by Elizabeth Muscari Houston just received its first taste of the famous New Orleans BRG Hospitality, Eunice Restaurant & Raw Bar, a contemporary cajun-creole brasserie. Drake Leonards opened Eunice on October 1, bringing good ole Louisiana cooking to Houston’s backyard. Named after Leonards’ hometown of Eunice, Louisiana, the BRG Hospitality Group brings all the beloved bayou flavors in one place. The menu includes fresh seafood pickings such as an oyster bar, ceviches, gumbo, and roasted gulf grouper. The Upper Kirby district restaurant mixes contemporary charm with classic comfort to create a welcoming environment for both day dining and dinner.  The creative mind …

If the chew fits… Trend-setting restaurants worth stepping out to. Eunice UPPER KIRBY // Named for Chef Drake Leonards’ Louisiana hometown, Eunice is serving modern Cajun-Creole brasserie style plates inspired by his upbringing and European culinary adventures. Leonards worked at Cafe Boulud in NYC and August and Luke in New Orleans – Eunice is operated by what was formerly John Besh’s restaurant group – before opening his first solo concept. Local design darling Gin Braverman mixed antiques from Leonards’ family with shiplap, modern accents and a blue ceiling. Consider raw bar options like blue crab tartine or oysters before moving to New Orleans …

by Eric Sandler, Culture Map Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company’s new brewery and restaurant in Sawyer Yards has finally broken ground. Originally announced last year, construction has begun on the massive, $14 million, 28,000-square-foot, three-story complex. If all goes according to plan, patrons should be drinking and dining in the facility next summer. Buffalo Bayou worked with Method Architecture on the overall design and has tapped local design firm Gin Design Group (Public Services, Axelrad, Eunice) to handle the interior.   “We were really struggling with — you’ve got these ideas and this creative thesis for the look and feel you want, but translating it to what the backsplash …

by Elizabeth Blasius, The Architects Newspaper “We didn’t want a Disney World experience at Goodnight Charlie’s, so we pared back,” said Gin Braverman, principal of Houston-based Gin Design Group(GDG), about the city’s Montrose neighborhood’s newest (and only) honky-tonk. “We didn’t want it to feel contrived.” In order to flesh out project architects Content Architecture’s contemporary structure for a musical lineup that ranges from twang to tonk, GDG began with Goodnight Charlie’s good bones and dressed them with simple, vernacular elements. The rectangular structure’s cedar-clad exterior is complemented by interiors of warm, accessible materials that would be at home in Texas’s barns and farmhouses. . Louvers provide ventilation …

by Susie Tommaney, Houston Press It’s shaping up to be a perfect weekend in the Houston area, with a nice mix of refined and lowbrow entertainment — some outdoors and others inside (just in case it rains) — with a healthy dose of culture added in. There’s a fantasy costume contest that will bring out the faeries, sprites and elves; a chance to view important prints by Picasso; and award-winning architecture firms will spill some of the secrets to high-end design. This year we don’t have to choose between two major art fairs and that’s a good thing for both viewers and …

by Craig Hlavaty, Houston Chronicle Soon there will be one more big craft brewery near downtown Houston. This week the Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company broke ground on its new 28,000-square-foot home next to the Silos on Sawyer development,  just north of Washington Avenue. Buffalo Bayou, best known for brews like Cream Ale, Sam’s Daily and 1836 Copper Ale among many others, opened up shop in late 2011 off of Nolda Street in the Rice Military neighborhood. Houston interior designer Gin Braverman, of the gin design group, and Method Architects are designing the three-story “urban brewery”.  Owners say it will have an amazing view of …

by Tierra Smith, Bisnow Houston One of the hottest trends in the Downtown Houston restaurant scene is food halls. The four new concepts — Bravery Chef Hall, Lyric Market, the Conservatory and Finn Hall, all in place or coming soon — are a critical key to the submarket’s expansion and revitalization efforts.  While it was pioneering a few years ago, Downtown is on track to become a solid foodie market, Transwestern Managing Director Nick Hernandez previously told Bisnow.    During Bisnow’s Future of Downtown event at The Rice in Houston Tuesday, the panelists had a lively discussion on the similarities and differences of …

The Spots Opening Before the End of 2018 That Every Self-Respecting Foodie Must Know About by Marci De Luna, Papercity While you may not be ready to say goodbye to summer, you can excitedly look forward to the debut of several new Houston restaurants between now and the end of the year. The super-active season of openings includes several restaurants with a healthy slant, a much anticipated downtown food hall and some out-of-town concepts heading into H-Town for the first time. These are the 21 new Houston restaurants you need to know as the calendar starts to turn toward 2019. In 2018, …