The 10 Most Anticipated Houston Restaurant and Bar Openings, Summer 2024
With opulent steakhouses and customizable dishes, extravagance is on the Houston menu this summer
Summer is upon us in Houston, and although in the pre-COVID world, restaurant openings typically tapered off during these hot and humid months, this season is just as busy as any. While some are expanding their footprints with second locations, various hospitality groups, and restaurateurs are moving forward with some of their most extravagant and long-awaited establishments to date, and the blistering heat might not be enough to keep diners away. Expect over-the-top and sophisticated presentations, steakhouses boasting some of the rarest cuts of meat, fancy ice cream carts with create-your-own sundaes, new cocktail lounges where you can sip and stay cool, and lots more sushi. Plan to be spoiled. Here’s what the Houston dining scene has in store for you.
Stay up to date with EHOU’s list of hottest restaurants and the full lineup of recent openings.
Azumi
Location: River Oaks District, 4444 Westheimer Road, Suite G130
Key players: Atlas Restaurant Group
Projected opening date: Monday, June 24, 2024
This Japanese restaurant, which has a flagship in Baltimore, will open its second location in Houston’s River Oaks District. Azumi, which seats 130 indoors and nearly 80 on its terrace, will feature a sushi bar and room dedicated exclusively to omakase tastings.
The Marigold Club
Location: Montrose, 2531 Kuester Street
Key players: Good Night Hospitality, CEO June Rodil, chef Felipe Riccio, partners Bailey and Pete McCarthy, chef Austin Waiter
Projected opening date: Tuesday, June 25, 2024
The hospitality group behind restaurants like March and Rosie Cannonball will finally replace the beloved Goodnight Charlie’s with what is expected to be their most extravagant restaurant yet. Years in the making, the 160-seat Marigold Club will finally open in Montrose, bringing French cuisine with a Londonite disposition. Chef Austin Waiter, formerly executive chef of Houston’s iconic restaurant Tony’s, is at the reigns, crafting a menu that offers lavish dishes like a Kaluga caviar sandwich with chive creme fraiche on housemade Melba toast, a Crescent Island Duck Wellington, massive seafood towers, and bespoke sundae carts.
Turner’s Cut
Location: Autry Park, 811 Buffalo Park Drive, Suite 160
Key players: Benjamin Berg, Berg Hospitality Group
Projected opening date: Friday, June 28, 2024
Benjamin Berg will open three restaurants in the last week of June, including what is slated to be his third and most luxurious steakhouse, Turner’s Cut. The restaurant prides itself on grilling up rare cuts of meat and will also offer some cool presentations, tasting menus, and tableside service. The latter will encompass a raw bar cart filled with seafood, a carving cart for bone-in prime rib, and a martini cart allowing diners to customize their cocktail. The bar is crafted from gold-cut crystal. The dining room boasts plush decor and white leather banquettes, and the mezzanine level will feature live music daily. Those wanting more privacy can book the State Room, which seats 24 people, or reserve the wine cellar, which encases more than 2,000 bottles, for two.
In the same week, Berg will open the Sylvie, located on the ground floor of the Downtown Texas Tower. The restaurant is slated to serve French-European cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in a bistro-like setting.
Brian Kennedy
Phat Eatery
Location: Grogan’s Mill in The Woodlands, 2290 Buckthorne Place, 77380
Key players: Marvin He and Kevin Lee
Projected opening date: late June 2024
Following the passing of its beloved chef Alex Au-Yeung, Katy’s iconic Malaysian restaurant will open its promised, larger second location in the Woodlands. The menu is also set to expand, with new items like Chinese barbecue pork, Beijing duck, and dim sum, plus a lunch menu featuring bian dang — a bento box-style lunch featuring a main dish, like barbecue or stir fry, with rice and sides. Street food favorites like Phat’s flaky roti canai, satay skewers, kerabu prawns, Malaysian curry chicken, and beef rendang will remain.
Sophie
Location: Montrose Collective, 910 Westheimer Road
Key players: Ashley Muncie, chef Anthony Anderson
Projected opening date: early July 2024
Channeling the South of France, this new cocktail lounge and terrace bar offers a two-part experience. Downstairs, bargoers will find an eclectic 20-seat cocktail bar dressed in dark red lacquered walls, mirrored ceilings, and velvet club chairs, while the chic and airy upstairs patio offers views of Montrose. Cocktails will be a main focus, with drinks like the King’s Lover, a mix of vodka, Liquor 43, and Maven cold brew, and the floral Scent of a Rose, made with rose and grapefruit vodkas, rose syrup, lemon, elderflower, and rosé. Chef de cuisine Anthony Anderson (formerly of Uchi) is developing a menu with charcuterie boards; caviar-topped lemon butter fettuccine; a Thon Cru made with marinated yellowfin tuna and saffron potato with Kaluga huso caviar; and the Swan pistachio cake.
