A Look Inside Goro & Gun, Opening Friday

Grid View

• The entire dining room
• The bar
• Chef's counter
• Every restaurant needs a taxidermy lion

After months of anticipation and speculation, Goro & Gun, the restaurant that grew out of food truck The Modular, will open Friday for dinner service beginning at 4:00 p.m. At two preview dinners on Monday and Tuesday, chefs David Coffman and Matt Wommack presented a menu that shows the restaurant will be as much a modern Izakaya as a ramen shop; other dishes included scallop carpaccio, tempura fried short rib and fried chicken. Menus are still being finalizing, but co-owner Joshua Martinez expects the ramen to be priced in the $8-12 range.

In terms of the renovation, Martinez's guiding principle could best be desecribed as "do no harm." Every effort has been made to restore the historic building by removing exterior signage, revealing the original tile floor and exposing the brick walls. The interior's most dramatic feature is the floor-to-ceiling bar, where a library ladder means that bar manager Alexander Gregg and his team will have to climb to reach the "top shelf." Martinez's whimsical sense of humor, which lead him to name his restaurant after two characters in the Japanese ramen western Tampopo manifests itself in the taxidermy on the walls, including a lion, and the knick-knacks scattered on the bar's shelves.

For now, Goro & Gun will be open for dinner Monday through Saturday. Expect weekday lunch service to follow in the next two weeks or so.

The downtown revitalization that began with the Original OKRA Charity Saloon and continued with Clutch City City Squire is only building more momentum with Goro & Gun. By the beginning of April, Justin Burrow's Captain Foxheart's Bad News Bar and Spirit LoungeLodge and Latin American restaurant Batanga will join the expanding scene. Rumors are swirling of even more concepts in the planning stages. Of course, Eater Houston will have the details as they emerge.

· Goro & Gun [Twitter]
· Tampopo [Wikipedia]
· All Goro & Gun Coverage on Eater Houston [-EHOU-]
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