Houston long ago belied its food media image as a place just for great barbecue (which it has little of) and mediocre Tex-Mex (which it has a lot of) and steakhouses (mostly chains).
They usually ignore the fine dining spots completely, like Brennan's of Houston, have little interest in Houston's Italian restaurants, and even snub Robert Del Grande's pioneering efforts in New Texas Cuisine in the 1980s; he now runs the superlative RDG + Bar Annie, which the Houston Chronicle lists as 65th best in the city, way below Bernie's Burger Bus (#45), Pizaro's Pizza Napoletana (which is BYOB; #28), and Good Dog Houston (hot dog truck at #23).
My preferences (dare I use the un-hip word "standards"?) are for restaurants that show off Houston's finest -- not its most gimmicky -- places that speak of the city's more sophisticated dining scene.
TONY'S 3755 Richmond Avenue 713-622-6778
There is certainly no better restaurant of any stripe in Houston than Tony's, which began as a modest eatery back in 1965 and evolved into a swanky red brocade dining room serving excellent continental cuisine, and then into an Italian restaurant of daunting excellence. I would rank Tony's with the best anywhere in the U.S. and many in Italy itself.
The ever-fretting, never-still owner, Tony Vallone (below, with his wife Donna), is manic about his ingredients, ferreting them out on trips with his cooks to Italy. He is equally insistent that the best of Old School manners are shown to his guests, who in turn show up well dressed. Linens are soft and wineglasses thin, the wine list, with more than 1,000 labels, is one of the largest and best selected in the country, and Tony is always at his namesake restaurant, lunch and dinner, to greet old and new friends, who have included over the years everyone from the late Luciano Pavarotti to the Bush family.
The newest incarnation of the restaurant (the third) has a grand design, with an arched dining room (above) with a high, angled, skylighted ceiling, a 12-foot, free-form sculpture--"The Three Graces" by Jesus Moroles--an intimate "Wine Library Room" with a spectacular Venetian glass chandelier, and a wine cellar that seats 60.
The menu is always sumptuous, from the crudi seafood tastefully garnished to the white truffle soufflé that's become a seasonal specialty. The pastas always toe a line of tradition while absorbing heightened flavors in dishes like tortellini in chicken broth with Cerignola Olives, Texas rabbit, and artichokes; fettuccine with soft-shell crab, vodka sauce, and house-made sausage; and risotto with fresh abalone, mushrooms and lobster roe.
Gulf redfish is seared and treated to blood orange essence, stone-ground mustard and lump crabmeat. Center-cut lamb chops from Colorado are generous, tender, well-fatted and delicious, while Sicilian lemon chicken is one of the most requested items on the menu. Duckling (for two) is sided with black Venetian rice, and tangy-sweet Bing cherry sauce.
The current chef--whose food I have not yet sampled--is a new one: Kate McLean, a Houston native and the first woman to hold the position at the restaurant, having risen from sous-chef after training in Seattle, Hawaii, and Provence.
When you enter Tony's you will be cordially greeted, taken to your well-set table, and, after a while, you'll find Tony himself beside you, very happy to see you, welcoming a newcomer, making some suggestions from the specials, and wishing you the best meal of your life, which it may well be.
Quattro Four Seasons Hotel 1300 Lamar Street 713-276 - 4700
Without Tony's influence on Houston's Italian fine dining scene, Quattro probably wouldn't exist. Prior to its opening four years ago, the second-floor location in the Four Seasons Hotel went through several unsuccessful style changes. The change to a classic Italian menu via Chef Maurizio Ferrarese has made all the difference. You are likely to meet him outside the kitchen as he asks guests their opinions and recommendations. Born and raised in Vercelli in Italy's Piedmont region, Ferrarese worked at the Four Seasons Hotel Firenze restaurant, a highly refined dining experience now translated by him to a more casual Houstonian idiom, balancing Italian and American ingredients throughout his menu.
You might begin with a playfully perfect vitello tonno tonnato, which adds a slice of tuna to a dish traditionally made only with veal and creamy tuna sauce. Pastas (available as half and full portions) include the bread dumplings called passatelli, with striped bass, lobster, clams and shrimp in a guazzetto bath of white wine, garlic, parsley and tomato. His lasagne alla bolognese uses rich Texas Akaushi-style beef along with a rich ricotta fondue, and he adds a quail egg yolk to his gnocchi with fontina sauce. Ferrarese knows well how to reduce to a rich density the sauce in braised short ribs, carrots and adds a crispy potato croquette, and he does a combination of lamb chop, lamb "porchetta," sweet potato, and asparagus.
Desserts get a bit more Texan, with items like pecan pie and a granola bar.
At lunch, you have the option of one of the best pizzas in a city lacking in that department, as well as a chicken panino with mozzarella, tomato, basil, pesto and avocado.
After several tries, this Four Seasons dining room has come into its own, and Ferrarese is very much his own chef, so go with what he wants you to taste and you'll trust him again and again.
Lucille's 5512 LaBranch 713-568-2505
Once upon a time a woman named Lucille Bishop Smith became famous for serving visiting potentates and sports heroes her soft rolls, chili biscuits and barbecue. She was a Houston entrepreneur who in 1937 at Prairie View A&M College developed the first college-level Commercial Foods and Technology Department, incorporating an apprentice training program for which she wrote the service training manuals.
In 1941 Smith wrote index-card file recipes for Lucille's Treasure Chest of Fine Foods, which went through many editions. She also came up with a recipe for Lucille's All Purpose Hot Roll Mix as a fundraiser for her church, and it became so locally famous that she sold it as the first hot roll mix to be marketed in the U.S. Still later, she became founder and president of her family-owned corporation, Lucille B. Smith's Fine Foods Inc., as well as owner of U.S. Smith's Famous BBQ in Fort Worth (above).
Born out of Ms. Smith's inspiration, her grandson, Chris Williams, who has trained in kitchens in America, London and Europe, opened Lucille's in her honor, serving Southern classics with a modern twist that is all his.
Set within a turn-of-the-century home in the heart of the city's museum district, Lucille's (above) is not just a restaurant that does what it does better than any other in Houston but one that both honors his grandmother's work and builds mightily upon it. As Williams says, "I love the relationship and respect for ingredients that comes from being a chef. That connection and link to traditions and practices and techniques feel so right for me. Lastly, I am a chef because it's in my blood."
I had a fabulous and truly educational lunch at Lucille's, showing not how far Williams has deviated from his origins but how much he has refined them, beginning with those addictive chili biscuits and fried green tomatoes made with seasoned cornmeal and a spicy aïoli. Blue crab beignets are treated to a Dijon aïoli with an apple and celery salad, pickled mustard seed and lemon essence, while shrimp and stone mill grits pick up big flavors from andouille sausage and a sherry-tomato broth.
A generous portion of pan-roasted chicken comes with fingerling potato hash, broccolini and lemon-caper jus. And he does an old-fashioned fish fry with basil, corn-and-pepper maque-choux and greens--everything here would have made his grandmother proud. And she would have approved of all that her grandson does with such a cheery, cordial and intelligent style that shows in the down-home atmosphere of the place, the amiable flair of his service staff, and the generous cocktails he concocts.