Chef Paul Petersen, the nationally acclaimed, James Beard Award-nominated, reality TV cooking star, will soon be unpacking his knives and molcajete in Houston as he prepares to open a Bayou City version of Austin’s Tex-Mex restaurant, Vivo. Petersen, who might be best known in Texas as the former chef at the famed Gage Hotel in the West Texas town of Marathon, expects to light the stove in mid-May when the 6,000 square-foot Vivo opens at 4200 San Felipe near the railroad tracks. Houston’s Vivo and the two original locations in Austin are owned by Roger Diaz … The beer-focused Flying Saucer Draught Emporium is opening its second Houston-area location, this one in Sugar Land Town Square. It should be open this fall …. There’s a new sweet spot in town called, appropriately, Sweet (801 Town & Country Blvd. in CityCentre). Treats include cupcakes and cupcake towers, petit fours, cookies, cakeballs and French macarons.
Chef Lionel Debon has joined the culinary team at Le Mistral, the French restaurant on Houston’s west side. Debon, who has worked in many Michelin- and Gault et Millau-recognized restaurants during his 20-year career, most recently at Restaurant Le Moulin de la Camandoule in Fayence, France, will work closely with Le Mistral chef/owner David Denis.