Southern Fine Dining Restaurant Heads to Houston with Women-Led Kitchen

Houston chef Tiffani Janelle has created a menu with deep-fried salmon, tomahawk steaks, and smothered Southern catfish

The Galleria area is getting a new fine dining Southern restaurant this fall — with a kitchen entirely led by women.

Entrepreneurs Touché Harvey and Frederick Wilson of HW Hospitality Group will debut Doves Restaurant & Lounge at 5524 Richmond Avenue in the Uptown area this fall, with private celebrity chef Tiffani Janelle creating a menu full of Southern staples, including prime cuts of beef, fresh seafood, and lamb with a Southern Creole influence.

Starters will include soups, salads, and appetizers like short rib marmalade with Southern grit cakes and island shrimp cocktail with mango habanero sauce. Main course options will consist of tomahawk steaks, Southern catfish smothered in Creole beurre blanc sauce, and deep-fried salmon, with sweet treats like a “grown-up” milk and cookies — a pairing of warm chocolate chip cookies and chilled white chocolate Rumchata for dessert.

The restaurant’s indoor dining room and lounge area can seat up to 99 people, with two additional private event spaces reserved for private dinners, meetings, and events. The outdoor patio will seat up to 30 and will offer its own happy hour.

Janelle, who has served celebrities like thespians Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, NFL player Adrian Peterson, former NBA player Tracy McGrady, and Houston icon Beyoncé, will also help hire the kitchen staff, according to the owners, creating a lineup of talented women to lead Doves.

Inspired by seeing their mothers work their magic in the kitchen, Harvey said he and his partner, who are both men, wanted to put women’s talents on display in the new restaurant, while also challenging the constraints or stereotypes of fine dining with a more relaxed atmosphere.

“We just want people to know that people can enjoy themselves. Even if you don’t want to dress all the way up, you can still come to get fine dining without putting a suit on,” Harvey says.

The restaurant — which is slated to open by August 31, according to the website’s countdown — will be open from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays; and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for brunch service and from 5 p.m. to midnight for dinner, cocktails, and late-night dining on weekends.

This story will be updated.