Houston Scoop Shop, Known For its Brisket Ice Cream, Is Shutting Down — Plus, the Biggest Restaurant Closures To Know Right Now

Sweet Bribery by Craft Creamery in the Heights is offering its last scoops on Saturday, May 31

Houston is well into the spring season, and while there are many anticipated and new restaurants, there are just as many closing. Owners continue to cite a challenging economy as the reason behind their closures, while others are still reeling from the effects of Hurricane Beryl and last year’s other weather disasters. Here are some of the most noteworthy and heartbreaking closings this month.

The list is by no means comprehensive. Have information on another closing? Send all tips to houston@eater.com

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Sweet Bribery by Craft Creamery

This Heights scoop shop will close its doors on Saturday, May 31, after roughly four years in business, co-owner Kimberly Kaase announced on Facebook. Kaase and her husband, chef Steve Marques, originally launched the business as Craft Creamery in Montrose in 2021. There, they doctored up unique and very Houston flavors like brisket, cacio e pepe, and pho, and hosted omakase flights, where they paired scoops with wine. In 2023, the duo teamed up with Sweet Bribery in the Heights and took over the scoop shop.

Sweet Bribery by Craft Creamery will serve its scoops until 10 p.m. or sell out on Saturday, and owners Kaase and Marques will be there to say goodbye from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Captain Benny’s Seafood Restaurant

The Northwest-side outpost of this boat-shaped seafood restaurant closed after a damaging fire on Saturday, May 4, Chron.com reports. A representative for Captain Benny’s told Chron that the fire started around 4 a.m., causing extensive damage. Fortunately, no one was injured. The fire department is still investigating the cause of the fire, and Captain Benny’s will remain closed until the restaurant is able to rebuild.

B.B. Lemon

Berg Hospitality’s restaurant on Washington Avenue will close on Sunday, June 1, after seven years in business. “Thank you for letting us be a part of your everyday moments and life celebrations,” management wrote on the restaurant’s Instagram page. “We invite you to join us for one last round of your favorite neighborhood eats and cocktails.”

Ben Berg, the Houston-based restaurateur behind Berg Hospitality, told Culturemap Houston that while it’s never easy to close a restaurant, BB Lemon is no longer a part of the hospitality group’s strategic plan. However, the restaurant’s Downtown location, situated in the tunnel level of Enterprise Plaza (1100 Louisiana Street), remains open. Eater Houston has reached out for comment.

In many ways, the restaurant was an ode to both Houston and Berg’s hometown in New York, with a menu filled with smash burgers, dressed-up hot dogs, sandwiches, and jumbo chicken wings, plus dishes that leaned Gulf Coast, like crawfish hash and crab beignets. Berg has been known to open and operate several restaurants in the area, including B&B Butchers, the Annie, Annabelle Brasserie, Turner’s, and the Ranch Saloon and Steakhouse, which is one of the busiest restaurants in the country each year, even though it only operates during the Houston Rodeo season.

In 2024, Berg opened four new restaurants, including live-fire steakhouse Prime 131, Heights soft-serve ice cream hangout Buttermilk Baby, Downtown Italian restaurant the Sylvie, and Turner’s Cut, a lavish steakhouse in Montrose’s Autry Park. It appears that Berg has been making some shifts when it comes to his restaurant portfolio. Berg plans to open more locations of Buttermilk Baby, with an outpost slated to open in Sugar Land this summer, following a deal with Carver Ice Cream. Tavola, originally under Berg’s purview, quietly switched hands and is now under the Bastion Collection, which owns and operates Le Jardinier, the Michelin-starred restaurant in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Berg Hospitality closed Benny Chows, a New York-style Cantonese fine-dining restaurant on Washington Avenue, last year, and NoPo Cafe in January to make way for a new location of Bagel Bob’s.

Gessner’s Grub BBQ

This Spring barbecue joint closed on Monday, May 12. Owner Phil Gessner, who opened the namesake restaurant in 2019, announced the final day of service on social media, stating that he had to close due to health issues stemming from his time served in the military. He thanked diners for their support. “I have met many new people I would have never met without the bbq,” Gessner wrote. Diners commented below, mourning the loss of Gessner’s barbecue, smoked beans, and giant breakfast tacos.

Chikahan

This Filipino tasting menu restaurant, which opened in Sawyer Yards in January, is now closed. Owner Andrew Musico, who also owns the pop-up the Fattest Cow, has not responded to emails and messages from Eater Houston, and an email sent to the Chikahan email has bounced back. Although the restaurant has 16 5-star reviews on Google, three diners on its Yelp page noted in April that Chikahan abruptly canceled their reservation with little notice. The restaurant, named after the Filipino word that means “gossip,” served an ambitious tasting menu that innovatively displayed Filipino cuisine in seven courses. Diners started with snacks, like longganisa sausage topped with atchara pickle and tare, and tortang talong, a bite-sized eggplant omelet made with fermented rice, shrimp, and a kick of Thai chile. Other standout dishes included refreshing kinilaw, a Filipino-style ceviche made with roselle vinegar, and Chicken 4 Ways, which included a Hainanese poached chicken breast wrapped in cabbage, a warming chicken broth, and garlicky chicken fat rice topped with fried chicken skins. When reservations were still limited in early February, Chikahan’s general manager told Eater Houston that the restaurant would soon offer more variety, with a shorter, four-course tasting menu and karaoke nights on Tuesday with Filipino tapas.

PostScript

Culturemap Houston reports that this ultra-pink, Champagne-fueled restaurant in the Upper Kirby area closed its doors after roughly a year in business. The restaurant reportedly canceled diners’ reservations for Mother’s Day, and its dining room in the Shops at Arrive mixed-use development is now empty. “We are saddened to announce the closure of PostScript HTX,” Postscript management wrote in an Instagram message in response to Eater’s request for comment. “We sincerely thank our patrons for their loyalty and support. It has been an honor to serve you and be part of your special moments. The people and culture in Houston are first class. We wish you all the best and hope our paths cross again in the future.”

Much fanfare surrounded the restaurant’s opening in February 2024, with the restaurant advertising its pretty-in-pink decor and special service buttons that diners could push for champagne. Chef Brian Caswell, who previously owned the revered, but now-closed, Gulf Coast restaurant Reef, served as the consulting chef for the first few months, offering a menu of fried chicken with hummus, sushi rolls, a double-smoked pork chop, and a diner-favorite doughnut topped with caviar. Caswell will be opening his own restaurant in Memorial this year.

The restaurant, however, never seemed to take off. During visits last year, it appeared noticeably empty compared to neighboring restaurants, including modern Indian restaurant Pondicheri and hand roll restaurant Kira. The restaurant’s Google and Yelp pages still list the restaurant as open, but reviews remain low, with more than 200 reviews ranking Postscript with a 3.1-star rating on Google. Eater Houston has reached out for comment.