By John Mariani


Houston Space Center Control in the film "Apollo 13" (1995)

    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).  So when NY-based food writers want to get all hipster about Houston, they head for out-of-the-way ‘cue pits, taco stands, the occasional Vietnamese seafood place, and places serving the most eccentric Modernist fare, like The Pass and Oxheart.          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, which would include Pappas Steakhouse, with its polished look and great wine list; Underbelly, where Chef Chris Shepherd has embraced and beautifully translated all the food cultures of his beloved city; Hugo’s, which for a decade has run against the grain of Tex-Mex by serving top-notch Mexican cuisine; and the crusading Americás, which gave the green light to modern Latino food and service.

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, 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 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;  perfect spaghetti alla carbonara (left); 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.

                                                            Donna and Tony Vallone

    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.

Open for lunch Mon.-Fri., for dinner Mon.-Sat. Dinner prices for starters run $14-$39, pastas $12-$19, and main courses $38-$110.

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 (below, right) 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. 

Quattro is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

Lucille’s
5512 LaBranch
713-568-2505
lucilleshouston.com     

    Once upon a time a woman named Lucille Bishop Smith (below) 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 (left) in Fort Worth.
    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 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 (right) 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.

Open for lunch and dinner Tues.-Sun.

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR


WHAT I'M DRINKING NOW
By John Mariani

    Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Lyndon Johnson’s birthday--all good reasons to break out the good wines this summer, which is not the same thing as the expensive wines these days, when so many excellent values are available, both in and out of the sale bin.  Here are some I’ve really enjoyed this month.

Casillero del Diablo Malbec 2013 ($12)—As noted, good things come in inexpensive bottles, and this Chilean malbec from Concha y Toro is of a kind that proves that country’s eminence with this varietal.  It’s very well-fruited without being plummy, and its 13.5% alcohol makes the second glass as enjoyable as the first.

 

Paul Hobbs Cross Barn Rosé of Pinot Noir 2014 ($15)—The reputation of Paul Hobbs for his Sonoma pinots translates impressively into this charming rosé, at 12% alcohol, so that the fruit and the acids are of equal weight and the floral flavors make it such a good wine for summer seafood or pork.

 

I Poggiarelli Brunello di Montacino La Mannella 2010 ($95)—With only 334 cases produced in 2010, this single-vineyard brunello shows why this Tuscan wine is so widely respected. It spends 36 months, total, in wood, so it’s as soft as velvet but tastes as if it just came out of the ground.  Ideal for lamb and beef.

 

Antinori Pian delle Vigne Brunello di Montalcino 2009 ($50)—Ages ago, drinking a brunello less than 50 years old was considered folly, but, albeit with very mixed results, much younger brunellos have proven delicious upon release.  This one, from Antinori, is certainly well priced enough either to drink right now or to wait without worrying how time treats it. The Antinori pedigree has always guaranteed the high quality level of their wines.

 

Avignonesi Grandi Annate Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2011 ($86)—With 100% sangiovese, the wine shouts Tuscany, and vino nobiles have too long dwelt in the shadow of brunello and so-called Super Tuscans.  Earthier and in some ways more honest, vino nobiles have heart and soul in equal measure, robust, long-lived, and Avignonesi’s is produced only in the finest years (“Grandi Annate”), of which 2011 was one of the best.

 

Famille Perrin Château de Beaucastle 2012 Châteauneuf-du-Pape ($180)—Can a wine, like lasagna, taste better the next day?  This Southern Rhône beauty did, perhaps because oxygen opened the wine up, from being quite bold and concentrated, with 14.5% alcohol, to delectably smooth and inspirited.  The vintage was one of the best of the decade, and I may have drunk it too young, but it was a pleasure.

Three Sticks Bien Nacido Vineyard 2012 ($60)—Owner Bill Price, whose moniker back in his surfing days was “Billy Three Sticks,” has put as much personality into this splendid 13. 9% pinot noir as into his life’s other passions.  (He also owns Durell Vineyard, below.)  The wine is made from grapes planted on the Santa Maria Mesa, which gives its soil and grapes the cooling climate  and minerals of the Pacific Ocean via morning fog.  The vintage was an excellent one, and it shows in the wine’s complexity, gaining just the right amount of oak from 16 months barrel ageing.

 

 

Lutum Pinot Noir Durrell Vineyard 2013 ($60)—I have more than occasionally inveighed against overly extracted, high alcohol Sonoma pinots, but Lutum seems to have hit the sweet spot.  The pinot tastes like pinot—so often not the case in California—with mid-weight heft, though the wine faded by the end of a meal of medium-rare veal chops.  Lutum (Latin for “soil”) shows its coastal terroir well.  The same winery’s 2013 Durell Vineyard Chardonnay is good but for $50 a bottle, it should be extraordinary

 

Quinta da Giesta Dão 2011 ($17)—Portuguese reds get better and better, and the vignerons there have had long experience with this workhorse wine, which has never been expensive.  This one is simple, straightforward and ripe, to be drunk right now with any red meat off the grill.  It’s a wine not worth discussing, just drinking with a smile on your face.

 

 

Franciscan Magnificat Meritage 2012 ($50)—So-called Meritage wines, which use the grape components of Bordeaux, have long ago proven to be among the finest reds out of Napa Valley, and this is a superb example (named after a Bach canticle), very rich but, even at 14.5% alcohol, not overripe, despite the merlot being picked quite late in autumn. Franciscan has been making this wine now for three decades and it gets better all the time.

David Bynum Jane’s Vineyard Pinot Noir 2013 ($35)—In a lighter style of pinot, this example cannily triumphs over 14.5% alcohol by its balance, spice, and fine minerality.  Age may not improve what is right now a good wine for the summer of 2015, but the price is easy to digest.

 

Sbragia Gino’s Zinfandel 2012 ($34)—According to Ed Sbragia, “For 32 years I drove to Napa and made Cabernet and Chardonnay, but when I came home we drank Zinfandel.” I can understand the sentiment, and Sbragia’s blend of 94% zin, 4% carignane, and a sprightly 2% petite sirah, aged for 18 months, fits proudly among the state’s best examples.  There’s no getting away from its high, 15.1% alcohol, but then again, that’s probably where zin should be for a wine more complementary to cheeses and roasted nuts than with meat courses.