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Houston’s restaurant scene in spring and summer proved eventful with openings from multiple bars and restaurants, including local watering hole Patterson Park, Rice Village’s modern Israeli restaurant Hamsa, Montrose’s Italian chophouse Marmo, and a relocation of Underbelly Hospitality’s Georgia James ahead of some shifts in management. Now, fall is on the horizon, and in this new season, Space City is slated to welcome a new onslaught of anticipated restaurants and bars, ranging from establishments slinging masterfully-made sushi and seafood to French fare and barbecue.
Though delays may come up — meaning projected opening dates could change — here’s what the Houston dining scene has planned for later this year.
Wild - Montrose
Location: 1609 Westheimer Road
Key players: Adyson and Andrew Alvis
Projected opening: September 19, 2022
Get ready for this culinary roller coaster. The third outpost of this coffee and cocktail bar, which also doubles as a dispensary, will debut in Montrose, but with a new twist. In addition to its wine, hemp-based elixirs, coffees, and other cannabis pairings, this fine dining restaurant will feature coastal foods from around the world that are infused with hemp-derived CBD or THC.
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Gatsby’s Prime Seafood
Location: 1212 Waugh Drive
Key players: Executive chef Erick Anaya
Projected opening: End of September
From the team behind Gatsby’s Prime Steakhouse comes this Montrose seafood restaurant with a 1920s vibe à la The Great Gatsby. Replacing Tony Mandola’s restaurant at 1212 Waugh Drive, Gatsby’s Prime Seafood is slated to offer an array of seafood options with executive chef and Gatsby’s Prime Steakhouse veteran Erick Anaya at the helm. Expect fresh catch and cooks daily, including branzino filets, New Bedford scallops, and seabass, plus caviar and cuts of filets, rib-eye, and New York Strips. With room for up to 225 guests, Gatsby’s will feature a blue and gold interior — a departure from the black and red design at Gatsby’s Prime Steakhouse. and will feature an outdoor patio where Guests will be able to head out to an outdoor patio to enjoy an array of cocktails, wines, and “pre-Prohibition” drink staples.
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Kirby Ice House – The Woodlands
Location: 1700 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands
Projected opening: September 2022
The self-described “biggest bar” in Texas is branching out to the Woodlands. Located across from entertainment venue Cynthia Woods Pavilion, Kirby’s third outpost will take up more than 28,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor space, with more than 60 TVs, a more than 300-inch HDV TV wall, an arcade, a 30-foot tall Texas live oak tree, and a bar that reportedly stretches 141 feet. Expect more than four dozen beers on tap, cocktails, and a rotation of city food trucks. The 21-and-up bar plans to open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays, and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends.
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Bayou Heights Bier Garden
Location: 3905 Washington Avenue
Key players: The Kirby Group
Projected opening: October 2022
With the Kirby Group’s Heights Bier Garten serving as the inspiration, the hospitality group’s latest beer garden Bayou Heights will open this fall, taking up over an acre of land to serve cocktails, beer, wine, and a bar menu that’s slated to include smoked meats. Best of all, the bar plans to stay open rain or shine, with a patio with covered seating.
Elro
Location: 2405 Genesee Street
Key players: chef Terrence Gallivan
Projected opening: October 2022
If you like pizza and you like fresh seafood, Elro might be your new favorite. Helmed by chef Terrence Gallivan, who formerly led the now-closed The Pass and Provisions, this neighborhood pizzeria is slated to double as a crudo bar, serving up pizza, refreshing, seasonal crudos, salads, snacks, and sandwiches. Housed in a “vintage bungalow,” owners expect the restaurant to have a homey-feel, seating a total of 72 people, with a patio for up to 40 people outdoors.
Sushi by Hidden
Location: 5216 Morningside Drive
Key players: The team behind Hidden Omakase
Projected opening: November 2022
Hidden Omakase has established itself as one of the best and most opulent omakase experiences in the city, and now, it’s aiming to offer a just as delicious, but more affordable option. Its latest establishment, Sushi by Hidden, will open in Rice Village this November, offering a 30-minute, 12-course omakase experience for $60 that seats only 10 guests at a time. Guests will also be treated to a rotation of artwork that’s rotated quarterly, thanks to an in-house gallery created for diners to enjoy.
Eau Tour
Location: 5117 Kelvin Drive
Key players: Benjy Levit, owner of Lees Den and Local Foods
Projected opening: November 2022
Replacing Houston’s now-closed Thai Spice, this bistro-style restaurant will join its speakeasy sister Lees Den above Local Foods in Rice Village, offering contemporary French cuisine, seafood, and various specialties prepared in a wood-burning oven.
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Norigami
Location: 2715 Bissonnet Street
Key players: Chef Cong Nguyen
Projected opening: November 2022
Evolving from a monthly pop-up at Hidden Omakase, the reservations-only Norigami has now found a permanent home in Rice Village. The brick-and-mortar, which will offer a speakeasy entrance, is slated to offer its artfully made sushi and crowd pleasers like the Ménage à Foie Gras, a luxe combo of uni, toro, wagyu, caviar, and foie gras.
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CIEL Restaurant & Lounge
Location: 4411 San Felipe Street
Key players: Joseph Geiskopf, executive chef
Projected opening: Late fall
Blending modern Japanese and French cuisine, River Oak’s anticipated restaurant Ciel will offer cocktails, champagne, and upscale wine collections in a restaurant inspired by landmarks along the French Riviera. Executive chef Joseph Geiskopf hails from Napa Valley, bringing with him talents from Michelin-starred restaurants, including French Laundry and Vespertine.
