Posh River Oaks Pantry Tres Market Morphs Into The Cottage Grocery With New Menu Items and a Bold Expansion to Dallas

River Oaks’ posh provider of all things luxuriously tasty Tres Market has changed its name, adding to its prized pantry offerings, while exploring wider horizons beginning in Dallas. Say hello to The Cottage Grocery as the founders of Tres Market, which opened in west Houston 25 years ago, are separating ways and following their own paths.

“Twenty-five years is the perfect time to rebrand,” Tres Market founder Julie Rhyne tells PaperCity. “I think this is the right time.”

Sitting in The Cottage Grocery River Oaks location at 2620 Joanel, Rhyne and her daughter Lauren Van Wagenen are charging full steam ahead into the future. The name change, they explain, originated with this tiny bungalow that stands adjacent to the cozy gourmet pantry of prepared foods that some would say has changed their lives.

Indeed, the parking lot is jammed most mornings as ladies and the occasional gent pour in for the coffee offerings, handmade scones (if you want blueberry lemon, get there early), breakfast tacos and other morning food. Throughout the day, the throng of shoppers typically accounts for 500 transactions daily.

The Cottage Grocery, née Tres Market, crowd comes for deliciously prepared soups, salads, breads, sandwiches, pies, casseroles — fresh and frozen — and more that are part of the shop’s inventory. The recipes originate in Rhyne’s kitchen where she began selling cheesecakes and a few meals to neighbors in Dallas decades ago. On moving to Houston, she took that talent to brick and mortar.

With more than 400 dishes onsite daily, Rhyne oversees the kitchen where her recipes call for only the highest-quality ingredients. Many would agree, they are better than homemade and certainly easier to enjoy.

Favorites among the offerings include the chicken tetrazzini, sausage mushroom breakfast casserole, Texas chicken Caesar salad and spicy ginger cookies. (Personally, I am addicted to the lasagna, the scones and chocolate chip cookies.)

With the new moniker, Rhyne is working on introducing new selections to the offerings, retiring those that are less popular. Already making debut on The Cottage shelves are a new black sheep chicken salad (so named because it is more popular than the chicken salad that was on the menu for 25 years), a grilled vegetable dish and a new spinach salad with grilled chicken.

The Cottage Grocery Expands To Dallas

Van Wagenen left her high-level executive career in Dallas, where she has lived since college, to take over leadership, along with her husband, of a new forthcoming Cottage Grocery located in the posh Highland Park neighborhood. It is expected to open mid-summer at 4919 McKinney Avenue, tucked between The McKenzie and The Galatyn. SHM Architects has been tasked with designing a shop equally as charming as the River Oaks original.

“The reason we’re going into Dallas is because we are there to watch it,” Van Wagenen notes. “We’re going to get Dallas open and hopefully start looking for the next location. It’s got to be the right spot and our Dallas location is a great spot.”

Cottage Grocery By The Numbers

“There is nothing that stays in inventory here, even in the freezer section, longer than seven days,” Van Wagenen says. “Everything is fresh, made daily. Chicken salad is made two or three times a day.”

The River Oaks Tres Market turned Cottage Grocery has 45 employees with both a day and night shift.

Numbers from the River Oaks location alone:

Average number of daily transactions: 500

Average number of daily transactions during the holidays: 750

Cookies sold per year: 70,000

Boxed lunches sold per year: 48,000

Chicken salad sold per year: 17,000

Lasagnas sold per year: 4,400

Cups of coffee sold per year: 35,000