2013’s best new restaurants
Alison Cook’s top 10 deliver memorable dishes.
No way around it: In terms of restaurant openings, 2012 was a hard act to follow. Last year’s crop of ambitious openings galvanized the city’s dining scene, and such high-flying newcomers as Oxheart, the Pass, Uchi and Underbelly won Houston a level of national attention and respect that had proved elusive in the past.
If the 2012 list of best new restaurants read like the “Clash of the Titans,” this year’s roster feels more like the “Skirmish of the Household Gods.” We need those minor deities because it’s the lares and penates that make the world go ’round while the Olympians thunder around setting the culinary agenda. This year’s bright spots came in some wonderfully unexpected places — not all of them in restaurants.
Houston’s ice-cream scene took a giant step forward with Cloud 10 Creamery and Fat Cat Creamery. The cocktail and beer world flourished mightily in 2013, as local breweries such as 8th Wonder, Karbach and more came into their own. A host of serious new craft-beer bars and cocktail meccas — Bad News Bar, the Pastry War and Goro & Gun foremost among them — made the city’s dining-and-drinking world more exciting.
The 10 new restaurants that made me happiest in 2013 are a much different group than last year’s club. On the whole, the class of ’13 is less expensive, more democratic and less inclined to push the city’s culinary boundaries forward. They won my heart by delivering memorably and evenly on their focus, which is its own kind of gift.
I considered any restaurant that opened in 2013 for the list, and I made a concerted effort to visit the swarm of new places that opened in November and December. (The one exception to the calendar-year rule I set for myself opened just before New Year’s in December 2012, too late for me to consider it for that year’s list.)
Unlike last year, some of 2013’s most ballyhooed openings turned out to be inconsistent, puzzling or flat-out disappointing. One that didn’t, La Balance Cuisine in Katy, seemed headed to the top of my 2013 Best Newlist until the chef, Jose Hernandez, suddenly left two weeks ago in a break with his partner and general manager.
It’s a tale that hints at how competitive and expensive the restaurant industry has become here in this year of ever-rising rents, along with out-of-town chefs and chains piling in to try to take advantage of our stable economy. So go patronize these 10 worthy newcomers now. Please. I want all of them to be around at this time next year.
1. Osteria Mazzantini
I didn’t even know that Osteria Mazzantini was the restaurant I had been waiting for chef John Sheely, of Mockingbird Bistro fame, to open. But my first bite of the spectacularly good sweetbreads-and-kale ravioli turned my head, as did much else at this surprisingly accomplished young restaurant. Conceived as a tribute to the maternal side of Sheely’s family — Italian immigrants to Galveston — Mazzantini shines with house-made pastas that qualify as some of the best in town, as well as immaculate salads and small plates. Even the pizzas and the house-made charcuterie from Sheely’s chef de cuisine Paul Lewis are serious stuff, no mean feat for a newbie. And the mostly Italian wine list by young sommelier star-in-the-making Samantha Porter is a source of continuing delight, packed with interesting, offbeat bottles and by-the-glass choices. Cordial, swift service both in the casual bar and patio areas or the more formal dining room wrap up this appealing package. If the very pricey entrees give pause, order from the more gently priced sections of the menu, on which there is lots to like.
Where: 2200 Post Oak, Suite 140
Information: 713-993-9898
3. Hai Cang
The advent of a good new live-seafood restaurant in Asiatown is always cause for celebration. And svelte, contemporary-looking Hai Cang — which means “sea harbor” — is reason to gather a big group of your favorite eaters together for an epic feed. The kitchen here excels at low-key, effective cooking, whether it’s a marketpriced sea bass plucked from the live tanks and steamed whole, with ginger and scallion; or rich and subtle lobsters hacked up with beer and fragrant black peppercorns. Snap up the steamed live spot prawns if they have them; their satin texture and briny-sweet flavor highlights the surprise pop of tiny scarlet roe glinting underneath the females in the batch. Even the supporting dishes can have grace and clarity, in the form of water spinach in a delicate bean-curd sauce, square-cut noodles tossed with bits of crab and mushroom or the fried rice mined with snippets of salted fish.
Where: 11768 Bellaire
Information: 281-564-4288
5. Good Dog Houston
This is exactly the way the story is supposed to end: Gifted young couple start a hot-dog food truck, win a loyal clientele with their great ingredients and keen sense of how to put them together, then earn enough to go brick-and-mortar in a shipshape little Heights bungalow. Daniel Caballero and Molly Pferd have imbued this crisp space with their own brand of cordial good cheer, and their broadened menu is more interesting than ever. Line up at the counter to order one of the new dog combos to taste how ingenious house-made condiments like curried onion relish, cilantro chutney and sweet potato crisps make creations like the Curryous Frank spring to life. Perch at the counter for a milkshake made with Fat Cat Creamery ice cream, homemade cajeta and Caphin, the locally bottled Vietnamese iced coffee. Relax on the front deck with an 8th Wonder Alternate Universe, one of the local microbrews on draft, and a mighty roast beef sandwich animated by Molly’s giardiniera pickles. Thoughtful salads, a killer cheese-and-copper-ale soup, and off-the-menu dessert specials all help Good Dog’s stature as a new Houston classic.
