The Landry’s organization is readying the fourth Vic & Anthony’s, this one in New York City in the Angelo & Maxie’s space at 233 Park Avenue South. Our source says that V&A/NYC should be open by March. Triniti, the new restaurant on S. Shepherd with chef Ryan Hildebrand at the helm and Fred Zennati running the dining room, is now planning to open on Christmas Eve with a prix-fixe menu. Call 713-527-9090 for reservations.
Out in Cypress, Gerry Sarmiento’s new Piqueo Restaurante opened this past Monday evening. Named for the Peruvian term for tapas, Piqueo is at 13215 Grant Road, next to Sarmiento’s Italian restaurant, Mezzanotte. The South American fare focuses on dishes from Peru, Argentina and Mexico. Roost, from chef Kevin Naderi (formerly at Haven), is now open for dinner. We’ll have details in SideDish next week.
For a Gulf Coast city, we don’t have nearly enough oyster bars. So we’re awfully happy that Liberty Kitchen, a new spot at 1050 Studewood, saw fit to add “& Oyster Bar” to its name. The kitchen is under the direction of chef Lance Fegen (founding chef at Glass Wall and BRC), and if the food is not graceful, it is very good, with big flavors and big portions. We’ll have more details next week in SideDish, but in the meantime just know that you can have oyster stew (shades of Grand Central Oyster Bar!), lots of hefty “guy food” and breakfast all day long.
As we’ve noted previously, Latin Bites is closing and moving. This Sunday, December 18, will be their final day of business at 1302 Nance in the warehouse district. The Latin Bites team is in the process of transforming the former Rockwood Room at 5709 Woodway to become a new and much larger Latin Bites, and it will open in January. Meanwhile, chef Justin Yu and wife/pastry chef Karen Man will revamp the Nance restaurant to become Oxheart, slated to open in March.
Congratulations to Brennan’s of Houston, which announced today that they have been inducted into Nation’s Restaurant News’ 2011 Fine Dining Hall of Fame. Originally opened in 1967, Brennan’s joins New Orleans-based sister restaurant, Commander’s Palace (which was inducted in 1982), as well as other notable Houston eateries: Tony’s (1981), Cafe Annie (1988), Americas (1998) and Mark’s American Cuisine (2006).
Many thanks to our team of intrepid tasters who sacrificed their Tuesday evening for a panel tasting here at My Table. A shout-out to volunteers Geri Harris, Steve Hanley, JJ Stevak, Steve Shroyer and Brown Paper Chocolates guy Richard Kaplan. Our wine columnist Joe Abuso organized and led the tasting. We can’t tell you yet what was sampled. Read about it in the February-March issue of My Table magazine!