What's Eric Eating Episode 271

The ultimate Tex-Mex draft: We pick our favorite dishes from Houston's most essential restaurants

On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler takes a break from his usual format by inviting five Houston food experts to join him in a draft of their favorite Tex-Mex dishes. The goal is to put together the ultimate selection of dishes in the following categories — fajitas, enchiladas, tacos, chips and salsa, queso, and a wildcard that's any dish served at a Tex-Mex restaurant that doesn't fit one of those categories.

The draft's rules define a Tex-Mex restaurant as a place that doesn't charge for chips and salsa and serves queso, which excludes interior Mexican restaurants like Hugo's and fast casual restaurants like Torchy's. In addition, participants may only select one dish per restaurant. Joining Sandler are the following participants: David Cordua, chef-owner of The Lymbar; Bryan Caswell, former chef-owner of El Real Tex-Mex Cafe; Mary Clarkson, owner of Avondale Food & Wine; Matt Harris, a self-described Food Vigilante; and Michael Fulmer, a hospitality industry veteran and a co-founder of the Houston BBQ Festival.

The first round goes in the following order:

David Cordua selects El Tiempo's chicken fajitas
Mary Clarkson selects Molina's Jose's dip
Bryan Caswell selects Superica's puffy taco
Eric Sandler selects Candente's birria tacos
Matt Harris selects Lupe Tortilla's tacos al carbon
Michael Fulmer selects The Original Ninfa's chips and salsa

Photo by Shannon O'Hara

One of the participants selects Candente's fajitas.

Listen to the full episode to hear all of the results. After they completed six rounds, Cordua offers his thoughts on Tex-Mex's importance to Houstonians.

"I can tell by everyone's answers how much Tex-Mex is our comfort food. It's our therapy. We need it, and we live on it," he says.

"If you take a trip for over a week, first thing you want is Tex-Mex," Caswell adds. "That's the first place you go. Maybe on the way home from the airport."

Following the draft, Gringo's Mexican Kitchen founder and CEO Russell Ybarra joins Sandler to offers an opinion about who won the draft (spoiler alert: not Sandler). He then discusses a few of the challenges of operating a successful Tex-Mex restaurant. For example, the restaurant's free chips, salsa, and ice cream account for 6-percent of Gringo's food costs.

Sandler asks Ybarra about how Gringo's stands out in a crowded field of Tex-Mex options.

"We have a philosophy that if we want to push a Mercedes out the front door that we cannot bring in Chevrolet parts in the back door," he says. "We have a focus on quality ingredients. You solve the majority of your challenges by using quality ingredients."

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Subscribe to "What's Eric Eating" on Apple podcasts, Google Play, or Spotify. Listen to it Saturday at 2 pm on ESPN 97.5.

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we gotta go

Beard-winning Houston chef shares first details of new Montrose restaurant

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Pasta and cold seafood will be on the menu at House of Louie.

Houston hospitality veterans Bobby Heugel and chef Justin Yu are sharing more details about House of Louie, their new neighborhood restaurant that’s opening this summer in the former Vibrant space at 1931 Fairview Ave. It’s the duo’s first new restaurant since opening Squable in 2019.

Almost a year after announcing their plans for the project, chef Yu, a James Beard Award winner and Food & Wine Best New Chef honoree, shares in press materials that the restaurant’s name and spirit takes inspiration from an establishment operated by his aunts, Betty Louie and Josephine Yeung, for over 30 years in the Los Angeles area.

“House of Louie was how I fell in love with restaurants. There was a magic there,” Yu said in a statement. “It was always a happy place for me, and for all its guests who came from all around the Los Angeles area to go to it. It was just one of those restaurants where it was exactly what you wanted, when you wanted it, but also a restaurant that gave you more than you expected.”

Yu describes the menu as having a “French-Italian soul” that will also incorporate “the smirk of Modern American cooking,” which allows the chef to sidestep criticisms of whether or not his food is a sufficiently authentic version of those two culinary traditions. As with Theodore Rex, his downtown restaurant that holds a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide, dishes at House of Louie will be defined by well-sourced ingredients and delicate saucework.

Meals at the restaurant could begin with dishes such as salads or raw seafood items, including yellowtail alla scapece (cured in chardonnay vinegar) or spot shrimp marinated in Pernod with bergamot and fennel pollen. Pastas, which will be in-house, include a fried lasagna with ragu bianco and Comte cheese fondue. Entrees include roast duck and chicken brined with house-made giardiniera, the spicy topping typically associated with Italian beef sandwiches. Of course, vegetables will be well-represented throughout the menu.

Bobby Heugel, Yu’s partner in the Thorough Fare Co. hospitality group and the founder of bars such as Anvil and Refuge, is overseeing the bar’s cocktail program. Expect martinis galore and seasonal cocktails made with Gulf Coast ingredients. One example is the The Fair View, a riff on the classic Rome with a View made with local roselle hibiscus, Becherovka, dry sherry, and gen tian tea, that’s finished with sparkling wine and pineapple.

The duo aren’t ready to share interior photos, but they describe the renovations as a “simple remake” that enlisted support from local craftspeople including Garnish Design (Milton’s, Tiny Champions), ObjektFab, and Ford Design Finishes. “Just like when you cook a beautiful piece of fish or a carrot that was cared for as it was grown, you do just enough to something beautiful to make it yours,” Yu added.

Joining the project are general manager Tyler Jay Wang, whose resume includes acclaimed Boston establishments No 9 Park and Drink, and executive chef Kirk Thompson, who worked for various Underbelly Hospitality concepts and served as the executive chef at Leo’s River Oaks when it won Best New Restaurant in the 2025 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

House of Louie will be open daily for dinner. Friday lunch and weekend brunch service will be added in the future.

Photo by Kirsten Gilliam

Pasta and cold seafood will be on the menu at House of Louie.

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