New All-Day Downtown Cafe Brings Serious Restaurant Cred, a Killer Patio and a Tunnel Door: Sibling Entrepreneurs Are Thinking Big

Here’s the truth about Adair: This family restaurant group is thinking big. Adair Concepts — which is behind Adair Kitchen, Eloise Nichols Grill & Liquors, Bebidas, Skeeters and Los Tios — is making its way downtown, setting the stage for a new restaurant in the Wells Fargo Plaza office building.

The yet-to-be-named new cafe and bar is projected to open at 1000 Louisiana in the fall of 2019.

Office tenants and downtown diners will get a whole new dimension for breakfast, lunch and early dinners with small bites like cheese boards, and craft cocktails. The 4,268-square-foot restaurant will have both indoor and outdoor space, with diners being able to access it from street level or the Houston tunnel system.

Siblings and Adair Concepts leaders Katie Adair Barnhart and Nick Adair envision a place you’d want to swing by to grab breakfast on the go, sit for a lunch with clients or coworkers, or head to for a post-work, finally-out-of-the-office drink. Hours will run from 7 am to 7 pm daily.

“We’re getting to flex our muscles and bring in some of the things we use at other locations,” Adair Barnhart tells PaperCity. “It’s a blend of Adair Kitchen and Eloise Nichols. We’re shooting to grab some of the nicer things from Eloise and staples from Adair Kitchen.”

Imagine a Texas twist on healthy, California-inspired eats.

“We’re coming from the slant that it’s something you can eat every day,” Adair Barnhart notes. “We’re always trying to create menus that are not so heavy, not so flavor profile rich. Really fresh produce, really Texas ingredients. And certainly rooted in Texas staples and the things that we as a Texas culture eat all the time.”

Breakfast will include smoothies, cold-pressed juices and early morning staples such as breakfast tacos. Expect a similar vibe for lunch – burgers, salads, tacos, grain bowls.

“We want to create a menu for everyone,” Adair Barnhart says.

That includes meals for people on the go or diners looking for something DIY. At the marketplace, you will be able to snag a sandwich or customize and build your own grain bowl or salad.

Craft cocktails will circulate the same way they do at Eloise Nichols, with some signatures and three or four that rotate in and out.

“Our staple craft cocktails at Eloise have a lot of effort put into them and stay seasonal with their ingredients and have high quality liquors,” Adair Barnhart says. “We’ve had a lot of success with the Mid Lane Margarita. We’ll probably try to do a downtown version of a lot of our staples.”

Your Second Living Room

The idea centers around sharing it all in a good-looking space, with an emphasis on welcoming aesthetics.

“We want it to be just as inviting to sit in as it is to eat in,” Adair Barnhart says. “We want it to be a living room, for lack of a better word, for the building. Tenants of the building can come to have a meeting, talk with a friend, celebrate a deal. Anything they can do to make the space their own.”

Gensler and McGarr Design & Interiors are collaborating on the design. A glassed-in patio will bring the outdoors in, offering a unique experience. Food halls such as Finn Hall, Bravery Chef Hall, Understory and Lyric Market may be suddenly flooding downtown with fun food alternatives, but these markets are indoors and largely closed-in settings.

“We think it’s going to be a big change for us. Downtown’s kind of a fun new chapter,” Adair Barnhart says.

It’s certainly a daring one for Adair.