HTOWNCHOWDOWN.com

As our readers know, Houston's vibrant food scene isn't limited to Tex-Mex, BBQ, and burgers. As our nation's most multicultural city, dining options span the list from African to Vietnamese, with pretty much everything in between.

Banh Mi at Beck's Prime

Longtime Houston specialty food retailer Rice Epicurean Market today announced that they plan to close four of their five stores and lease spaces to The Fresh market, a specialty food retailer from North Carolina.

Press Release from Rice Epicurean

Press Release from The Fresh Market

The store on Fountain View at Inwood will remain open.

Our take:

We think it's unfortunate to see an iconic Houston gourmet grocer sell out to a national firm, but we can't say we're surprised that it happened.  Rice Epicurean has always been a pleasant, serene place to shop, but their prices often aren't competitive with other specialty grocers and their selection is lacking compared to other, bigger stores.

Thanksgiving is this week, and I'll bet that many of our readers have yet to finalize their plans for the traditional holiday meal.  While we're fans of a home-cooked extravaganza, we realize that busy schedules often make this impossible.  Heck, out here in the Woodlands, football playoffs have resulted in practice on Thanksgiving Day, further complicating plans.

Hubbell & Hudson's Ho-Ka Roasted Turkey Dinner

Recently, Marco Torres, a photographer for the Houston Press, announced that he was going to attempt to go a month without eating Mexican food.  We'd rather not even think about this, because Houston is home to some of the country's best Mexican food, and it makes up a regular part of our diet.  Folks in other parts of the nation aren't so lucky, having to make do with the offerings of national chains such as Taco Bell.

Breakfast Tacos from Texas Tamale Co.

Tamales from Texas Tamale Co.

My bride's birthday was last week, and I wanted to arrange a birthday dinner for her and the immediate family.  One restaurant immediately came to mind:  Ciao Bello, the upscale but casual family-oriented restaurant in Tanglewood owned by the Vallone family.

When chef Philippe Schmit left the Hotel Derek's hot bistro moderne, we joined Houston's foodie community in wondering where he would be cooking next.  Buzz about a new restaurant on Post Oak was heard, but the rumored opening date came and went.  But restaurant openings are frequently delayed, so we didn't give up hope.

Last week we were excited to hear that Philippe Restaurant + Lounge had opened next door to Robert del Grande's swank newish RDG, and couldn't wait to give it a shot.  When a client meeting got pushed back, the opportunity arose for lunch on their first day of lunch service.  We were there in a flash, and here are our impressions.

First, the location.  BLVD place on Post Oak.  Literally a stone's throw from RDG.  Valet parking, or self-parking behind the building.  Inside is a very cool lounge area downstairs; the restaurant proper is up a long, dramatic staircase.  The dining room is sleek but warm; the fabrics chosen keep the space from feeling sterile, and floor-to-ceiling windows offer a view of Post Oak and the buildings across the street.

Upon being seated, we were faced with something a bit playful and a bit peculiar.  Paper placemats with clever quotations... from Chef Philippe Schmit.

We perused the brand-new lunch menu, and our first reaction was that it wasn't terribly French.  Salads, pizzas, sandwiches, seafood, pasta, and meats were all represented.  We zeroed in on their bacon cheeseburger, served on a house-made brioche bun.  Ordering it medium rare wasn't a problem.  We also wanted to sample a salad, and the Texas caesar, with BBQ-brushed skirt steak was a tempting, if non-French, choice.

The burger was a thick hand-formed patty, served on the aforementioned brioche bun, which had been griddled perhaps a touch too enthusiastically.  It was smothered in melted and re-congealed cheese, then crowned with some nicely peppered, thick-cut bacon.  It was dressed with thinly-sliced housemade pickles and butter lettuce.

There is much to like here - good quality beef, a deft touch with the seasonings, and a nice, dense housemade bun.  The patty was medium-rare, as requested.

But there were some missteps.  The beef, while tasty, was perhaps too high of grade; it was only minimally oozy, which is rare (no pun intended) in a medium-rare burger.  And the cheese was obviously melted at one point, but had congealed into a firm blanket by the time the burger reached our table.  Regardless of the missteps, this was a solid burger; tasty and featuring top quality ingredients.  We can't expect perfection out of a brand-new kitchen, and we expect it to become even better over time.

Next up was the salad, and it really grabbed our attention.  It was served on one of the longest plates we've ever seen; it literally spanned beyond my shoulders, and the salad was artfully arranged upon it.

The bits of romaine lettuce were drizzled with the mild caesar dressing, as were the croutons, tomatos, and bits of what we found out to be grilled cactus.  Our take on this dish was that it was lovely, but not particularly flavorful.  The extremely tender skirt steak tasted as if it had been grilled, not barbecued, and the expected smokiness was nowhere to be found.  The caesar dressing was also mild, and we admit to being perplexed by the inclusion of tomatoes on a caesar salad.  To be clear, it was a very tasty salad, just not what we were expecting from the description on the menu.

We saw hints of greatness on the plate at Philippe, and we hope the kitchen hits its stride in the coming months.  Considering the ample talent of the executive chef, we don't expect a long wait.

Philippe Restaurant + Bar, 1800 Post Oak Blvd, 713-439-1000.  
philippehouston.com

We're glad to see all sorts of responsible movements happening in the world of food.  One of our favorites is the focus on sustainable sources - the last thing we want to experience is the disappearance of great ingredients, leaving us to dine on Soylent Green burgers (We've heard they taste like chicken.)

