What's Eric Eating Episodes 296 and 297
Veteran Houston chef dishes on his hot new pizza-crudo restaurant, plus top Houston Restaurant Weeks picks
Chef Terrence Gallivan is this week's guest.
On this week’s interview episode of What’s Eric Eating, chef Terrence Gallivan joins CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss ElRo Pizza & Crudo. Newly opened on the border of Montrose and Midtown, ElRo is Gallivan’s follow up to The Pass & Provisions, the restaurant he co-owned from 2012 to 2019.
The conversation begins with Gallivan explaining how an interest in cooking led him to culinary school and, eventually, to New York City, where he worked as part of the team that opened celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s first American restaurant. There, he met chef Seth Siegel-Gardner, his business partner in The Pass & Provisions.
After briefly reminiscing about P&P, the conversation turns to ElRo. Named for Gallivan’s children, the new restaurant serves creative pizzas balanced by lighter crudos plus a few Italian-inspired small plates. Sandler asks Gallivan about his decision to serve both pizza and crudo.
“I wanted something that was simple. I mostly wanted to do cold food. Houston is very hot all the time. It’s a little more refreshing, a little lighter. Obviously, we still have some snacky things. We’re big on carbs and gluten around here. There’s still plenty of that to go around,” Gallivan explains.
“Let’s do some simple food, keep it fresh, keep it elegant and hopefully interesting for people. And I just like making pizza.”
Listen to the full interview to learn more about Gallivan’s plans to open a wine shop next door to ElRo and how living in Texas shaped his approach to the restaurant’s menu.
In this week’s other episode, Sandler and co-host Michael Fulmer discuss the news of the week. Their topics include the New York Times’s list of Texas’s 20 best new barbecue joints; the closure of GJ Tavern; and three new ice cream shops that have opened recently inside the loop.
Sandler and Fulmer continue their conversation by discussing their recent meal at The Pho Fix, a new Vietnamese restaurant in Garden Oaks. They conclude by sharing a couple of picks for Houston Restaurant Weeks.
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The menu includes caviar, hot dogs, and taquitos.Photo by Julie Soefer