondo (Cochinita & Co), and Bobby Matos (State of Grace) along with pastries from Marie Riddle (Bludorn), Van Teamer (Pudgy’s Fine Cookies), and Bādolina Bakery & Café (owned by the folks at Hamsa), which is one hell of a line up.

This is all to support the important work that Southern Smoke is doing. We have granted nearly $11.5 million to F+B works in crisis nationwide, and we have been able to provide more than 4,000 no cost counseling sessions in five states (and more to come in 2024!). We are not going to stop anytime soon. We granted over $300,000 to F+B workers that were affected by fires in Maui, and there are still almost 500 people on the waitlist. We won’t forget about them like the newest news cycle — they are humans that cannot be forgotten! We’re granting one person from Hawaii each week as part of our weekly grant cycle, and all funds raised from Decanted and anything else will help us get through that list!

We are able to help folks because of events like Decanted. It’s important because restaurants are important, farmers are important, winegrowers and vineyard workers are important, people are important. I love you and I hope to see you there. If you are coming, bring something really cool to share with your tablemates and new friends. Let’s see the cool stuff you have been sitting on in your cellar!

The details:

Tickets on sale on February 27 at https://southernsmoke.org/southern-smoke-decanted/
1 pm early entry for Grand Cru tables and ticketholders plus priority choice on the winemaker to join your table and share their wines
1:30 pm entry for Premier Cru tables and ticketholders
We encourage BYOB for the live auction!

Prices:

Grand Cru table of 8: $8,000
Premier Cru table of 8: $4,000
Grand Cru individual ticket: $1,000
Premier Cru ticket: $500

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What items would you like to bid on at the auction? Tell Chris Shepherd via email at chris@chrisshepherd.is.

Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a nonprofit he founded with his wife Lindsey Brown, has distributed more than $11 million to hospitality workers in crisis through its Emergency Relief Fund. Catch his TV show, Eat Like a Local, every Saturday at 10 am on KPRC Channel 2.

news-you-can-eat fundraisers charity wine

Houston's smallest restaurant?

Michelin-recognized Houston sushi chef fires up 4-seat Japanese skewer spot

Courtesy of Sip & Skewer

Diners sit in front of chefs cooking on a grill.

The team behind one of Houston’s Michelin-recognized sushi restaurants is opening an intimate new izakaya. Sip & Skewer is the newest concept from Hidden Omakase owner Tuan Tran and chef Marcos Juarez.

Opening Friday, February 13, Sip & Skewer is a four-seat restaurant devoted to skewered meats that’s located within Sushi by Hidden, the group’s affordable omakase restaurant in Rice Village. At Sip & Skewer, diners sit across from the chefs as they cook a 10-course, $90 meal on a Japanese binchotan grill.

“Sip & Skewer is small, loud, and intentional. The kind of hidden experience you’d find in Tokyo,” Tran said. “And with Chef Marcos guiding the team at Sushi by Hidden, this space is getting new energy from every angle.”

A four-seat restaurant within a 10-seat restaurant might seem kind of superfluous, but Tran explains that it’s part of a larger plan for his group of restaurants, which also includes West U. hand roll restaurant Norigami. It also builds on the success of Hidden Omakase, the Galleria-area sushi counter that earned a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“Sip & Skewer is part of a larger vision. It’s designed as a stepping stone toward our next concept, Kōri, a new hand roll and craft cocktail bar opening in the Heights. Our plan is to open Sip & Skewer directly next to our hand roll spot, creating a small alley of Japanese concepts that feed into one another,” Tran explains.

“This allows us to build awareness, train our team in a new format, and introduce guests to Japanese charcoal grilling in a very personal way before we scale the idea into a larger setting with Kōri. The four-seat format keeps overhead extremely low while serving as a live test kitchen and brand builder for what’s coming next,” he adds.

On a related note, Juarez and the other chefs at Hidden Omakase are dividing their time between all three restaurants. Tuam explains that it’s a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent customer experience.

“The same team that works Michelin-recognized omakase service also runs the grill here, which keeps quality and execution consistent while allowing the chefs a creative outlet in a very different format,” Tran said. “Because Sip & Skewer is only four seats and reservations only, it does not require a dedicated full-time staff. It’s an extension of the team rather than a separate operation.”