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Also tracking…
- Second Draught, a 2,000-square-foot brewpub with beers from more than 70 area breweries, will open in Houston’s Ion September 12, 2022.
- Lotus Seafood will open its fifth and largest location at 2903 South Main Street, Suite A, in Stafford on September 21. The 6,000-square-foot seafood restaurant will include an outdoor patio, a hookah lounge, and the restaurant chain’s first-ever full bar.
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- Looking for a place for you and your pooch? PUCCI Café & Pet Boutique is slated to open in September in Katy’s Cinco Ranch at 23501 Cinco Ranch Boulevard, Suite N200. With a 5,000-square-foot back patio, the luxury pet boutique and bakery will serve up coffee, tea, beer, wine, pastries, and charcuterie boards for the humans and dog-friendly treats for the pooches.
- It wouldn’t be an openings list without another fried chicken restaurant, would it? SoCal’s fast-casual Daddy’s Chicken Shack will bring its blend of American Southern and Southeast Asian flavors to Houston’s 1223 West 11th Street in late September, with various styles of fried chicken sandwiches, including its signature Big Daddy, which is topped with Napa slaw and Sriracha mayo, a breakfast waffle sandwich, and biscuit sliders.
- Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina will open its third outpost at 1801 Yale Street in the Heights this October, slinging its beloved Tex-Mex favorites, hand-cut meats, homemade sausages, and delicious fajitas. Fun fact: Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina is billed as the first in Houston to grill fajitas over mesquite
- The partners at Bludorn plan to open their second restaurant, Navy Blue, this fall in Rice Village at 2445 Times Boulevard.
- Money Cat, the modern Japanese and sushi restaurant from the team behind Katy’s Tobiuo Sushi and Bar, will open in the Upper Kirby area at 2925 Richmond Avenue, Suite 140, this October.
- Kolache Shoppe will bring its pastry classics and exciting klobasnek collaborations with local restaurants to Kingwood at 4521 Kingwood Drive in October.
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- From the owners of The Pit Room barbecue, Candente, and 1751 Sea and Bar, anticipated steakhouse Andiron will finally make its debut on Allen Parkway by November, serving up a menu that emphasizes small plates, fresh ingredients, and cooking over live fires.
- Williams Smokehouse BBQ & Blues, a Texas barbecue restaurant with a Creole twist, will open at 2105 Lone Star Drive at Sugar Land Town Square in November. Owned by Sugar Land natives Kennis Williams and Furrest Greenwood, the 5,500-square-restaurant and patio will dish saucy smoked turkey legs stuffed with dirty rice, cold-smoked wings tossed in Creole “candy sauce”, and house-made armadillo eggs — a bacon-wrapped jalapeno stuffed with smoked gouda and homemade sausage.
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- Matt Tanner and Agricole Hospitality, the restaurant group behind Coltivare, will open EZ’s Liquor Lounge in the Heights in early fall. Plus, the restaurant group will open a second outpost of Eight Row Flint in Second Ward in late fall, according to a spokesperson.
- With pickleball being the country’s fastest-growing sport, it should only be expected that Houston get another pickleball venue. PKL Social is slated for this fall at 1102 Shepherd Drive.
- Berg Hospitality closed its B.B. Italia earlier this year and announced plans to reopen the Italian restaurant in Sugar Land Town Square (16250 City Walk Drive) late this fall, offering a 6,700-square-foot space with a patio, house-made pasta, New York-style pizzas, and a decadent 20-layer lasagna.
- Café Express will reopen its longtime River Oaks location at 1422 West Gray Street early this fall following a renovation. Adhering to its fresh theme and Parisian cafe vibes, the restaurant will also offer new menu items with the same European-inspired flavors – all of which will be available for dine-in and take-out.
- Ojo de Agua, a Mexico City-based coffee and juice shop that also offers groceries and a dine-in experience, is expected to open in River Oaks this October. According to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the location will be 4444 Westheimer Road, Suite D-140.
- Local Table will relocate its Cinco Ranch flagship to its largest location yet at 24033 Cinco Ranch Boulevard in Katy, featuring a massive patio and a dining room that seats up to 60 people. The local family-friendly chain also plans to open its fifth location in The Woodlands in the winter.
- Astronaut-themed brewery Bad Astronaut Brewing Company will open this fall in the Hardy Yards neighborhood, while Local Group Brewing gets a rebranding under its new management and a new name, Gristworkz.
- Heights Social will open in the Heights this fall with espresso martinis on tap.
- National dessert chain Sugar Factory will launch its quick-service “express” outpost at 5015 Westheimer Road in the Galleria area early this fall. Marking its second location in Texas, the celebrity-endorsed restaurant will offer its combo of “sweets, treats, and eats,” including smoking goblets and colorful, over-the-top dessert concoctions.
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- Initially slated to open this past spring, Gabriela’s Midtown now has its sights set on an opening this fall. Just like its Austin predecessor, the Midtown location promises an array of flavorful tamarind margaritas, fire-red micheladas, mole enchiladas, choriqueso, and other Instagram-worthy eats.
- Grant Cooper’s Graffiti Raw, which is expected to have the ambiance of Venice Beach, is also slated for this fall.
This article will be updated.