All aboard
New food hall Railway Heights Market plans to bring hip experience to Houstonians
Railway Heights Market in Houston is still in its soft opening phase, but at lunchtime on a recent Saturday, it was already swarming with people.
Families and friends mingled in the large space, walking around with glasses of wine, slurping noodles at tables in the middle of the food hall, taking photos of the large art wall in the back and lining up for refresquería juices. Just north of Interstate 10 in the Timbergrove area, Railway Heights is a project by Company of Nomads, specifically co-founder Anh Mai and COO Shepard Ross, the team behind Bravery Chef Hall downtown and the nowclosed Conservatory. It takes its name from the railroad right behind the market; in the works for a few years, the pandemic delayed its opening, originally projected for mid-2020.
The food-hall trend in Houston appeared to be unstoppable before COVID-19. Conservatory, which claimed to be the city’s first food hall, opened downtown in 2016 to much fanfare. A slew of similar concepts cropped up in the following years.
Finn Hall debuted in 2018, and Bravery Chef Hall and Understory came a year later — all downtown, an office-rich area that has greatly suffered during lockdown. Politan Row came to Rice Village in 2019 and shut down last November because of the pandemic. The Company of Nomads team has promised to bring back Conservatory, which closed in January 2020, to a new space in the Galleria area (the old space is now occupied by Underground Hall under different operators).
Now 18 months into a global pandemic that ebbs and flows, entrepreneurs are betting that food halls can make a comeback. Railway Heights is the latest in a series of ambitious mixed-use developments — including the in-progress Airline Farmers Market one neighborhood over — to bring a sprawling, hip eating and drinking experience to Houstonians.
For all palates
Once fully open, the 25,000square-foot hall will have about 50 food, drink, art and other retail vendors, many of which are already in full swing.
Pierogi Queen is delighting its Inner Loop fans by opening a second location of its very popular League City joint at the market. Flavors of its perfectly pillowy pierogies change daily, and the stall also serves Polish fries and zapiekanka, a type of Polish street pizza.
BOH Slice, which is not open yet, is another name that will be familiar to people who know the spot’s pizzas and pastas from Bravery Chef Hall. This outpost will focus on by-theslice pizza.
The Greedy Chicken specializes in wings with flavors such as tangy mango “Alabama,” barbecue, lemon-pepper and honey-garlic sesame. This is also your spot to get fried pickles and fried gizzards.
Drunken Pho offers three different bowls and a makeyour-own option, as well as appetizers including fried eggrolls and spring rolls. Sandos makes those Instagram-famous Japanese milk bread sandwiches with tamago or strawberry cream.
Mac & Twist serves four pasta bowls: the Jefferson with four cheeses and panko, the Texanthemed Smokey with brisket, the Philadelphia-inspired Rocky and a Vegitalian with pesto and mozzarella.
The longest line on Saturday was at Churazzon, where people quenched their thirst on a sweltering day with agua frescas such as watermelon-hibiscus and mango-orange. The ladies behind the counter were keeping it moving with excellent speed, cutting and pressing mountains of fresh fruit in a tiny space.
Other food vendors include the Latin-Asian fusion spot Mykuna, Heads & Tails for Cajun food, Samosa Haus for samosas and other Indian snacks such as chaat and Peaky Grinders for freshly ground beef burgers.
The food hall is anchored by a long bar, Puncheon, which has a concise list of mostly proprietary wines and local beers and ciders. Behind it is the entrance to a patio where people can sit and bring their food and drink.
Support system
Martin Weaver, Company of Nomads’ corporate chef, says the team sees Railway Heights as an incubator for small businesses. With the exception of Pierogi Queen and BOH, which already have solid followings, all of the food entrepreneurs are up-and-coming and on their first location.
“We’d love for them to stay here, but the point of what we’re doing is to help them grow, put the spotlight on them,” he said. “They’ll evolve and go open their own brickand-mortars and move on from the company.”
As at Bravery Chef Hall, Weaver says, the stall operators have access to the Company of Nomads team, which can help them with marketing, staffing and other the logistics of running a business. The hope is to act as a springboard, making it easier for these small start-ups to get off the ground.
“That’s the beauty of these halls,” said Weaver.
Railway Heights also has a strong retail component with vendors including Pop Soap for vegan soaps; Pink Swan Shop for clothes, accessories and cute Houston swag; Ms. Moss Potter for all kinds of flowers and plants; D’Vora Jewelry and more.
Saturday was the first day open for the Analogue Coffee Bar, by the entrance downstairs; it will eventually also be a roastery.
More on the horizon
The most exciting components of Railway Heights Market have yet to come. In September or October, a grocery store will open on the first floor, selling exclusively local products from area farmers, ranchers, fishermen and makers. This will also include Whatever Fresh, offering to-go salads and bowls, and a cheese and charcuterie shop called Tablitas.
In the meantime, on weekends, Railway Heights is inviting small, start-up businesses to set up stands for free and sell their products. On that Saturday, Key’s Home Scents, Thrive Juices, Ziba Candles, De Mi Fogón Arepas Colombianas, Happy Daze Ahead CBD, Mina’s Cake Pops and a few more were present.
A 10,000-square-foot beer garden is under construction outside, as is an expansive dog park, which will open about the same time as the grocery store. The beer garden will focus on craft breweries in Houston and other areas of Texas, with some out-of-state selections.
Ross says he wants to bring in locals such as Saint Arnold, Eureka Heights and Spindletap. The team is partnering with Plant a Tree Houston to create a fund to which they will donate a percentage of beer sales.
Art Curio, at the back of the second floor, is a space for local artists to display their work and have it for sale. Paintings from modern abstracts to a colorful portrait of Bob Marley decorate a large wall.
More pieces will be added throughout the space, as well as a digital look-up and checkout system for the art, but that will be another component of Railway Heights you will have to wait until the fall grand opening for.