Houston Group’s New Restaurant is a Little Charmer With Seafood and New York Pizza

The small empire that is F.E.E.D. TX has a new child, and they have named it Little Liberty. Its siblings are Liberty Kitchen in Austin and Houston’s Liberty Kitchen & Oyster Bar and Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette, and the newest family member has already come into its own.

For starters, it’s open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with comprehensive and diverse menus for each meal. There’s house-made Greek yogurt (available throughout the day) with additions such as honey, almonds and Mexican cinnamon, or pineapple-ginger marmalade with sea salt ($4); market fish grilled over hickory charcoal (a recent evening featured redfish and tuna; $25-$28); and a compose-your-own Hawaiian poke selection — choose your fish, such as tuna or salmon, and add accouterments including mango, jalapeño, scallions, rice, and kale (from $12). All this, on top of the Liberty clan’s fresh oysters, lobster and well-priced wine list, plus New York-style pizzas ($12 and $13).

This is a cheerful place, reminiscent of a casual upscale diner one might find in a town by the sea. Bleached wood floors and white subway tiles show that it’s a Liberty Kitchen offspring. It occupies a Rice Village space formerly home to Ruggles Café & Bakery and, if my dinner experience is any indicator, has already been discovered by families, 20-somethings on dates, older couples and singles, who can sit at the comfortable bar and enjoy a Diablo Blanco — tequila infused with habanero, Fresno, jalapeño chiles, cucumber, Cointreau and lime, served in a glass rimmed with a cayenne/sugar/salt mixture ($11), or a glass of Soter “Planet Oregon” Pinot Noir ($13).

Little Liberty is open seven days a week and is already expecting new siblings: F.E.E.D. will open Liberty Kitchen Garden Oaks later this spring and another concept in the summer in the Treehouse building, located at 936 Bunker Hill. Little Liberty, 2365A Rice Blvd., 713.807.7224