With the success of one-stop establishments like Common Bond and Tout Suite, it’s obvious that Houstonians like to drink their coffee, have their lunch and eat a pastry, too. Enter Houston’s newest multifaceted eatery: Weights + Measures, a restaurant, bake shop and bar located inside a 1950s industrial warehouse in Midtown.
Weights + Measures — a combined effort of Ian Rosenberg and Mike Sammons (13 Celsius, Mongoose versus Cobra), Richard Kaplan (Brown Paper Chocolates, River Cafe) and Heath Wendell (Slow Dough Bread Co.) — began dinner and bar service on January 18 and then rolled out breakfast and lunch service as well as the bake shop goods on January 24.
Walk to one end of the warehouse for the restaurant and Slow Dough Bread Co. bake shop‘s shared entry way, or walk to the other end of the building and enter through a separate entrance for the bar/lounge, Love & Squalor, which serves a curated list of beer, wine and cocktails. The multiple spaces, while separated by walls and layout, are cohesive in design, and each feature exposed ceilings, wood elements and bold-colored 1970s-style furniture pieces.
The restaurant is under the helm of Kaplan (a former caterer, in addition to his other credentials) and serves breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner. The menus feature Napolitano-style pizza, wood-fired proteins, house-cured meats and seasonal vegetables. The first-ever Slow Dough Bread Co. retail bake shop (photo above) offers Wendell’s signature chocolate-topped, custard-filled bismark donuts, freshly-baked breads and pastries as well as coffee locally-roasted by Amaya Roasting Company.
We stopped in for a quick bite earlier today to explore the lunch menu, which features salads, a daily soup, sandwiches and pizzas. Per our server’s suggestion, we began with the butter lettuce salad with pancetta, roasted garlic blue cheese dressing and pickled raisin gastrique ($9, photo above). It was judiciously dressed and had plenty of tang from the blue cheese and raisins. The soup of the day was potato leek ($5, photo below) served with two slices of buttered toast. It was creamy and chunky (in all the right ways), and, at just $5, possibly the best value on the menu.
Lastly, we tried the roasted carrot pizza with Redneck Cheddar, sauce soubise (an onion-flavored sauce) and dukka ($13, photo below). The thin slices of carrots and sprinkling of nuts had a surprisingly meaty flavor. The spices woven throughout the dukka (a mix of ground nuts and spices) were delicate but interesting, and the crust held up well to the hefty cheddar and sauce soubise.
Weights + Measures, 2808 Caroline Street just north of Tuam, 713-654-1970, weights-and-measures.com