Chris Shepherd’s New Gulf Coast Restaurant Has Been Revealed

Chef Chris Shepherd’s groundbreaking One Fifth rotating restaurant concept has awed Houston foodies from the start.

From One Fifth Steak to One Fifth Romance Languages to One Fifth Mediterranean, the restaurants have raked in accolades.

Now, it’s time for One Fifth Gulf Coast, the fourth restaurant in Shepherd’s audacious scheme of opening a new restaurant every year in the same location (1658 Westheimer).

“These guys are insane. This crew is insane to do this. Everybody says, you know, when I say I want to do five restaurants in five years, ‘That is insane.’ Most people go into the restaurant business and open a restaurant and stick to it, they stick to their guns. This is insane,” Shepherd laughs.

“Even the chefs I talk to say ‘You’re a mad man. What are you doing?’ Man, we’re having fun. That’s what we’re doing.”

This time, the fourth time, fun looks like One Fifth Gulf Coast, which is scheduled to open August 12.

“It just makes sense,” Shepherd says of the Gulf focus. “It’s a lot of fun. From the panhandle of Texas to the panhandle of Florida, just discovering, and deciding, and showing what this area’s all about.”

This menu will hit close to home, with diverse dishes paying homage to the Gulf Coast states’ land and sea.

The wood-burning oven will bring a bevy of goodness: roasted oysters, pineapples for good-old upside-down cake, blackened rib-eye, roasted flounder almondine and charred veggies.

Shepherd may have abandoned the original, global One Fifth Seafood scheme in favor of this Gulf Coast-oriented restaurant instead, but you’d better believe it’ll boast a bounty of shellfish.

Oysters, crab, shrimp, clams, crawfish, all raw, roasted, cold, fried, smoked or cured. Could you really call yourself Gulf Coast without them?

He’s got his eye trained to Stone Crab, thanks to an epic jaunt to 100-year-old Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami, where he feasted on nine pounds of the succulent shellfish split between 10 people.

Gulf Coast culinary traditions are Shepherd’s playground.

“We have a plethora of products that come out of our Gulf, for sure,” he tells PaperCity. “The seasonality of products. Just look at right now — all the peppers coming in, the eggplant, the watermelons, the figs, peaches, tomatoes. We have such a plethora of seasons.”

Gulf Coast cuisine doesn’t just tie into Gulf Coast culture, according to this chef. It is our culture.

“All of the product here in our region, it defines who we are,” Shepherd insists.

Gulf Coast Shepherd Style

The chef’s putting his spin on that dictionary, as always. “What do we do? What is our style? How do we see a different product, with the ability to change the menu at all times? How do we want to do things?”

The hearth is a key example: the decision to put the steak in the hearth at 900 degrees instead of a cast iron skillet on the stovetop. “And it was absolutely perfect. And how do we take dishes from our past, like pork belly with cane syrup, how do we redefine that?”

That answer is still a mystery. But we know it’ll be by a sampling of other shareables, like hearth-charred okra with pimento cheese, muffalatta salad, hush puppies and country ham.

Jambalaya, a Gulf Coast staple, will be made to order. “I talked a lot to my friend from the area, I asked him where do you get jambalaya? He told me it’s the kind of thing you never see out, it’s a home thing. I said what if I made it to order?” Shepherd says.

“He’s like, ‘Bruh. Ballsy. I like it, as long as you know it’s a 20 to 25 minute cook time.’ The idea of it to me, it just made sense.”

Shepherd is deep into the process of refining the new restaurant’s menu. His Underbelly Hospitality team’s already narrowed the 100 prospective dishes down to roughly 30. That’s the hardest part, he says, falling in love with each one, then culling them —but he’s keeping the dishes that don’t make this initial cut in his back pocket.

“Now, it’s corn. Let’s go with corn dishes, tomato, great eggplant, great figs. And when we don’t have those things, let’s go back to the ones we wanted before and focus on those,” he says.

It’s time for some little menu R&D, so Shepherd and his team are hitting the road to explore the shrimp shacks and meat markets on the coast.

Traveling to Louisiana in this weather is also crazy, but they’re hoping the storm passes quickly.

The crew will stop by some of Shepherd’s favorite spots in bigger towns, including New Orleans. But there’ll be a fair amount of time dedicated to the road less traveled.

“We’ll go through some of the smaller Gulf Coast towns in Louisiana, in Cajun country. Seeing those things — I’ve never gotten to do that. I always just get on I-10 and go,” Shepherd says.

“What happens when you get off I-10? That’s what I want to see.”

Some of these hidden finds may even make their way to the brunch menu — a One Fifth first — which, like UB Preserv, will revolve around the regular menu’s dishes.

It’s all part of the casual vibe of One Fifth Gulf Coast, the kind of place where you can come once or twice a week and have a different experience each time and enjoy it.

“Because that’s what I like to do on a daily basis, but not super casual,” Shepherd tells PaperCity. “A casual feel where you want to come back and knock down some oysters and have a couple of beers and watch the game. Let’s do it.”

Along with beer, diners can guzzle bottled cocktails, riffs on Southern Classics like the Ranch Water and Texas Tea, plus an extensive wine menu with an emphasis on white, sparkling and lighter reds.

Unlike its predecessors that opened like clockwork on September 1 each year, Gulf Coast is scheduled to kick things off on August 12.

Mediterranean Mania

Fans of One Fifth Mediterranean — which is currently open in the spot One Fifth Gulf Coast will take over on Westheimer — need not fret. Much like One Fifth Steak spawning his permanent Georgia James steakhouse, Shepherd is actively looking for some real estate to open up a permanent iteration of the third crazy-popular restaurant.

It’s all about feasibility, so there’s no preferred neighborhood he’s honed in on just yet. “Not yet. My eyes are open to all things,” he notes.

There are many threads that tie together each of the One Fifth concepts. “We have fun. We’re cooking, and we’re having fun,” Shepherd laughs.

Then, there’s location, location, location, in that one extremely versatile building.

But, most of all, it’s the dream team, from chef de cuisine Matt Staph and Underbelly Hospitality culinary director Nick Fine, to general manager Jeff Buhrer, Underbelly Hospitality pastry director Victoria Dearmond, Underbelly Hospitality wine director Matthew Pridgen, Underbelly Hospitality spirits director Westin Galleymore, assistant general manager Kelly Spradley and assistant general manager Allison Alderman.

“It’s an all-encompassing team. The Underbelly Hospitality team is so fantastic. I’m really happy at this point in my life to have this team around me that really cares,” Shepherd says.

What can he say? They all love One Fifth like crazy.