We recently attended a dinner at the swanky new RDG that was focused on an ingredient with a great story: Yukon River Salmon.  It's a wild salmon that has been harvested for centuries by the Yup'ik Eskimos, and they have partnered with Kwik Pak Fisheries to turn their staple food into a source of income for their tribe.  The Yup'ik harvest the salmon at the mouth of the Yukon river, before the arduous journey upstream, while the fish are vibrant and full of nourishing oils (rich in Omega 3 fatty acids).  The Yup'ik tribe is a careful steward of this resource (it is literally their primary source of food) so it's a prime example of a carefully managed, sustainable resource.

But how does it taste?  We got to find out.

Oldways, a non-profit organization devoted to educating the public on better ways to eat, put together a special evening that allowed a group of people to experience Yukon River Salmon in the hands of an expert.  The expert is nationally renowned chef Robert Del Grande, who also provided the gorgeous venue for the event.

Chef Del Grande created a dinner based around salmon, serving it in several courses.  First were the appetizers, passed around as everyone met and mingled.  Salmon was served smoked with a delicate green apple tartar sauce, seared with a red chili ginger sauce, and our favorite, fried into savory-sweet beignets, offered with a creamy buttermilk sauce.

Shortly after, we were seated, and had the chance to explore some other dishes.  First out was a light, clean dish featuring cured salmon n a creamy avocado dressing, served atop a mache and frisee salad.  The flavors were cool and crisp.

Next up was steamed salmon in fennel broth, accented with giant corona beans and black olives.

Then came our favorite dish of the evening.  Wood grilled salmon in banana leaves, served with a dark roasted tomato salsa.  Here Chef Del Grande's southwestern background really shined through; the rich, earthy flavor of the wood grilled salmon was accented by the sweetness from the banana leaves, and the tangy salsa provided a tart counterpoint.  Dishes like this demonstrate the chef's unmatched mastery of southwestern cuisine.

Dessert was the only course that didn't feature salmon (Chef Del Grande quipped that he probably would have included salmon in his younger days, but we applaud his wisdom here.)  A rich chocolate cake with chocolate mousse was complemented by a unique persimmon vanilla bean soup.

We consider the even to be a wonderful experience.  We like salmon, but we were wowed by the variety of flavor profiles and textures that it can take on in the hands of a master chef.  Thank you to Oldways, Kwik-Pak Fisheries, Robert Del Grande, and the Yup'ik people for making this event possible.

Special thanks to Alison Clancy of Oldways who was on hand to answer our seeming endless questions, and who made everything run smoothly.

If you'd like to read more about this event, Ruthie Johnson has her impressions on the Houston Press web site.  And if you'd like to try some of the Yukon River Salmon at home, it's available in Houston at Central Market.

Ciao Bello is the latest creation from the minds of Tony and Jeff Vallone, the father and son team who have become legends in Houston's culinary scene. Our foodie friends were abuzz when word of this new establishment leaked out, and we decided not to wait to check it out.

(With most restaurants, giving 'em a couple of weeks to sort things out is prudent, but knowing Tony Vallone, the staff will be ready and on their game before the first customer walks in the door.)

We scored a table late on a Friday night (no luck at all the previous weekend) and zipped over to the San Felipe location, ready to experience the food.

We walked in to a crowded, bustling restaurant, and were immediately seated in the dining room. Tall and airy, modern without being stuffy, the room buzzed with energy. There were no empty tables, even at this lateish hour, and the waiters were constantly in motion. The energy of the room reminded me of the Grotto in its heydey.

But let's talk food. We feel that the heart of any Italian restaurant is its pasta, so we sampled several.

First up was the Agnolotti di Zucca. Delicate, handmade, thin pasta pillows filled with butternut squash, the dish was finished with a light, creamy sage essence. This dish balanced sweet and savory with a deft touch. We've often found this sort of ravioli to be cloyingly sweet, but the Vallone kitchen avoided this misstep with deftness rare in a restaurant open a year, much less one open a week. One of us declared this the best example of this dish she's ever tried.

Next was the Osso Buco Ravioli. A bolder flavor, the amazingly tender meat was infused with an earthy flavor that was bold but not overpowering. The richness was impressive; without a doubt we will order this dish again.

Our final pasta dish was a suggestion from Jeff Vallone - the Rigatoni Bolognese. We were pleased by the smooth combination of the beef and tomato flavors, and the undertones of pancetta and onions were spectacularly balanced. This is perhaps the most complex and interesting Bolognese sauce we can remember sampling.

Veering away from the pasta, our next dish was the fascinating Cuscinetti. Plump chicken breasts stuffed with Italian sausage, spinach, and fontina, this dish seemed deceptively simple until the second or third bite, then the boldness of the sausage (with nice hints of fennel) balanced out the mild, tender chicken and the smooth fontina, the spinach adding a very slightly acidic bite to the mix. Our favorite dish of the night.

Dessert was an apple crostata, light and understated, and something were were barely able to finish.

An important note: We were impressed by the reasonable prices of the dishes we ordered. No item approached $20, which made our mix-and-match approach to dining surprisingly affordable.

We have a new favorite Italian spot in Houston. We'll be back again soon.

Ciao Bello. 5161 San Felipe. Houston, TX 77056. (713) 960-0333

We just received confirmation that the popular Galleria-area middle-eastern restaurant, Mint Cafe, will be closing its doors at the end of the month. Eagle-eyed readers spotted a lockout notice for unpaid rent, and apparently the owners have had a spell of bad luck and are calling it quits.