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Restaurants / Openings

Montrose’s Hip New Hotel Restaurant Leaves A Strong French Impression — Your First Taste Review Of Perseid at Hotel Saint Augustine

Aaron Bludorn's Team Does It Again

BY // 01.31.25

Mention The Menil Collection to a member of the art cognoscenti almost anywhere in the world, and there’s a hushed reverence for its oeuvre and its forward-thinking founders Dominique and John de Menil. Now when sophisticated culturists pilgrimage to Houston to visit that storied Montrose museum, they can check into a hotel that’s nearly as chic. Across the street from the Menil’s Drawing Institute, the new Hotel Saint Augustine, a Lake | Flako-designed 71-room property spread across five small two-story buildings, blends seamlessly into the neighborhood.

Handling the all-day dining options for this new Houston Hotel are James Beard-nominated chef Aaron Bludorn and his front-of-the-house partner Cherif Mdobji (the operators of Bludorn, Navy Blue and Bar Bludorn). Together, they launched Perseid (pronounced per-see-id), the hotel’s restaurant named for the meteor shower that rains down each August — apropos for Space City. While their menu reflects global influences and ingredients culled from every corner of Houston, both men are protégés of the legendary gallic chef Daniel Boulud’s New York restaurants and contend that the accent on French food is actually stronger here than at their other Houston restaurants. Mdobji dubbs Perseid “a French bistro seen through the eyes of Houston.”

The Perseid dining room, painted the color of churned Brittany butter, is appointed with elegant custom moldings and Art Deco-inspired lighting. The walls are purposefully devoid of art. Given the proximity to such an esteemed museum as The Menil, perhaps the prevailing thought was that nothing could measure up.

Hotel Saint Augustine – Perseid, Dining Room – by Nicole Franzen
The Perseid dining room at Houston’s Hotel Saint Augustine leaves an impression. (Photo by Julie Soefer)

Reserve a table (preferably a coveted corner banquette) at this soigné boîte and toast your companions with a cocktail conjured by head bartender Thomas Hardy. From the classic to the creative, each signature sip at Perseid is named for an icon in Houston, such as the Barnstone, named dafter architect Howard Barnstone who conceived the Rothko Chapel. This drink is a blend of cognac, rum and curacao with bitters that riffs on the Sidecar ($16). Then there is the Night Heron, Houston’s official feathered friend. Its drink is a rum tincture with accents of lime, lemongrass and pineapple ($16).

Wines, like the Hotel Saint Augustine itself, are of the boutique sort and concentrate on French varietals made by small producers and others sourced from family vineyards across the globe.

Dipping Into The Perseid Menu

Pair your drinks with a sharable starter such as the smoked salmon dip, topped with a seeded spice mixture and accompanied with house-made potato chips ($18). It’s a rarity to find escargot on a Houston restaurant menu, so I felt compelled to try the classic escargot en vol au vent. Tender-garlic-scented meat is tucked inside a flaky cylindrical pate feuilletée shell and enrobed in a vibrant persillade ($25).

SHOP

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Even more common-sounding choices on Perseid’s all-day menu are far from ordinary. The St. Augustine burger is layered with duck-liver mousse, pickled carrots and cucumbers, topped with Kewpie mayo on brioche ($23). The Niman Ranch bacon on the BLT is sandwiched between Magnol French Baking’s sourdough bread ($19).

Eclair at Perseid
The pastry program at Perseid is headed by skillful chef Marie Riddle, who balances crave-worthy sweets such as chocolate entremet. (Photo by Julie Soefer)

We couldn’t resist the potato gnocchi — pillows of potato pasta seared and topped with garlic chips and toasted hazelnuts with broccoli rabe and a scattering of shaved Pecorino Tartufo, as well as a soul-satisfying wild boar Bolognese tangled amid narrow pasta ribbons ($24/$40). I’ll be back to indulge in the steelhead trout napped with almondine sauce studded with dried currants on a bed of broad, crisp Romano beans ($38). Not to mention the duck frites, tender slices of duck magret with chili mango glaze and green peppercorn sauce, served on riso venere ($52).

The Perseid pastry program is headed by skillful chef Marie Riddle, who balances crave-worthy sweets such as chocolate entremet (essentially a rich devil’s-food-like layer cake embellished with salted caramel and a quenelle of coffee ice cream, $13) with an elegant éclair filled with bright raspberry ganache and pistachio ice cream ($13).

The Hotel Saint Augustine 411

Landscaped by Ten Eyck, the subdued, tranquil architecture at Hotel Saint Augustine nods to its Menil neighbor’s signature gray hue, too — which is said to have been inspired by Dominique de Menil’s fondness for artist Jasper Johns’ monochromes, most of which were painted in shades of gray.

Aaron Bludorn and Cherif Mbodji
James Beard-nominated chef Aaron Bludorn and his front-of-the-house partner Cherif Mdobji run Perseid. (Photo by Julie Soefer)

The Hotel Saint Augustine was built by The Marchbanks Company and is managed by Bunkhouse Hotels, the Austin-based hospitality group that gave us the hip Hotel San Jose and Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin to name but two. Bunkhouse is now an affiliate of the lifestyle company Standard International, which was acquired last year by Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Bunkhouse is known for its design sensibility coupled with a focus on music. It partnered with the award-winning Post Company to create a listening room, intimate lobby bar, cloistered circular courtyard pool and a stylish restaurant at Hotel Saint Augustine, taking decorative inspiration from the modern and rare historic references found across Houston.

Perseid is open for breakfast on weekdays from 7 am to 11 am, lunch on weekdays from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, dinner weekdays and weekends from 5:30 pm to 10 pm (till 11 pm on Fridays and Saturdays), as well as weekend brunch from 7 am to 3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Perseid is located at Hotel Saint Augustine, 4110 Loretto Drive.

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