Dharma Cafe has closed. Owners John Gurney and Susan Ralph have sold the quirky little eatery (originally located on Nance where Oxheart is, more recently in the historic Kessler Building on Houston Street), and the new owner plans to change the name and menu. Interestingly, the new owner is Catherine Duwez, who used to have Cafe Montrose, famous for several years as Houston’s only Belgian restaurant. Since Duwez and her husband divorced and sold Cafe Montrose, she has been at Broken Spoke on Washington Avenue. Duwez told CultureMap that she is rebranding the Dharma Cafe space as Cafe Brussels and plans to serve her famous moules frites (steamed mussels and French fries) and all the rest.
The original Goode Co. Seafood on Westpark at Kirby is planning to expand. Levi Goode, son of founder Jim Goode, has announced that the restaurant will expand on the Kirby side, move the entrance over to that other side and, thankfully, increase parking between the seafood restaurant and the taqueria that fronts Kirby Drive.
Meanwhile, the original Carrabba’s just up the street on Kirby is in the process of completing and moving into its new and expanded campus of buildings. Located on Kirby Drive near W. Alabama for some 25 years, there will now be Mia’s, Carrabba’s Johnny IV and Grace’s, an upscale restaurant that is set to open next February. The restaurants are named for the owner’s daughter, son and mother, respectively.
Houston restaurateur Domenic Laurenzo is opening another edition of the family’s popular El Tiempo Cantina in a most remarkable spot: on Navigation, right next door to the original Ninfa’s, the restaurant his grandmother Ninfa Laurenzo founded decades ago. The new restaurant should break ground within the month.
Adriana and Gerry Sarmiento, owners of Mezzanotte Ristorante Enoteca on Grant Road, recently announced that Alberto Baffoni has joined their team as executive chef at their seven-year-old restaurant. Baffoni, who had the original Simposio on Richmond Avenue, won My Table magazine’s Houston Culinary Award for Up-and-Coming Chef (age 35 or younger) in 2000. Across town, Convivio’s Marta Vina emailed us: “We would like to make public our recent change in management. Jerry Arguelles has taken over the position as general manager. He was previously with the Cordúa Restaurant Group at Churrascos River Oaks. We feel his presence brings us to open a new chapter in our business venture.”
When Nash D’Amico introduced his customers to Nash’s Pizza last year, something he’d been fixing for years after the restaurant closed for the day, he had no idea the thin-thin-crust menu item would shoot to the top of his bestsellers’ list. The success of this oblong, super thin-crust pizza topped with fresh basil pesto, marinara, cheese, artichoke hearts, grilled chicken and a squeeze of lemon inspired him to experiment some more, and now, as the summer season approaches, he is rolling out an entire menu of a dozen pizzas at the D’Amico’s Italian Market Cafe at 2802 White Oak in the Heights. (Sorry Rice Village, folks. The pizza menu is not available at the original location).
Speaking of pizza: Haritas Bibas, who has operated countless Greek-American diners around Houston for 30 years (you may recall Bibas One’s-A-Meal, for example), is taking over the downtown spot that was El Rey. The new fast-casual concept, located on Main at Congress, will be called Bibas Brooklyn Express, and the menu will include Greek pizza and Greek salad.
After a year of litigation, Arturo Boada vs. Arturo’s Uptown Italiano has settled. After leaving Arturo’s Uptown Italiano in March 2011, chef/co-owner Arturo Boada filed suit against his former employer, demanding that they stop using the name “Arturo’s.” In a Federal Court hearing Boada requested a preliminary injunction on that point, but the presiding magistrate judge denied that request and the ruling was affirmed by the district judge. According to a recent email from Arturo’s owner Bill Sadler, in April 2012, by agreement of both parties, the issue of naming rights was dismissed from the case. Arturo’s Uptown Italiano can keep the name that it spent six years establishing. Miscellaneous other issues have also been settled, with Sadler paying a cash sum for Boada’s share of Arturo’s Uptown Italiano and another real estate venture that they owned together.