Traveler’s Table
THE CONCEPT
Owner Matthew Mitchell has created a restaurant drawn from his early experiences as a writer and journalist living abroad, with a menu that visits foods from Vietnam, Argentina, Thailand, Spain, China, Italy, Greece, India, North Africa, the Middle East and a bit of the American Gulf Coast.
THE SPACE
The former Aqui digs in Montrose has been reimagined by Gin Braverman of Gin Design Group. The airy dining room is decorated with vintage travel souvenirs and oversize palms that suggest a boutique hotel or private lair for monied nonconformists. Guests now enter the restaurant from the patio.
THE FOOD
Working with chef Omar Pereney and consultant Ashley Rosenfeld, Mitchell has created a menu could be the city’s most wide-ranging. Small plates include Mexican street corn soup with epazote, lime and cotija cheese; cast-iron seared smoked Argentine provolone with roasted peppers and oregano chimichurri; pho soup dumplings; Peking-style duck gyoza; smoked chicken arepas; Japanese chicken karaage with Kewpie mayo; garlic hummus with braised lamb shank ragu; and steamed mussels offered in three styles (Thai, Belgian and Spanish). Entrees come under regional headers. From the “far east”: soft-shell crab pad Thai; Vietnamese grilled fish with vermicelli noodles; short rib bibimbap Korean rice bowl; and spicy cumin lamb with dry-fried green beans. From “Indian and the Mediterranean”: smoked yogurt-marinated butter chicken; pork vindaloo with jasmine rice; Moroccan chicken and grain bowl; and beef cheek ravioli. Larger dinner entrees include seafood risotto, whole-roasted branzino, Chinese five spice duck, Jamaican jerk pork, North African leg of lamb, and prime bone-in rib-eye steak.
THE DRINKS
Beer and wine, yes. But cocktails, too, are globehoppers: The Spice Trader combines vodka, ginger beer, lime, mango nectar and garam masala syrup; The Last Flight alights with cachaca, acai purée and muddled lime and blueberries; The Plumed Serpent hisses with tequila, triple sec, lime juice and watermelon purée; and the Forbidden City sits on a throne of soju, vodka, aloe vera and passion fruit tea.
ONE MORE THING
Mitchell spent more than a dozen years working as the CEO of a firm doing clinical trials for drug companies, but his passion for food and travel led him to seek a culinary degree at the Art Institute of Houston. He gained practical restaurant experience working on the cooking line at Benjy’s, then front-of-house at Local Foods, then trained as a server and bartender at North Italia.
THE DETAILS
520 Westheimer, 832-4095785; travelerstable.com. Open for dinner daily. Lunch is due in a month, followed by brunch in three months.
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