Bellaire’s Famous Yellow House Lands an Ambitious New Restaurant: Dining in the Park is Back

A new restaurant group is setting up house in Bellaire’s Evelyn’s Park — and they’ve found the perfect storied, canary-yellow spot to do it in. After The Ivy & James park restaurant suddenly shuttered this June, the neighborhood park was without a go-to gathering space inside the quaint and ultra distinctive Yellow House.

Now, siblings and restaurateurs Nick Adair and Katie Adair Barnhart are putting the Yellow House in order this fall with their latest Adair Concepts restaurant Betsy’s. After all, this is their neighborhood.

“We love that we will be introducing our newest concept in the neighborhood where we grew up and know so well,” Katie Adair Barnhart tells PaperCity. Their father, Gary Adair, who started Skeeter’s, the first Adair restaurant which debuted back in 1988, still lives in Bellaire with their mother, Betsy.

The matriarch is the namesake of the whole new shebang, much like their grandmother Eloise inspired the Eloise Nichols restaurant.

“Betsy Adair and Evelyn’s Park are a perfect match. She is a longtime resident of Bellaire and a native Houstonian. Betsy’s love of cooking, gardening and general love of the outdoors personify the things that we hope will make Betsy’s unique and personal,” Barnhart says.

“We want the space to remain a part of the public fiber of Bellaire and just hope that people will use it in any way they wish.”

Adair Concepts’ other restaurants include Eloise Nichols, Bebidas and Adair Kitchen. And Betsy’s isn’t the only new restaurant on their horizon. They’re cooking up a concept at the Wells Fargo Plaza downtown, as PaperCity detailed here.

But, first things first. Evelyn’s Park, a cozy five acres at 4400 Bellaire Boulevard, wasn’t around when Barnhart and Adair were growing up, but they think it fits right in. It officially opened in May 2017.

“The work that the City of Bellaire, the Evelyn’s Park Conservatory and the Rubenstein family has put into development of the park is nothing short of amazing,” Barnhart says.

The siblings are getting to work on the park’s new all-day cafe, which will serve smoothies and breakfast tacos in the morning and sandwiches, wood-fired pizzas and salads in the afternoons and evenings. It’ll also boast a beer and wine program.

It’s a simple, straightforward menu geared for the great — if polished — outdoors. “We wanted to create a ‘picnic’ feel and have a menu that can be enjoyed comfortably outside. Grab-and-go items will be available as well as shareable plates,” Nick Adair says.

“Meeting a group of friends for a glass of wine, or grabbing something by yourself should be more about having a reason to enjoy the surroundings than just about being in a restaurant. Our wine and beer program will allow us to get groups of friends in for an afterwork drink.”

The brother and sister duo are eager to team up with Evelyn’s Park on programming and events. “We think we can do really fun family activities with outdoor grill nights on Fridays or movies on the lawn,” Barnhart says.

This fall, eating at Betsy’s in the Yellow House will feel like coming home.