Nancy’s Hustle bistro/wine bar opens in EaDo
Houston foodies are hustling down to the EaDo district to check out what might be the year’s most diverting and unexpected dining experience — a whip-smart restaurant with zero pretensions, plenty of panache and food and drink from a group of highly experienced cool kids.
The neighborhood joint is called Nancy’s Hustle — the name is a paean to Houston as “hustle town” and a rather obscure reference to a fictional diner in the movie “Mad Max” — and it opened recently at 2704 Polk in the relatively unchartered reaches of the east side. But with EaDo ready to come to life with a crop of planned dining and drinking options, Nancy’s Hustle has laid claim as one of the area’s pioneers.
A neon sign in yellow script and windows shaded with gauzy café curtains greets restaurantgoers. Inside, the rectangular room sports a polished concrete floor, a bar top made of reclaimed wood from a lane at the old Bellaire Bowling Alley, blond wood details, unfinished walls and glass lamps. Music is generated reel to reel and piped through vintage speakers. It’s all terribly hip.
Then the menu turns the dial up. Executive chef Jason Vaughan isn’t sure about the proper definition for the fare but allows “it’s European American, or you could call it new American. It has touches of everything.”
Indeed, suggestions of Italian, Moroccan, French and Spanish are sprinkled throughout the brief but inviting menu. Start with a salad of wee romaine with crispy pancetta, anchovies and fine herbs in a sherry vinaigrette or perhaps lamb tartare shot through with green olives and almonds served with chile aioli and a sesame seedcrusted flatbread.
When’s the last time you saw raclette, the Alpine cheese that is broiled to a bubbling goo and lava-ed over roasted potatoes? Or for that matter Turkish dumplings in a spicy tomato vinaigrette with labneh and lamb jus? The bistro vibe is evoked via chicken liver mousse with red onion jam and grilled sourdough. And make room for the most clever starter called Nancy Cakes: puffy corn cakes with a generous mound of house-cultured butter topped by a lusty spoonful of smoked trout roe. You might forget osetra and blini ever existed.
Vaughan’s mains are no less inviting: Sourdough tagliatelle with burrata, honey, pistachios and crispy Brussels sprouts; wood-grilled half chicken served with charred scallions and preserved lemon jus; roasted snapper with wood-fire roasted beets and fennel aioli; bacon-wrapped loin of rabbit with braised beans; hanger steak with potato pave and black truffle jus; and a house burger set on a brioche English muffin (yes, you read that correctly).
This vigorous fare calls for robust wines, and Nancy’s Hustle is armed with a list curated by general manager/ partner Sean Jensen, who favors organically farmed grapes and biodynamic producers. The all-natural wine list includes French rose and chardonnay; Italian nebbiolo and tempranillo; California zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon. There are also a few options of “orange wine” — white wine that achieves its color by fermentation with the grape skins on — the hip new category that is being called “the new rose.” Jensen’s beverage portfolio also shows a fondness for ciders and sherry.
Jensen and Vaughan, friends for about 15 years, have been plotting for years to spring a fresh vision of a wine bar and bistro on Houston.
“We’ve talked about doing something together for as long as I can remember,” Jensen said. “There’s no other chef I wanted to do this with.”
Vaughan, who had been working in Chicago for a number of years (with the highend L2O seafood restaurant and the Hogsalt Hospitality Group that operates restaurants such as Bavette’s, Gilt Bar and Au Cheval), returned to Houston two years ago. He and Jensen recently collaborated as consultants for the opening of Alice Blue in the Heights. Jensen was already well known in town for his work managing operations at Shade, Canopy, the Hay Merchant and Public Services.
They signed the lease for Nancy’s Hustle about a year ago, with a desire to be near downtown and in a neighborhood that was “really about to happen in a number of ways,” Jensen said.
They put together a team that includes a cocktail program from Kristine Nguyen, formerly of Captain Foxheart’s Bad News Bar, and pastry chef Julia Doran, formerly of Bernadine’s. Doran is baking her own bread and making pasta in addition to executing the restaurant’s desserts.
Nancy’s Hustle is dinner only, open until midnight with a separate late-night menu beginning at 10 p.m. The owners envision it as a place where guests can come for after-work happy hour, a casual dinner and late-night snacks and nightcaps.
Now about that name again: Jensen said it’s a reference to Fat Nancy’s Café in “Mad Max” coupled with a nickname for Houston. “Everyone has to have a hustle, or a side hustle,” he said.