Black-eyed peas serve as the base of this hummus dish covered in a confetti of shaved roots. But it’s a cumin vinaigrette that makes it hard to stop eating.
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Black-eyed peas serve as the base of this hummus dish covered in a confetti of shaved roots. But it’s a cumin vinaigrette that makes it hard to stop eating.
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The fish changes based on availability in this small plate, but it’s always topped with dandelion-pistachio pesto and served over a meaty grilled portobello.
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The fish changes based on availability in this small plate, but it’s always topped with dandelion-pistachio pesto and served over a meaty grilled portobello.
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Bone marrow with buttery grilled sourdough should be enough, right? But it’s better with chunks of oxtail and a gremolata flecked with candied orange peel.
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Bone marrow with buttery grilled sourdough should be enough, right? But it’s better with chunks of oxtail and a gremolata flecked with candied orange peel.
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Miso and sorghum lend sweet and umami notes to this local quail, served with spicy house kimchi and Serrano-cheddar grits.
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Miso and sorghum lend sweet and umami notes to this local quail, served with spicy house kimchi and Serrano-cheddar grits.
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Peter Rabbit likes parsnips and turnips. Here, one of his relatives is paired with mashed parsnips and turnip greens in a zippy cream gravy.
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Peter Rabbit likes parsnips and turnips. Here, one of his relatives is paired with mashed parsnips and turnip greens in a zippy cream gravy.
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Bread puddings are often uncomfortably sweet. This one is mercifully subtle, flavored with the stewed fruits ladled on top.
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Bread puddings are often uncomfortably sweet. This one is mercifully subtle, flavored with the stewed fruits ladled on top.
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Bar manager Erica Mota has remade the cocktail menu to match the cuisine. Williams says his favorite addition is this mocktail, Hello Amber, inspired by salty Vietnamese lemonade. With its notes of preserved lemon and apricot jam (along with rosemary soda), it reminds us of a tagine.
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Bar manager Erica Mota has remade the cocktail menu to match the cuisine. Williams says his favorite addition is this mocktail, Hello Amber, inspired by salty Vietnamese lemonade. With its notes of preserved lemon and apricot jam (along with rosemary soda), it reminds us of a tagine.
“This is the new direction of what people want to eat. The days of commitment to a $35 entree is past,” says Chris Williams. “This is how we like to eat.”
At the beginning of September, Williams cooked a few dishes for Houstonia to preview the one-night-only dim sum-style dinner he and his staff would be preparing to celebrate Lucille’s fourth birthday on September 13. Dishes like skewered, head-on Vietnamese marinated shrimp and butternut squash with fennel fronds and soy yogurt seemed long miles, both physical and spiritual, from the restaurant’s signature slow-fried Yardbird and fried green tomatoes.
It turns out, Williams and co. don’t just like eating that way. They like cooking that way, too. Those small plates have now both been added to the regular menu, along with numerous other smaller plates that either use Southern ingredients to create Asian or European dishes or vice-versa. But don’t worry, the Yardbird isn’t going anywhere.
Alice joined Houstonia in November 2015 and has been relishing exploring the city’s vibrant food scene ever since.
She began her journalism career at age 13 with a cult film criticism ’zine. As an adult, stints with WWE Magazine and EatingWell led to her job as senior food writer at Vermont’s alternative newsweekly, Seven Days, in 2008. In that capacity, she became one of the state’s most well-known TV and radio personalities. Her first book, Vermont: An Explorer’s Guide, was published in 2015. Alice has won an AltWeekly Award for Best Food Writing, two Daysies for Best Print/Online Journalist, and two "Top Social Foodie" awards from Burlington Social Media Day.
