It isn’t every day that a chef could double for a J. Crew model, but Erin Smith could. The Plonk! Beer & Wine Bistro chef and Houston native is fine-boned, blonde and so likable that if you were a high school girl, you might be insanely jealous of her because she’s talented and genuine on top of everything else.
A few years back she cut her teeth in kitchens in the Big Apple after studying chemistry at Texas Tech and graduating from the California Culinary Academy. More recently she’s been heading up the kitchen at Plonk! in The Heights, which you should check out, if you haven’t already.
I shared cookies and cappuccinos with Erin at Paulie’s recently and asked her some nosy questions, which didn’t seem to bother her at all. My final memory of our visit is of her hopping on a little beige Vespa, wearing salmon-colored ankle-length denim and riding off into the Houston heat, blonde locks peeking out of her giant helmet. Cute overload!
You work long hours in a restaurant kitchen. Where do you like to go when it’s time to kick back?
If I’m with co-workers I like to go to Big Star. I also like Hay Merchant, Double Trouble and Under the Volcano. I’m not a big cocktail drinker — I prefer to drink beer. However the frozen Cuba Libre at Under the Volcano is delicious. I’m a typical girl: If I drink cocktails I like them frozen and fruity, pink and sweet.
And your favorite restaurant hole-in-the-wall? I spend a lot of time at Double Trouble, so I frequent Tacos A Go Go, which is next door. It isn’t a hole-in-the-wall, and neither is the Barbecue Inn, but I love both of those places.
How would you define your ultimate comfort food?
I’d have to say my stepmom’s chili. She made it all the time when I was growing up and I probably didn’t appreciate it then. And, she uses beans. There’s a big debate about that, yeah. Now I use her recipe myself, but I bulk it up with more veggies.
When you’re dining out as a patron, what is your biggest pet peeve?
I get embarrassed when the staff isn’t treated well. Or, negative comments by guests to the staff. Restaurants want to please their guests. You don’t have to be mean to the staff. They don’t want you to have a bad experience, and there is a way to express something isn’t right. I’ve had people who are regulars, who order the same stuff each time they come in, let me know that something was off in their meal that night. And that’s good, it keeps you aware that something wasn’t as it normally is. But it bothers me when I see people being unkind to restaurant employees.
What about the Houston dining scene do you feel most proud of? What do you brag about to your industry friends in New York?
The sense of closeness in our community. Here, chefs are good to each other for the most part, they are kind. We want to see each other learn and grow and do well. The industry is very supportive. In Houston chefs are not cutthroat. And the non-industry community, too, is great — some of the greatest supporters are not people with culinary backgrounds. It is the neighborhood regulars, people that are passionate about what we are doing, what Houston restaurants are doing. Plonk! has survived largely because of how supportive the neighborhood is. Our community is our best advertising.
What’s your most embarrassing kitchen moment?
At Plonk!, around the time we first opened, I was helping wash all the brand new bowls that we had just got in. I was stacking the bowls very high, probably too high … and it was during dinner service. I stacked them way too high, and eventually they all fell over, made a huge mess and it was so loud, everyone heard it. I broke every single bowl that we had in the restaurant, that we had just had delivered. And we had to reprep and replate everything in the kitchen since broken bowl bits were everywhere. I’m laughing about it now, but I felt so horrible that night. Now the staff knows to keep the bowls away from me.
PLONK! BEER & WINE BISTRO 1214 West 43rd Street, 713-290-1070 plonkbistro.com