Nancy’s Hustle a useful, unassuming bistro in EaDo
Grazeable food and interesting drinks make for a great hangout
A vintage light-box with press-on letters sits high on a bar shelf at Nancy’s Hustle, the young bistro on a semiindustrial stretch of Polk just east of downtown. “You’re Special,” declares the glowing sign as you take a seat at the long counter.
It always cracks me up. Half puppy-dog earnestness and half sly wink, the sentiment perfectly encapsulates the gestalt of this enormously promising restaurant. The food, the beverage service and the hospitality are so well-balanced that it’s a joy to get to know the place, starting with something as simple as a green salad.
At too many Houston spots, a basic green salad is pro forma stuff. At Nancy’s Hustle, it’s an electric current: the spiky and rounded greens immaculately fresh under a discreet cling of mustardy vinaigrette. Thinly sliced green apple, crisp and tart, lurks among the greenery. Chive and seasonal herbs cut laserthin scoot across the top.
This is precisely the kind of salad I’d want to rely on in a neighborhood bistro — the kind of place where I could happily eat a couple of times
a week.
Nancy’s Hustle is just that for me, a beacon of quality on my rapidly evolving east end of town. Chef Jason Vaughan, beverage whiz Sean Jensen and their intelligent staff could make regulars out of a hardened cynic. The well-edited menu may list only 20 items, but I’ve already found enough favorites to bring me back again and again.
The pan-fried rabbit “wings,” for example. They’re actually sectioned rabbit legs left over from terrine-making and rabbit-loin braising, and they arrive coated with an irresistible, sticky glaze of brown butter, capers and lemon. The effect is so elemental and delicious you can imagine Richard Olney, one of the early American evangelists of French country cooking, serving them to you under his arbor in Provence.
I ate the rabbit with my fingers — the only way to go — stopping only to wipe up the remnants of sauce with pastry chef Julia Doran’s house-made sourdough bread. You must order it a la carte, with fluffy whipped butter and flaked salt, and it’s worth the $5 tab. At Jensen’s suggestion, I sipped a lighthearted Basque Txakoli with the rabbit wings, just one of the smart and unexpected wine-by-the-glass choices here.
Rabbit liver shows up in a rough, rustic terrine wrapped in bacon, to eat with coarse mustard and a glass of dark, savory French Cabernet Franc. That’s as French as can be, but while Vaughan cooks in a decidedly French spirit, he takes an American (or contemporary French) global approach to his bistro menu. So intense little Turkish dumplings filled with minced lamb arrive moored in labneh, the cool and tart yogurt cheese; and their spicy tomato vinaigrette jumps with red pepper. I’m pretty sure I could eat two orders to these without stopping.
The dumplings are typical of the assertive flavors that are Vaughan’s stock and trade. Just as fetching are his version of roasted Brussels sprouts. I’ve grown weary of this vegetable’s ubiquity, but tossing them in a tonnato sauce — “Fish mayonnaise!” Vaughan chortles — adds a subtle oceanic tang that made the little cabbagelike globes interesting to me again. (Tonnato is something of a Vaughan signature. At Alice Blue in the Heights, where he consulted on the menu, he added the sauce to a salmon entree, to nice effect.)
None of the dishes I’ve mentioned fall under the “large plates” menu section denoting what would traditionally be termed “entrees.” And that, to me, is part of the appeal of Nancy’s Hustle. You can dabble and drink and share happily here without committing to an epic meal — again, a hallmark of a useful bistro.
I’d be more than content to get my protein in the form of the satiny lamb tartare seasoned with green olives and almonds, lifted by a bit of heat, and served with pillowy house-made flatbread showered with sesame seeds. Or to sate my need for carbs with a small plateful of roasted red potatoes cloaked in melted raclette cheese, kicked up with itty bitty gherkin pickles. (My only complaint: Why not add an “extra raclette” option for diners who can’t get enough of this barnyard-y Alpine cheese?)
I could almost make supper out of the Gem lettuce salad, tightly folded wedges like infant hearts of romaine in a brisk sherry vinaigrette, with brittle crisped pancetta, anchovy filets and a flurry of finely cut herbs adding umami and interest. And I could pretty much make dessert out of the restaurant’s Nancy Cakes, fat little griddlecakes made from Doran’s house-ground cornmeal, served with a cloud of whipped sweet butter and an orange drift of smoked trout roe. Just add a glass of sparkling wine — there is always something suitable in the silvery cooler that holds by-the-glass bottles on the chef ’s counter.
My admiration for the Nancy Cakes is not without reservation. Once they were overcooked and a little tough; another time they seemed deflated. These are the kind of rough edges that still can use smoothing out here. With just a little more finesse and consistency, Nancy's Hustle could rate a solid three stars. I look forward to seeing it happen.
Full-blown entrees? There’s a simple, marvelous wood-grilled chicken plate with lengths of blistered scallion and a boost of lemon. Sliced grilled sirloin gets a twinge of roasted garlic and anchovy sauce that lifts it above the ordinary. Vaughan has a gift for pasta, and his sourdough tagliatelle with burrata, pistachios and frizzled Brussels sprouts is both satisfying and unpredictable. I would love to see a few more noodle dishes on his menu.
And yes, there is a good — if ultra-rich — cheeseburger to be had. If only I loved the curiously stiff, unappealing French fries.
Of Doran’s unusual desserts, I am most partial to the savory Parmesan cheesecake with black-pepper honey; and the long, ridged ropes of crusty fried churro to dip into shocking pink hibiscus syrup.
And don’t fail to sample bartender Kristine Nguyen’s immaculate, finely balanced cocktails. From the cool, collected Three Girl Rhumba to the refreshing Insider Spritz, they impressed me with their precision.
All this grazeable food and interesting drink makes Nancy’s Hustle a great hang, augmented by a remarkable reel-to-reel sound system that always seems to be playing some great vintage R&B artist you haven’t heard in ages.
The long slot of a room, with its scraped-down walls and midcentury wood paneling, is the opposite of luxurious. It’s more like home. The highly desirable seats along the bar and the adjacent chef ’s counter, from which you can watch your dinner taking shape, feel as lively as a house party, with a cast of characters drawn from the rapidly developing neighborhood and from industry circles, who are drawn by the late hours.
They really do serve till midnight, and sometimes beyond. “If you come in at quarter to twelve, we’re not gonna throw you out,” says Jensen.
In Houston, that’s a gift. So is this unassuming, useful restaurant.