down the street

Beard Award-winning East End Thai restaurant makes big move to rising Second Ward development

Houston’s newest James Beard Award winner will soon have a bigger, better space to share her “unapologetically Thai” cuisine with the world. Street to Kitchen will relocate from its current home in an East End gas station to The Plant, a development in the Second Ward.

The acclaimed Thai restaurant is moving two miles west on Harrisburg Boulevard to the former home of Louie’s Italian American. Expected to open in November, the move will allow Street to Kitchen to seat approximately 100 guests — roughly triple its current capacity.

Street to Kitchen will operate at its current location until the new one is ready to open.

When Louie’s Italian American closed in April, chef Angelo Emiliani announced he planed to open Angie’s Pizza in the space. Instead, he’s claiming the space currently occupied by casual bar How to Survive on Land and Sea for a new concept called Neighbors Pizza Bar.

Opened in 2020 by chef Benchawan Painter (known as “Chef G” to friends and fans) and her husband Graham, Street to Kitchen serves a menu of traditional Thai dishes made with locally sourced ingredients. The restaurant has earned wide acclaim, including Best Chef: Texas in the 2023 James Beard Awards and Restaurant of the Year in the 2022 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

“As a big fan of my adopted home, the great city of Houston, and with humble gratitude for the recognition from the James Beard Foundation as ‘Best Chef: Texas, I am thrilled to be able to expand Street to Kitchen, so that we can not only serve more Houstonians, but bring our unapologetically Thai food and our philosophy of fun to the HTX food scene,” chef G said in a statement.

In addition to serving more customers, moving to a larger location will allow Street to Kitchen to expand its beverage program. Plans call for the installation of an outdoor patio and for the space’s walk-up window to serve the Thai omelet that’s currently only available at the Urban Harvest farmers market.

As for Neighbors Pizza Bar, it will serve 18-inch, New York-style pizzas as slices and whole pies. Currently, it’s open Thursday through Monday for lunch and dinner with plans to expand to daily service. Taking over How to Survive brings Emiliani full circle. He first introduced himself to Houstonians by making wood-fired pizzas at the then-wine bar.

“Street to Kitchen and Neighbors Pizza Bar celebrate authenticity in how they approach their respective crafts and truly embody the types of creatives we’re looking to attract to The Plant in Second Ward,” said Jeff Kaplan, managing principal of Concept Neighborhood, the project’s developer. “Graham, Benchawan, and Angelo are young but already storied hospitality leaders who are highly respected in Houston. Their decision to operate in The Plant in Second Ward will accelerate the vibrancy and achieve our goal of creating Houston’s first inclusive, walkable corridor.”

James Beard Award Benchawan Jabthong Painter Street to Kitchen

Chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter won Best Chef: Texas.

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that's a lot of pizza

Houston pizza maestro retools his wildly successful new Heights restaurant after overwhelming response

Photo by Eric Sandler

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Pizza-loving Houstonians have accomplished something that once seemed impossible. They’ve left chef Anthony Calleo speechless — sort of.

The first week of service at Gold Tooth Tony’s, Calleo’s new Detroit-style pizzeria in the Heights, has so vastly exceeded his expectations that he’s had to rethink his plans for operating the restaurant. Even with limited hours of 4-10 pm, it’s been selling out of pizza. As a reminder, Calleo has sold Houstonians a lot of pizza between the Pi Pizza food truck, the Pi Pizza restaurant, and in his current role as executive chef and co-owner of Montrose favorite Rudyard’s.

“I’ve done this before. I’ve sold a bunch of pizza. We know how to do that. The fact that we’re running out of food, we didn't really expect,” Calleo tells CultureMap. “What we thought we’d do in a 14-hour day after a couple months of practice is what we’re doing in a three-and-a-half hour day.”

He adds that on Sunday Gold Tooth Tony’s sold more pizza in a single hour than in any hour he can remember from the Pi days. That’s a lot of pizza for a restaurant that occupies a 1,000-square-foot former doughnut shop.

Having survived a hectic weekend, Calleo closed on Monday and Tuesday to give its cooks a well-deserved break. The restaurant reopened for dinner today (Wednesday, September 20) with dough that he and chef Adam Bitner made for the restaurant.

In the meantime, he’s ordered more pizza pans and is looking into adding a larger walk-in cooler to deal with the unexpected demand. Whatever he decides, it will be done with his staff in mind.

“I’m not going to grind those dudes into dust. They deserve a break. They busted their ass for us at a brand new job,” he says. “They did great, period.”

Part of meeting the demand for pizza means temporarily slimming down the menu by cutting dishes such as queso and mac and cheese. Although Calleo had planned to roll out lunch as soon as this week, the restaurant will remain dinner only for now.

“I didn’t get into this business to tell people no, but it’s mathematics and physics. If I could argue with those, I wouldn’t be a chef — I’d be a super villain,” he says.

Meanwhile, the search has already begun for a second location. Calleo aims to strike while the iron is hot — and Houstonians are eating him out of pizza.

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