Inside Tilman Fertitta’s swanky new steakhouse
Does Houston really need another steak palace slinging hefty lobster tails and Japanese Wagyu steaks fetching as much as $200?
If you ask billionaire businessman Tilman Fertitta, the answer is a resounding yes. And that’s because the CEO of Landry’s Inc. is referencing his newest baby, ritzy Mastro’s Steakhouse, which opened Friday at The Post Oak, Fertitta’s still-under-construction mixed-use complex next to the Landry’s headquarters on West Loop South.
Still, Fertitta would like to make one thing clear: He doesn’t consider Mastro’s Steakhouse a steakhouse.
“It appeals on many levels,” he said. “You’re not coming here because it’s a steakhouse. It’s more than a steakhouse.”
Perhaps that conundrum is part of the magical aura Fertitta is hoping to create for this new playground of visible wealth. Mastro’s is one of the key anchors of The Post Oak, a campus that will also include a 38-floor, 250-room hotel tower, a two-story Rolls-Royce showroom, spa and salon, and the relocated Willie G’s Seafood and Steaks, which has been fixture in the area since 1981.
The Houston Mastro’s might well be Fertitta’s culinary crown jewel. The restaurant mogul already owns steakhouse brands such as Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse, Brenner’s Steakhouse and Morton’s The Steakhouse. Landry’s purchased the Mastro’s Steakhouse brand in 2013. He waited to bring Mastro’s to his hometown until it had the right home as a shiny component of The Post Oak.
The Post Oak restaurant is the 15th outpost of the upscale concept, and it is no small undertaking. At 12,000 square feet, it can seat 200 guests in its polished dining room, garden terrace and four private dining enclaves. The menu, executed by executive chef Michael Colbert, is heavy on steakhouse classics such as shrimp cocktail, Oysters Rockefeller, Alaskan king crab legs, seafood towers, lobster bisque and 16 different USDA Prime steak cuts, as well as Japanese A5 Wagyu and Australian Wagyu tomahawk steaks.
But Fertitta is especially proud of the seafood, particularly the sushi from chef Ángel Carbajal of Nick-san, the high-end Japanese restaurant in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The jeweled seafood presentations — big eye ahi tuna sashimi with jalapeño; Spanish octopus carpaccio; Hamachi and jicama roll; crispy shrimp and scallop bird-nest dumplings — are why Fertitta insists Mastro’s is more than a steakhouse.
Diners also will find selections from a 20,000-bottle wine inventory and nightly live entertainment in the Piano Lounge. Mastro’s certainly has the potential to become a new clubhouse for the city’s society swells, energy tycoons and sports stars, too. Fertitta, the host of CNBC’s “Billion Dollar Buyer,” purchased the Houston Rockets for $2.2 billion in September.
“There’s not another restaurant like this in Houston,” he said, adding, “there’s never been a hotel built like this in Houston.”
Ah, but Houston will have to wait to see the latter. The hotel will debut in early March. Willie G’s is expected to bow in a week or so.