Drive down Bunker Hill Road off I-10 just east of Memorial City Mall, and it’s hard to miss the newest addition to the F.E.E.D. TX Restaurant Group. The fifth and newest Liberty Kitchen is located in MetroNational’s architecturally impressive building called The Treehouse.
Liberty Kitchen at The Treehouse, which officially opened this past September, finds its home on the first and second floor of this eco-friendly, Double LEED Platinum-certified building. (You may remember that The Treehouse was originally announced as the new home for Jonathan’s The Rub, until the deal blew apart in 2014.) The Treehouse features a geothermal cooling and heating system, lights that adjust to the changing brightness of natural light and a roof equipped with solar panels, rainwater collection and wind turbine.
The restaurant is certainly not short on space in this sleek, sustainable location. On the restaurant’s first floor, there are three bars, two main dining rooms and a line of booths that could comfortably fit a party of six at each table. Located up the stairs is The Tree Den, another area of seating (or private dining room) that overlooks the main dining room and kitchen. The decor is similar to other Liberty Kitchens – cobalt blue and kelly green leather chairs and booths, white subway tile and plenty of reclaimed wood. You’ll spot eclectic, vintage finds throughout, which help to give this Liberty its own identity.
Culinary director and partner Lance Fegen has created a menu similar to the other Liberty Kitchens, with favorites like Creole whole crab, gumbo, deviled eggs, loaded hushpuppies and build-your-own poke bowls still grabbing a spot on the menu. But expect several new menu items like a cazuela of pork belly shoulder, chorizo and octopus, Fegen’s mother’s chicken cacciatore or coq au vin served with grits, and daily specials unique to the location created by Fegen and executive chef Romulo Diliganzo, previously at La Table.
The restaurant treated us to lunch this past Friday, and to start off the meal we slurped lean and minerally oysters on the half shell (market price, photo above) from Canada’s East and West Coasts. Stop in Monday through Friday between 3 and 6 pm and enjoy their raw oyster varieties for one dollar each. Oysters are served with cocktail sauce, hard cider mignonette, saltines, lemon and a bottle of Freedom Stings hot pepper sauce, which is Liberty Kitchen’s house-made hot sauce.
A couple other stand-out starters are the hot smoked salmon served with warm, salted French bread and bacon jam butter ($9.50) and the Costa Brava seafood cocktail ($17, photo below), which features shrimp, crab and fried oysters in a sweet tomato broth with avocado, pico de gallo, cucumber, chiles and lime. The dish is served with long tortilla strips – a much better vehicle than triangular chips that can’t reach the bottom of the cocktail goblet.
The Liberty Kitchen/Treehouse menu has also made more room for meats, thanks to its 13-foot wood-fired grill. The petite filet mignon (6 oz., $32, photo below), with a gorgeous peppered crust, is served with a bowl of simply dressed salad and arrived perfectly medium rare. Yep, that steak sauce is house-made, too. Other non-seafood options include bone-in ribeye, Berkshire pork T-bone, smoked flanken ribs and campfire-hung beer-brined chicken.
An off-the-menu special created by Diliganzo the day we visited was creamed spinach-stuffed flounder with Creole butter sauce ($34). It also came with an off-the-menu side (that we expect will win a permanent spot on the menu) – whipped, silky potatoes crowned with sweet lobster meat (photo below).
Desserts change based on seasonal availability and whatever Sweet Liberties and Creamery pastry chef Johnny Wesley, previously as Killen’s Steakhouse, decides to whip up. When we visited, it was bread pudding with caramel sauce, chocolate cake, mint chocolate chip ice cream (chocolate and vanilla ice creams are always available) and pecan pie. Stay tuned for a Sweet Liberties and Creamery brick and mortar coming soon with sweets and some of the group’s bottled specialties (such as the bacon jam).
The restaurant offers the same menu for lunch and dinner, but stop by during the evening, and you’ll notice the restaurant has been dressed up with white table clothes and soft candle light. It’s a neighborhood restaurant, but it’s ready to host special occasion dinners, too.
Liberty Kitchen at The Treehouse, 963 Bunker Hill at Gaylord, 713-468-3745, libertykitchentreehouse.com