What’s new to eat?
- Opening Soon: Lola, a diner-ish spot serving “American comfort foods” — in the restored and refashioned former Eckerd Drug across from the Heights Post Office on Yale and 11th. This’ll be the third Heights restaurant venture from Ken Bridge, who also runs Dragon Bowl and Pink’s Pizza.
- Opened This Week: From famed New York, Las Vegas, and Dallas chef John Tesar, Tesar’s Modern Steak and Seafood, directly across from the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands. You’ll certainly want to eat everything on your plate when you visit: “Tesar’s entire menu will be one hundred percent sustainable created with a zero-waste food ethics in mind,” declares the restaurant website. Whole fish will be a specialty. Outside: a burger bar.
- Closed: The Texadelphia in the fast-food-friendly strip center on Memorial Dr. and Asbury, across from Otto’s — reportedly on account of the parking lot being too darn clogged. No worries: You can still get your cheesesteak fix at 3 other Houston locations, and it’s now a bit easier to find a spot in front of the Kolache Factory.
More food fun:
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- Scheduled To Open This Month: Yet another entirely new restaurant concept for the Hotel Derek. The latest is Italian, by way of Santa Monica and Las Vegas: Piero Selvaggio’s PS Valentino Vin Bar.
- Opening Soon: The fast-casual Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino, just down the street from Chuy’s, in the former location of Pan y Agua at Westheimer and Bammel Lane. Lynnette Hawkins’s restaurant will feature pick-your-own versions of cicchetti, what Venetians call tapas.
Alison Cook peeks inside: “The design is by architect Kathy Heard, who counts the late (and memorably stylish) Bertha’s, Sushi King and the new Dessert Gallery among her Houston restaurant portfolio. Heard stripped the 59-year-old collection of structures of their fripperies and installed a striking wall graphic by local artist Rachel Hecker.”
- Opening in October: The 5th location of Northern California import Straits, mixing Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian, Singaporean, Chinese, and Malay cuisine in the lobby of the Hotel Sorella in CityCentre.
- Closing Early This Month: Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood & Chop House, on San Felipe at Sage.
- Opening in the Same Space, 1 Week Later: Jeff and Tony Vallone’s “moderately priced” Ciao Bello. On the menu: pizza, pasta, and fish. The Vallones canceled their plans for a different restaurant in the redeveloped portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center back in January.
Know of any more retail comings and goings? Send in your tips and leftovers!
- L-O-L-A, Lola! [Fred Eats Houston]
- Tesar’s Modern Steak and Seafood
- News from the food and drink front [Houston Business Journal]
- Locations [Texadelphia]
- september restos [juli b]
- Legendary Restaurateur Piero Selvaggio Opening Valentino Houston This Fall [Valentino Restaurant Group]
- Giacomo’s Cibo e Vino: the return of chef Lynette Hawkins [Cook’s Tour]
- Straits Houston – Opening Soon [Straits Restaurants]
- History [Jimmy Wilson’s Seafood & Chop House]
- Houston restaurateurs reduce the ritz in new rollouts [Houston Business Journal]
- Is That Three Brothers Bakery on the Line? [Swamplot]
Photo of Lola, under construction at 1102 Yale: Swamplot inbox
