Dream team to open new Montrose restaurant, the Edmont
Chef Grant Gordon and his partners promise “a forward-thinking approach” to American ingredients treated with the French and Italian techniques for which Gordon has become known.
Talk about firepower: If all goes according to plan, sometime in the next 18 months chef Grant Gordon, wine guru David Keck and restaurateur Paul Petronella will open a restaurant called the Edmont in Montrose.
The project answers the question of what’s next for the talented Gordon, who earned a rare four-star Chronicle review in 2011 when he ran the kitchen at Tony’s. Ever since he opened the Vallone’s steakhouse late last year and then departed this spring, people who follow Houston’s dining scene have wondered where he would land next.
That will be 1634 Westheimer, currently a vacant lot between Dunlavy and Mandell, just a few blocks east of Paul Petronella’s muchloved neighborhood joint, Paulie’s, and its adjacent wine bar, Camerata. David Keck has made the latter business one of the city’s premier wine venues since he opened it in 2013 in partnership with Petronella. It was at the wine bar, in fact, where the trio of future partners began to hatch plans for the Edmont this spring.
The vaguely uppercrust Brit name is actually a “Catcher in the Rye” reference, according to the restaurant principals. The Edmont was the Manhattan hotel to which J.D. Salinger’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, retreated
during his adventures in the city. Lest anyone think the Edmont will be a themed exercise honoring the book so loved by sensitive teens, the trio promises any allusions to the novel in the actual restaurant will be “subtle and thoughtful.”
Ground-up design of the Edmont will be by Abel Design Group, a Houston firm that recently oversaw the conversion of a Woodlands Asian restaurant into the new Morton’s Grille and converted an existing Austin space into a new Willie G’s for the Landry group.
As for the food, Gordon and his partners promise “a forwardthinking approach” to American ingredients treated with the French and Italian techniques for which Gordon has become known during a career that has led from the Culinary Institute of America to Cafe Boulud in New York, and then on to lead cook at the Michelin two-starred Cyrus in Healdsburg, followed by a return to his native Houston for his highly successful run as Tony’s executive chef.
During the buildout period, Gordon plans to seek inspiration for the Edmont’s menu by traveling and staging at restaurants in various cities. (Along those lines, he traveled to the Philippines this year to participate in culinary programs under the auspices of the U.S. State Department.)
Keck will shepherd the wine list and wine service, building on the reputation for staff and customer education he has established at Camerata. He came to Camerata from a beverage director position at Uchi restaurant group, and he’s been climbing rapidly in the Texas sommelier ranks. In 2012, he was the first runnerup in the TEXSOM Texas’ Best Sommelier Competition, and in 2013 he won Third Place in the national finals of the Guild of Sommeliers’ TOP|SOMM competition. His preference, say the partners, is for “wines made by people, not companies,” and that speak to the place where they are grown, harvested, fermented and bottled. At The Edmont, he’ll have a cocktail program in his bailiwick as well.
Petronella will be in charge of operations for the Edmont. He’s already known for quietly revolutionizing his family restaurant in the six years since he has taken over, establishing progressive coffee, house-made pasta and wine programs while making the space a nexus for industry events and pop-ups. His eye for talent and his service standards have resulted in the best counter-style semi-service in the city.
If everything works out, the restaurant will be a key addition to the local dining scene.