Pappas opening Little's Oyster Bar; Ford Fry's Little Rey coming to Houston

Apr 06, 2023

In this week's Restaurant Roundup, Pappas Restaurants is opening its new seafood concept in a former seafood spot; Atlanta-based chef and Houston native Ford Fry is bringing another restaurant to Houston; longtime restaurant Lankford's is opening its second location, which features self-pour beer; an Italian restaurant has replaced Union Kitchen on Washington Avenue; and a New York-style eatery is closing.

Houston-based Pappas Restaurants will open its new seafood concept, Little's Oyster Bar, on May 17.

The restaurant, at 3001 S. Shepherd Drive, replaces Little Pappas Seafood House Oyster Bar.

Chef Jason Ryczek, a California native, is leading Pappas' first chef-driven restaurant. He previously worked for renowned seafood kitchens as well as California Caviar Co. and participated in the company's Caviar Camp every October. During the most recent camp, Ryczek personally harvested six California white sturgeon for caviar at Little's.

The new restaurant will offer a raw bar with a rotating selection of oysters, Texas wild Gulf shrimp, Maine lobster and jumbo lump blue crab. Ryczek also makes crab croquettes — with jumbo lump crab, scallop and shrimp — instead of traditional crab cakes. Other larger seafood dishes include lobster gnocchi, charcoal grilled octopus, and the Southern-but-not-traditional chicken fried snapper. Pappas uses its own boats to supply its Gulf fish, and the company is committed to carefully sourcing anything from outside the Gulf of Mexico.

"As we lean on ingredients outside the Gulf, we’re looking for sustainability and proper sourcing just as we do in our own waters so we can leave the ocean a better place," Ryczek said.

Robert Smith, Pappas Restaurants' fine spirits and expanding concepts wine director, is curating the wine list, which will include several European whites and Champagne to pair with the seafood as well as reds. Oliver Brooks, the bar manager, created a cocktail menu with a lot of aperitivo spirits to pair with seafood.

Carlos Velasquez, longtime member of the management team at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Galleria, is joining Little's Oyster Bar as general manager. Janiece Velardi is the pastry chef.

Pappas' in-house design team, led by Design Director Evy Pappas, handled the transformation of the space, which seats more than 80 inside and more than 50 on the all-weather patio with a retractable roof. The design aims "to be fun and fancy with a little touch of funk" and features framed prints of Ryczek's sketches of dishes. Pappas fabricated all banquettes, tables, millwork, entry canopy and the back bar in-house.

Little's is open Wednesday through Sunday, starting at 5 p.m. each day. It closes at 9 p.m. on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and at 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The opening of Little's comes just days after Pappas Restaurants had to vacate Hobby Airport after 20 years.

Ford Fry — the Atlanta-based chef and Houston native behind local restaurants State of Grace, La Lucha and Superica Heights — is bringing another concept to the Bayou City.

Little Rey will open in early 2024 at 2345 Mid Lane, in between River Oaks District and the Highland Village shopping center, the Houston Chronicle reports.

According to photos posted on HAIF and information from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Little Rey will be in a new standalone building within the Park Place River Oaks mixed-use development, which includes the 200 Park Place office tower as well as The Ivy and The James luxury multifamily complexes.

Although Little Rey offers some Tex-Mex favorites, Fry says the food is more Northern Mexican, per the Chronicle. Michael Hsu Office of Architecture is designing the approximately 7,000-square-foot space, making it the largest location for the fast-casual concept, per the Chronicle. The original location opened in Atlanta in 2019, and another one is under construction, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

The Houston location will have a large patio and a walk-up window.

Nearby, Dante's River Oaks will open May 16 at 4340 Westheimer Road, #150, replacing Concura, and Dallas-based M Crowd Restaurant Group will open Mi Cocina Houston in October in the space previously occupied by Seasons 52.

Lankford's — originally Lankford Grocery & Market — will open its second location on May 15 after more than eight decades in business.

The new location, at 5208 Bissonnet St. in Bellaire, will offer Lankford's signature burgers as well as 20 taps of self-serve draft beer. The company has had its burgers featured on Food Network's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives" and the "Texas Bucket List" television shows.

Using iPourIt self-pour technology, the 20-tap draft system allows customers to serve themselves using an RFID-enabled wristband. The system tracks the amount each customer serves and adds the drinks to a tab. Not only does the technology free up staff to focus on food service, it also results in an average increase of 39% in alcohol sales, said Darren Nicholson, vice president of sales for iPourIt. Because the system logs every ounce poured, there's also less waste, he said.

Lankford's will offer local craft brews in its rotating selection of hand-picked beers at the Bellaire location.

"We don't have draft beer at the original location and we really wanted to do something different at the new location," Paul Prior said. "I first came across a self-pour system in Florida and hadn't seen anything like it in Houston. I liked the concept because it reduces keg waste and gives us the opportunity to highlight and collaborate with local breweries, and it just has a cool factor that people will love."

Paul and Jessica Prior, the third generation of the Lankford family to operate the restaurant, took over ownership in June 2021 and plan to continue growing the company. Paul's grandparents, Aubrey and Nona, first opened Lankford's as a mom-and-pop grocery store in 1937 and his mother, Eydie Lankford Prior, later transformed it into a full-service restaurant.

Houston-based Gr8 Plate Hospitality, the company behind The Union Kitchen and Jax Grill, opened its second Passerella Italiano restaurant on May 8.

The new Italian restaurant is in the former Union Kitchen space at 6011 Washington Ave., on the ground floor of the Elan Memorial Park apartment complex. Houston-based J. Stone Construction handled the transformation of the 5,000-square-foot restaurant, which was designed by Doris Miller. Husband-and-wife team Paul and Doris Miller own Gr8 Plate.

James Lundy, Gr8 Plate's corporate chef, leads Passerella's kitchen alongside another husband-and-wife team: executive chef Ed Roberts and chef Stephanie Roberts. The menu features a mushroom tart topped with arugula and pear salad, stuffed flounder with smoked lemon butter, and Passerella's signature lobster mac and cheese. It also offers four pizzas options — margherita, diavola, prosciutto e pere and pizza ai funghi — made in a live-fired, four-deck Italian stone pizza oven that the Millers call the "F-150 of pizza ovens." The signature dessert is a 10-layered dessert lasagna with cream cheese, brown sugar, pecans, vanilla sauce and salted caramel sauce.

Paul Miller, a WSET Level 2 certified wine & spirits professional, curated the wine and cocktail menu, which blends classic and contemporary options. Passerella offers $5 wine by the glass and $15 bottles during happy hour.

"Wine is not just an afterthought at Gr8 Plate concepts," Miller said. "We delight in offering customers the best wines at the best prices, and this Passerella location will be a destination for wine lovers on Washington Avenue."

Passerella's Washington Avenue location seats 250 guests inside and up to 120 on the patio year-round. The restaurant will be open Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 4 p.m. It will close at 9 p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and at 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The original Passerella opened a year ago within Boardwalk Towne Lake in Cypress.

New York Eatery at 5422 Bellaire Blvd. in Bellaire will close May 14, according to CultureMap, the Houston Chronicle and others. It originally opened in October 2021.

However, Bagel Shop Bakery and Houston Catering Concepts at the same address will remain open, as will sister concept New York Deli & Coffee Shop and Bagel Shop at 9724 Hillcroft.