Much ink already has been spilled about the new restaurant, Radical Eats. It seems owner Staci Davis has hit upon a perfect moment in time when a vegan Tex-Mex restaurant with a punk aesthetic on Houston’s grittier North Side not only makes sense, but also tantalizes the sense of taste.
And yes, the hype written about the eatery is to be believed. Take the already-popular fried avocado tacos filled with crunchy, tangy “purple haze,” for example. You take a bite and think for just a second that it needs something, but while habitually reaching for salt and pepper shakers that are nowhere to be found, the warm fresh fruit rolled in corn meal and sweet-tart tang of the cabbage work their magic. You relax with the realization that the dish needs nothing but for you to slow down and chew.
And while vegan Tex-Mex may seem strange to those of us accustomed to piping hot platters of beef fajitas and bowls brimming with queso, it actually shouldn’t confound anyone at all, says Davis.
“I have two cooks in my kitchen from Mexico,” she explains, “one from San Luis Potosi and one from Guerrero. And they’ll tell you, many of their basic meals have no meat in them. They are used to making enchiladas with squash, tamales with pinto beans or fruit. And they are used to cooking with food they grow themselves.”
Davis grows some of the kitchen’s food (e.g. corn, chiles) herself as well in the garden behind the restaurant. Davis frequents farmers’ markets, where she also sells her wares. The seasonal ingredients are one reason that if you arrive one day, your layered King Ranch-style casserole might be filled with corn and squash, arrive another and it’s mushrooms and beans. My “medley,” as she refers to the dish, was just right, and the thick layers of fresh comfort food lounged in a pool of decadent mole.
But if vegan Tex-Mex is a surprise, the restaurant’s location is as well. Construction of a new light rail line stretches to the north and south on Fulton as far as the eye can see. Tractors block spaces that should be available for Davis’s customers to park.
So why choose the North Side to start a new business, especially an eclectic eatery in a fickle food town?
“My staff feels comfortable here,” says Davis. The North Side is a largely Hispanic community that several of the restaurant’s employees, including Davis, who is Caucasian, call home.
“I believe this is an up-and-coming neighborhood,” she says. And she believes the vibe of an established community in transition fits with the punk aesthetic of her place, a place where almost all of her employees are also artists who value community.
“We’re working to incorporate the community into our scene here,” Davis explains. And it seems to be slowly working. “Neighbors come by and bring gifts,” she says, pointing out an antique fire hydrant displayed in the dining room. “They bring peppers, lemons and hoja santa [a large leaf with a licorice-type flavor sometimes used for tamales] from their own gardens.”
Davis pauses. “It’s kind of a big deal to me when they do that,” she adds softly.
Then she mentions that Radical Eats, which took second prize in Onion Creek’s recent chili cook-off, will be participating in an upcoming neighborhood tortilla cook-off, too.
She smiles with the impish confidence of a totally radical vegan punk priestess: “And we’ll win.”
RADICAL EATS, 3903 Fulton St. just north of Moody Park, 713-697-8719, radicaleats.com