Bryan Caswell’s Latest Ambitious Houston Restaurant Tackles Memorial, Making an Old Cleaners Special — Your First Taste Of Latuli

It is the name that’s on many Houston foodies lips — Latuli. The much-anticipated restaurant collaboration from chef Bryan Caswell and entrepreneur Allison Knight, two longtime friends, is open in the Memorial area. You can find it in the hamlet of Hedwig Village at the former site of a Gorman Cleaners.

Plans for this Houston restaurant named for Knight’s three kids have been in the works for the better part of three years and came to fruition when Alfredo Paredes Studio signed on to rebuild and reacclimate the site, creating an setting that celebrates Caswell’s bold Gulf Coast-inspired food and the duo’s deep Texas roots.

The lauded Parades spent 33 years conjuring environments, experiences and products at Ralph Lauren in the role of executive vice president and chief creative officer and is credited with designing Lauren’s chic Manhattan restaurant The Polo Bar, among others. At Latuli, his team repositioned the building’s entrance from the freeway frontage to an orientation that embraces a more pastoral neighborhood setting.

“Inspired by Mediterranean roots, we designed Latuli to be a blend of coastal influences and classic American design,” Paredes notes.

Enter the reception area where the desk is artfully formed from a tree root, an ode to Knight’s working cattle ranch. Inside the dining room, a soaring vaulted ceiling, accented with reclaimed oak beams, is poised overhead, while beneath diners sit cossetted on caramel-colored leather banquettes. The ivory hand-troweled plaster walls are adorned on one side with several graceful arches inset with an azure-hued tropical wall covering, while opposite, massive oak-framed mirrors reflect the reverie within.

The bustling bar area is built upon honed stone, leather-wrapped chairs and patinaed metals, where much of the art hung gallery-style is curated from Knight’s own collection of works from John Cowan and Fritz Scholders, as well as a pair of signed Picassos.

Working his way through some of America’s leading kitchens, Caswell’s CV features time spent under chefs Charlie Palmer, Alfred Portale, Rocco DiSpirito and longtime mentor, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, who is credited with bringing Caswell back to Houston with the opening of Hotel Icon downtown. The confident Caswell leads the kitchen at Latuli with a menu that embraces the city’s multi-cultural influences, while being mindful of where the ingredients in every dish originate.

You’ll even find a few Easter eggs on the menu, dishes that have resurfaced from the array of high-profile restaurants Caswell owned in the past in Houston. These include the double cut-pecan smoked pork chop ($48) and Shiner Bock steamed mussels ($18) from his first restaurant Reef, Wagyu beef barbacoa ($42) from his Tex-Mex haunt El Real, and crave-worthy wild boar ragu pappardelle ($28) from his acclaimed Italian restaurant Stella Sola.

Diving Into the Latuli Menu

Start with a light, rare dish such as the soy and ginger marinated Ahi tuna, cut into ribbons and tangled with avocado ($18), or the snapper carpaccio ($15), brightened with a lemon catsup and candied fennel. The house-made yeast rolls, coupled with a roasted poblano and Gruyère-studded cornbread ($12), make for a warm, comforting start you shouldn’t miss.

Make your way to a Roman Holiday, a favorite movie of Caswell’s and his cheeky way of taking you on a bit of a holiday from the Gulf Coast to perhaps Italy’s Amalfi Coast where you can nosh on a truffle-scented pepperoni pizza with pickled serranos and arugula ($28). Then there’s the garganelli pasta studded with house made Italian sausage and broccolini under a shower of grana Padano ($25).

With a nod to authenticity, the pastas are made in-house with 00 flour, while the pizza dough is slowly risen over a 48-hour rise.

Shared plates include a mighty meatball filled with melted fontina ($16); the double dip ($18), which includes smoked redfish dip and pimento cheese each scooped up with Kennebec kettle chips (fried in a dedicated beef tallow fryer) and pickles; and an array of salads. True Caswell fans are flocking to the jumbo lump crabcake main course ($38) that lives up to its largesse, accented with pickled split runner beans and a drizzle of sorghum-sweetened hot mustard. The Greener Pasture deboned roast chicken with salsify and preserved Meyer lemon ($37) is an example of Caswell’s high sourcing standards. The grass-pasture raised organic chicken, exclusive to Latuli, was developed by Texas A&M football great and former Denver Broncos Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, a poultry science major raises chicken without the aid of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones and genetically modified organisms.

Ranch cuts on the daily special menu come from Rafter K, Knight’s cattle farm, as well as RC Ranch Heard Brand and 44 Farms, and include changing offerings such as a 34-ounce bone-in ribeye, New York strip and grilled flat iron steaks. Latuli’s alluring sides, heavy on produce and local ingredients naturally, include the batata brava ($11) sweet potatoes with a chili crème fraiche and a crunchy pecan and shallot cracklin’ and a field pea posole verde made with lady crem and purple hull peas flavored with smoked pork, avocado and pickled serrano slices ($12).

The restaurant’s 100-bottle wine program, which focuses on smaller family-run producers who favor organic or biodynamic practices, is selected by longtime Houston sommelier Jeb Stuart, an alum of Coltivare, Night Heron and Daily Review. Latuli’s list balances approachability priced bottles ($45) with those that top out in the $300 range.

Latuli is located at 8900 Gaylord Drive. This new Houston restaurant is open 5 pm to 9 pm Sundays and Mondays, 5 pm to 10 pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and 5 pm to 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.