Haii Keii
Location: River Oaks, 3300 Kirby Drive
Key players: JAG Hospitality, chefs Jeff Auld, Jarred Tosto, Jeffrey Taylor
Projected opening date: July 2024
Chefs Jeff Auld and Jarred Tosto have tapped Jeffrey Taylor (formerly of New York’s Morimoto and Uchi) to lead this new steakhouse and sushi restaurant. Inspired by Asian culture and cuisine, the restaurant will serve dishes like Beijing duck, Japanese milk bread, maki, sashimi, cuts of Australian and American wagyu, and dishes fired on the wok.
Maven Coffee & Cocktails
Location: Silver Street Studios in the Washington Avenue Arts District
Key players: Houston Astros player Lance McCullers Jr.
Projected opening date: August 2024
Maven will add to its stadium and hotel locations, but this time, with its first-stand-alone brick-and-mortar. By day, the new coffee shop and lounge is set to serve coffee and pastries, but at night, Maven will switch gears, serving cocktails and an expanded food menu.
Lisa Gochman
OktĂł
Location: Montrose Collective, 888 Westheimer Road
Key players: Sof Hospitality
Projected opening date: August 2024
Sof Hospitality, the restaurant group behind Houston establishments like Hamsa and Badolina Bakery, will add another restaurant to their roster. Taking over the former space of the now-shuttered restaurant the Chelsea, Okto, which means eight in Greek, will serve up Mediterranean cuisine in an upbeat atmosphere with a jazzy bar that boasts spirits exclusive to the restaurant.
Traveler’s Cart
Location: 1401 Montrose Boulevard
Key players: Thy and Matthew Mitchell, owners of Traveler’s Table
Projected opening date: September 2024
Those who love the diversity of the menu at Traveler’s Table will likely be excited to try out its more casual counter-service sister restaurant. Debuting in late summer, Traveler’s Cart is set to feature street dishes from around the globe that are inspired by the owners, Thy and Matthew Mitchell’s travels. Expect influences from Thailand, India, Japan, Morocco, Israel, Mexico, Jamaica, and beyond.
Becca Wright
Milton’s
Location: Rice Village, 5117 Kelvin Drive
Key players: restaurateur Benjy Levit, chef Dylan Murray, bartender Máté Hartai
Projected opening date: late summer
Following the closure of the European-French restaurant Eau Tour, restaurateur Benjy Levit has shifted gears, revamping the upstairs Rice Village space to make way for Milton’s. The American trattoria will cook up homemade pastas and wood-fired meats. Diners can preview some of what’s to come at sister restaurant and wine bar Lees Den, where beverage director Máté Hartai, formerly of Tongue Cut Sparrow, will host a summer cocktail series. Lees will also undergo a renovation to incorporate a speakeasy and private dining room area that will connect it to Milton’s.
Other openings to note
- Pizza & Pints, Karbach Brewery Co.’s new pizza joint, will fire up in the next few weeks.
- The revival of Galveston’s iconic Fish Company Taco is set to take place in late July thanks to the team behind Pier 6.
- Dove’s Restaurant, a Southern cuisine restaurant with an Asian twist helmed by chef Javani King, will open in Midtown in mid-July.
- The team behind Bellaire’s New York Deli & Coffee Shop will set up shop in the Holocaust Museum sometime this summer, offering up a non-kosher menu of bagels and cream cheese, salads, desserts, and coffee drinks to museum-goers in its newest establishment, the Bagel Shop at the Museum.
- Hungry’s will open its third location in Tanglewood at the end of July.
- Pearland’s Good Vibes Coastal Kitchen will open a new rendition of its restaurant — Good Vibes Coastal Cantina in League City come mid-July, which will serve tuna pastor gorditas, grilled octopus tacos, and enchiladas packed with lobster, shrimp, and lump crab.
- Slowpokes will open a sixth location in Briar Forest’s The Rowan development in August.
- The Kennedy, a 7,000-square-foot cocktail lounge, restaurant, and piano bar, will open in the Montrose/River Oaks area later this summer.
