A 100-Layer Lasagna and Other Pastas Steal the Show at Houston’s Newest Italian American Restaurant

Catering to diners’s demands for more pasta, the owner and culinary director behind the now-shuttered Rice Village restaurant Eau Tour have opened Italian trattoria Milton’s in its place

When Eau Tour closed in June, owners thought the French-European restaurant in Houston’s Rice Village had run its course. But Local Foods’s culinary director Seth Siegel-Gardner says there was one offering that diners couldn’t get enough of — homemade pasta. Now, the owners have opened a new restaurant in the same location that will serve just that.

Milton’s, the brainchild of Siegel-Gardner and Local Foods restaurant veteran owner Benjy Levit, officially opens on Friday, September 27, serving a menu where shareable dishes and pasta are the soul.

Siegel-Gardner, the former co-chef behind the shuttered Houston restaurant Pass & Provisions, has spearheaded the restaurant along with chef Kent Domas. The menu — filled with twists on Italian classics — leans heavy, and heavy is the point, says Siegel-Gardner, who wants to create a neighborhood restaurant where people dine with abandon and comfort.

At Milton’s, burrata and truffles are served with three-day fermented sourdough garlic knots baked to order. The Tigelle platter, an extravagant snack plate, is filled with antipasti, which can be stuffed into the warm, aromatic, ampersand-imprinted flatbread.

Julie Soefer

Homemade pasta shines, with classics like bolognese and a bucatini amatriciana with a spicy kick. Those who’ve dined at Pass & Provisions might find familiar the crowd-pleasing cresta di gallo — a pasta that combines roasted and pickled mushrooms and toasted yeast in a Parmesan cream sauce. Extra special to the menu, though, is the 100-layer lasagna, in which Domas bakes layers of braised oxtail, tomato sauce, pecorino and Parmesan cheeses, bechamel, and alternating sheets of spinach and egg dough pasta. He later sears its individual slices to create a crispy outer texture for each diner to enjoy. Domas says the type of lasagna will rotate each week, giving diners something new and special to try.

Though most dishes are familiar (Milton’s serves a classic chicken parmesan that is a restaurant staple), Siegel-Gardner says he tries to include dishes that stray from the typical, like sweetbreads and pickled fried onions, a new take on onion rings accompanied by caviar creme fraiche. The drinks menu, curated by beverage director, Máté Hartai, features a signature Milton’s Martini, a mix of Barolo Chinato, dry vermouths, London dry gin, and a finishing of champagne bitters, and the 77 Beige — whiskey and Benedictine with a punch of sesame and brown butter. Ruby red grapefruits from Southern Texas get the limoncello treatment and are served straight up or in a highball that features Cocchi Rosso and a splash of rosé, and coffee lovers can enjoy Caffe Incorretto, Milton’s unconventional take on a caffé corretto that combines homemade aerated amaro and pistachio milk in a hot and frothy sip served in a frozen glass.

Julie Soefer

Seigel-Gardner says he pitched the idea to open the restaurant after seeing that Eau Tour was selling out of pasta. He suggested the name “Milton’s” to Levit as an homage to both Levit’s father and his own grandfather, both of who were named Milton, and the two ran with the idea. (The name also adds another familial element to Milton’s sister establishment, Lee’s Den, the speakeasy and cocktail bar that’s named after Levit’s mother. It’s slated to re-open sometime this fall).

The restaurant’s shift to Italian seems promising. Milton’s has already seen a stamp of approval from James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd. And Siegel-Gardner has invested in a massive pasta machine, which produces 300 to 400 pounds of fresh pasta each week that now fuels the pasta dishes at Milton’s and its Local Foods restaurant and market locations. The company, which also owns Mexican restaurant Maximo in West University, also plans to sell packaged pasta in its retail stores in the near future.

The goal is to add a special touch that diners appreciate and want to come back to, Siegel-Gardner says.

“I want it to be a place where all my friends, my parents, and grandparents want to come to, and I do think that the guests dictate what your restaurant is,” he says.

Julie Soefer

Milton’s is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 5117 Kelvin Drive, Suite 200, Rice Village, 77005.