OPORTO OPENS IN MIDTOWN
While readying for the opening of their new Midtown restaurant, Rick and Shiva Di Virgilio were visited by great sadness (an illness in the immediate family) and intense happiness (the birth of their first child, their son Tiago).
“It’s been an emotional roller coaster of a year,” said Rick Di Virgilio, owner of Oporto Fooding House & Wine, a handsome newcomer to the food scene at 125 W. Gray. “I’m just happy we’re open.”
Shiva Di Virgilio had a more personal description of that period of readying a restaurant and waiting for the stork. “It almost feels like we had twins and gave birth to two babies,” she said.
The husband and wife team responsible for Oporto Wine Café and Queen Vic Pub & Kitchen have delivered their most personal and evocative restaurant to date — a space of intelligent design and a menu sparkling with imagination.
Housed in a flat-iron space on the ground floor of Post Midtown Square apartments, the restaurant at the West Gray/Webster split features an expanded menu of Oporto’s singular cuisine: Portuguese smooched by Indian (Rick is Italian and Portuguese, Shiva is Indian).
At 4,300 square feet, the new restaurant allows the Di Virgilios to expand their menu in ways Bife a Portuguesa, hanger steak with fried egg and prir piri potatoes that couldn’t be accommodated at the 1,500-square-foot original Oporto at 3833 Richmond. New menu items include Cataplana de Mexilhoes (black mussels with sofrito, vinho verde wine and garlic butter); Feijao con Fideos (pasta and gigante bean stew with kale, feta and almond romesco); Peixinhos de horta (rice-crisped squid and shrimp and tempura green beans); Chourico Almondegas (smoked pork meatballs flavored with tomato and saffron with a mustard seed and fennel picada); and Pork Vindalho (Goan-spiced pork in a spicy red curry with potatoes and a mustard seed raita).
There’s also a menu of “petiscos” — Portuguese small plates that include a duo of hummus (cannellini beans with yogurt and sumac, and lentils with turmeric); dates stuffed with blue cheese and ham in a port balsamic gastrique; smashed fingerling potatoes with garlic aioli and a sweet and spicy tomato chutney; house-cured grilled sardines served with salsa verde and pickled vegetables; and a Octopus Salame that is cured in-house Portuguese café sandwich made with marinated grilled hanger steak, parmesan smashed potatoes and garlic aioli.
It’s fabulous stuff from a couple who have lovingly merged their personal lives and their culinary passions. Rick opened Oporto in 2006, intent on serving casual, wine-friendly fare inspired by his travels in Portugal. Shiva, who was a commercial real estate banker, was an early customer “when Rick was the cook, the server and the dishwasher,” she said recalling her first brush with Oporto. “He was so ambitious. I was completely charmed.”
At the time, Shiva also was working toward a culinary degree from the Art Institute of Houston — studies that allowed her to leave the world of commercial real estate for a new life as a chef. She began working part time at Oporto. Espetada de Carne, wood grilled beef with batatas fritas, grilled vegetables and potato bread
In 2010 she and Rick opened Queen Vic, a charming gastropub that was nothing like Houston had seen — London flair gastropub with a menu that celebrated the flavors of Shiva’s culture. They were married in 2013 which is about the same time they secured the lease for Oporto Fooding House. Today, they have the restaurant they’ve been dreaming of; a comfortable, unpretentious space where flavors of both their cultures make happy music together.
Designed by Michael Hsu of Austin (Uchi, La Condesa, Uchiko and Sway in Austin; Uchi and Artisans in Houston) the new Oporto features Spanish cedar ceilings, Mexican cement tiles in graphic patterns, crisp settees facing the windows on West Gray, and wood and tile flooring. There’s a separate “caipirinha bar” at the entrance where craft cocktails, wine, beer and sangria on tap will be served. Seating at the “kitchen bar” gives guests an up-close look at the raw bar and pizza
Duo of Hummus oven, while a communal table (or “kitchen table”) allows a view into the kitchen pass and work station.
About that name, “fooding house:” General manager Ryan Snyder, the longtime COO of the Azuma Group, defines fooding house as “a mash-up of a restaurant, cafe, bakery and bar where everything is made in front of you.”
“Fooding is simply ‘food with feeling’, the act of eating and dining well,” Snyder says. “The house represents the type of atmosphere and hospitality we are striving for, almost like you’re at a dinner party at a good friend’s house. All these core elements define what a fooding house is.”
Whatever, the Di Virgilios are just happy to be doing their thing together. “I’m so excited,” Rick said. “I’m in the kitchen again and we’re cooking together. It feels great.” greg.morago@chron.com twitter.com/@gregmorago