Dining
LATEST DISH! HOUSTON’S BEST FOOD NEWS, IN SMALL BITES ...
Neighborhood Nosh A prolific restaurateur brings comfortfood cool to an emerging ’hood. By Patrick Magee, Photo by Kirsten Gilliam
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Ben Berg may have a knack for spotting the city’s next hot neighborhood. He brought new energy to Washington Avenue in 2015 when he opened B&B Butchers, now a top Houston steakhouse surrounded by notable restaurants and bars. Now he’s set his sights on North Post Oak Boulevard with his newest venture, NoPo Café, Market & Bar. NoPo is an acronym coined by Berg for North Post Oak, the emerging district that sits east of Spring Branch, north of the Galleria and west of Timbergrove. The come-as-you-are space, quickly becoming popular for casual business lunches, is uniquely French-countryside-meetsthe-American-West with an intimate dining room seating just 35, adorned with chandeliers and vintage wallpaper with horses and cowboys. Open all day, the menus feature classic comfort food, available for counter- or table service from 7am-9pm on weekdays, and 3-9pm on Saturdays. A grab-and-go market is stocked with fun provisions such as locally made pickles and Bloody Mary mix. The morning menu stars housemade crispy croissants and sweet pastries, as pizzas, pastas and sandwiches arrive later in the day. Everything is rich and decadent and fun to share. The spinach and cheese dip is served in a bread bowl with more bread on the side for dipping. The lump crab pizza — baked in a custom pizza oven — is topped with a generous pile of seafood and jalapenos. And what says classic comfort more than cookies and milk? The cookies are joyfully jumbo with large chunks of gooey chocolate, and the milk is ice cold!
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The owners of Israeli steakhouse Doris Metropolitan, who recently formed a restaurant group called Sof Hospitality, are making the most of their resto’s carb-savvy rep (the bread basket is truly to-die-for). Sof’s Badolina Bakery & Café in Rice Village just opened, with tons of fresh baked breads, pastries, custom cakes and more. (Get there early; the popular items sell out before lunch!) The group’s next-door Hamsa restaurant opens soon. Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly Hospitality will open Underbelly Burger later this summer in the Houston Farmers Market, right next door to Wild Oats, which is also among his company’s concepts. Its flagship sandwich will be something similar to Hay Merchant’s juicy Cease and Desist burger. On the move: Tilman Fertitta’s Mastro’s heads north! A version of the sultry Galleria
steakhouse opens in The Woodlands’ former Grotto space, branded as Mastro’s Ocean Club and boasting a raw-bar menu in addition to Prime steaks. Meanwhile, Wash Ave’s hip FM Kitchen + Bar has opened its long-awaited outpost in Montrose. Find a familiar indoor-outdoor vibe, plus a 26-tap beer wall and a menu of Montrose specials courtesy of new chef de cuisine Valentin Garcia, previously with Tiny Boxwood’s. And popular patio-winebar Postino has officially confirmed it will open a 4,500-square-foot location in Town & Country Village later this summer. Cheers! Now open in the Heights: Salad-savvy Sweetgreen and
all-day-breakfast-joint Homestead both bowed in the new M-K-T development. And in the former BCK spot on Studewood, soon find exceptional noodles from Las Vegas-based Shokku Ramen. Down the block, previously dinner-only Fegen’s has rolled out its brunch, lunch and happy-hour menus. Beloved Northside bar Monkey’s Tail has a new cocktail menu for the first time since opening in 2019. Concoctions by Lainey Collum — beverage director of the newly formed Barrel of Monkeys hospitality group, which has ambitious expansion plans through 2022 — include several “highly Instagramable frozens.”
The new Cantacuya cocktail at Monkey’s Tail and, above, Badolina’s chocolate-chip cookies
monkey’s tail by kirsten gilliam; badolina by ralph smith
Il Bracco arrives this fall in the building formerly home to California Pizza Kitchen on the corner of Post Oak and San Felipe; architectdesigner Michael Hsu will revamp the interiors. The Dallas location has earned rave reviews for its Spicy Gemelli pasta with vodka sauce and standout customer service.
