Houston’s New Family Restaurant With High-End Food: Sibling Entrepreneurs Inspired by Grandma
BY Laurann Claridge //
Nick Adair, Katie Adair Barnhart, chef Joseph Stayschich
Siblings Nick Adair and Katie Adair Barnhart grew up in the Houston restaurant world watching their dad, Gary Adair, launch a bevy of eateries from Skeeters Mesquite Grill to the Tex-Mex joint Los Tios. A few years ago, Gary’s progeny joined him in the family business and opened Adair Kitchen.
This fall, the trio unveiled Eloise Nichols Grill & Bar in a new shopping center on Mid Lane. It’s named for the matriarch of the family: Grandma Eloise, a 93-year-old spitfire who grew up in South Texas, wife of an oilman, and who still drives and will no doubt be a fixture at the eatery that bears her name.
Chef Joseph Stayshich had a peek at Eloise’s handwritten family recipes, and with memories of chicken and dumplings ($18) and cornmeal fried fish ($16) vividly recounted to him, he reinterpreted her Southern staples, easing up on the richness while utilizing local purveyors from 44 farms and a Gulf seafood source that hauls his fresh-off-the-boat fish in from Freeport. Don’t miss Joe’s hot chicken ($10), where Korean spices meet Nashville hot chicken and land on the plate with house-made pickles and Sunbeam bread.
Lunch brings mighty salads, from a Texas seafood cobb ($16) to a taco salad ($13) and the requisite burgers (lamb and beef, $14 each). Dinner features lots of sharing plates and raw-bar selections, too, from seafood campechana ($12) to oysters on the half shell and vegetable sides, plus mains such as pastrami pork ribs ($17) and red- fish on the half shell ($26). Houston architect Issac Preminger collaborated with Nick and Katie, on the airy space with beams of natural light, classic marble-topped tables and a grand oak bar with globe pendants suspended above.
With menus that change weekly, it’s a place Nick Adair describes as an easy “every night of the week” restaurant where you can pop in and enjoy food and service that’s completely relatable.
Eloise Nichols Grill & Bar, 2400 Mid Lane, 713.554.0136, eloise nichols.com.
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