Where: 903 Studewood
Information: 832-800-3647, facebook.com/GoodDogHouston
6. Vallone’s
No one’s more surprised than I to find two steakhouses on my Ten Best New Restaurants list. But when the guiding light is fine-dining emperor Tony Vallone, the chef is the very talented Tony’s alumnus Grant Gordon and the wine list is under the supervision of Evan Turner, rest assured the place will have serious chops. And Vallone’s does. Though the restaurant hasn’t yet expressed the distinctly modern personality I hope it will carve out, the room has a powerful midcentury “Mad Men” allure, the food (save for an occasional over-salty blip) is solid and the wines interestingly matched, with a nice Italian slant. (Check out the big, bold Tuscan Tempranillo, a 2006 Vigna alle Wicchie.) Along with beautifully charred and seasoned USDA Prime dry-aged ribeye and strip steak, early hits include a roasted cauliflower side with a tart tahini-like puree underneath; a brisk kale salad; and bruléed banana pudding. They seemed still to be working out some minor kinks in Gordon’s celebrated pastas during Week One, but the oxtail tortellini showed lots of promise. And the towering dark-satin slab of chocolate mousse cake is simply over the moon.
Where: 947 Gessner
Information: 713-395-6100, facebook.com/VallonesHouston
7. Pizzeria Solario
Pizzeria Solario opened with no fanfare, no trumpeted pedigree, no social media buzz. And it turned out to be one of the nicer surprises of the year: a serious Neapolitan-style pizzeria with properly blistered crusts that boast thin, crisply singed bottoms, puffed chewy crowns and a suitable degree of char from the wood-burning oven. The white pies — like the elegant pistachio or the eggy tartufo — were better than the red ones when I reviewed the place in July. But lo, a miracle: Thanks to a reworked tomato sauce that’s lighter and more lucid, the red pizzas have taken a great leap forward. Now the chile-spiked Calabrian pie, the Sweet Sausage pizza with softly glazed peperonata or the jumpy Puttanesca pie with olives and anchovy filets all yield great results. Salads and sides can be surprisingly good (the wood-roasted Olives al Forno with citrus zest and garlic confit are a must). And though the wine list could include a much stronger selection of Italian wines, half-off all bottles on Monday nights can yield Bastianich Sauvignon Blanc, Lageder Pinot Gris or Martinenga Barbaresco at bargain-basement prices.
Where: 3333 Weslayan
Information: 713-892-8100
8. Fielding’s Wood Grill
Houston is so particular and passionate about its burgers that opening a brave new concept is fraught with peril. But Cary Attar, the guy who launched Hubbell & Hudson specialty grocers, may very well hit a home run with his upscale new burger joint in The Woodlands. With chef Edelberto Goncalves, the French chef he worked with at H&H, Attar has fashioned a remarkably consistent spot that excels on a number of fronts. The Angus burgers, ground in house, are spectacularly good: seared on an oak-and-pecan-burning wood grill, dripping juices, their high-quality add-ons and racy condiments layered on perfect house-baked buns. Humboldt Fog blue cheese, bison with pimento cheese and candied jalapeños, a lavish Smoke burger with egg and house-cured bacon: It’s hard to go wrong here. Terrific salads, sides and sauces (oh, that habanero ketchup!) all help out, as do ingenious milkshakes in spiked or innocent versions. Even the woodgrilled steaks pass muster, as does Saturday and Sunday brunch. Local microbrews on tap are a bit dear, and the wines by the glass could be better curated and better priced, but the bar makes a decent cocktail. The iPad bar is a runaway hit with the kids.
Where: 1699 Research Forest
Information: 832-616-3275, fieldings.com
10. D&T Drive Inn
Imagine you were invited to a Louisiana duck camp by a really gifted cook who knows his way around a swamp. That’s the peculiar magic of D&T Drive Inn, the reimagined ice house from the Down House brain trust. It’s the restaurant on this list that I can’t stay away from, so charmed am I by chef Mike McElroy’s charismatic po’ boy sandwiches — made on Houston’s own letter-perfect Royal Bakery French rolls — and the impressive wall of 50 microbrew taps that deliver a veritable feast of interesting beers. Should it be the shreddy, beer-braised beef carbonnade, a Belgian-style stew dressed New Orleans style, with lettuce, tomato and a slip-slide of Hellman’s? Or how about the pulled bourbon-smoked chicken, sharpened with some of McElroy’s vivid seasonal pickles? Even a standard-sounding Italian po’boy becomes memorable once McElroy’s pickle assortment is applied. The sides surprise, too, from cabbage braised with bacon, gin and caraway to a warm potato salad with more bacon, and a sweet-sour Germanic twist. Add a serious pint of beer, and a few of McElroy’s oil-cured pickled cherry peppers stuffed with smoked cheddar and prosciutto, and you may never want to leave. I don’t, anyway, particularly when the sound track is old-school country or vintage New Orleans rhythm and blues. Look for quirky specials to emerge from McElroy’s impossibly pint-sized kitchen (gumbo; pickled satsumas; Tuesday night steaks from Augustus Ranch). Do yourself a favor by taking home an order of his smoky pimento cheese with a fleet of Ritz crackers. You’re welcome.
Where: 1307 Enid
Information: 713-868-6165, treadsack.com/dtdriveinn/