Underbelly Obsessives Can Own A Piece of the Restaurant’s History

As his team prepares to open UB Preserv, Chef Chris Shepherd is selling off a few pieces of Underbelly history to the restaurant’s most dedicated diners.

Fans of the now-shuttered Montrose restaurant likely remember the bar stools at Underbelly, which have earned a reputation for being the heaviest in Houston with their custom-made steel and mahogany construction, and now they can own one. In an email, Shepherd says that he is selling off furniture that forthcoming restaurant UB Preserv can’t accommodate. Justin Yu did something similar when he closed beloved restaurant Oxheart last year, selling the iconic chef’s counter that was removed when the space was transformed into Theodore Rex.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the price tag is a little steep for these tiny pieces of Houston restaurant history. The bar stools are fetching a cool $350 a piece, but that pretty penny might be worth it for a custom design from Jim Herd of Collaborative Projects. If the stools’ aesthetic looks familiar, it’s because the company has built out all of Underbelly Hospitality’s restaurants and bars.

Take a peek at the goods on offer:

Chef Chris Shepherd has said that UB Preserv isn’t “Underbelly 2.0”, yet it will “preserve the ethos of Underbelly” with a smaller 80-seat footprint in Poscol’s former space at 1609 Westheimer. Since about half the seats are being eliminated, that means more than 60 straight-backed English Walnut chairs are also looking for a new home with an asking price of $75 to $175 a piece, depending on condition.

Underbelly celebrated its final day earlier this week, and UB Preserv is expected to debut in mid-April with former Momofuku Ssam Bar chef de cuisine Nick Wong at the helm.

• Chris Shepherd Recruits Major Chef Talent for His Forthcoming Restaurant UB Preserv [EHOU]
• Underbelly Announces Its Final Day Before Reconfiguring in a New Space [EHOU]
• Chef Justin Yu Is Selling a Piece of Oxheart History [EHOU]