Houston’s Hidden Treasures

There’s a surprisingly potent cultural thread weaving its way through Houston, Texas, a city of sprawling freeways and more mansions than you can imagine in an urban setting. Perhaps it has something to do with all that money from oil and energy and as it’s the 4^th largest city in the U.S. that must account for something. This global town with a Wild West bent has its finger on the pulse of art, dance, theater and culinary greatness with (dare I say it) exemplary taste in holiday decorating. The Halloween time frame when I visited offered up endless garden goblins hanging from perfectly pruned trees, stalking ghosts creeping through manicured flower beds and even a front-lawn-sized spider web that stretched from the sidewalk to the front door. The occasional (real) coffin carefully placed on a porch went well beyond the norm for this occasion and I was not only disappointed that I wasn’t seeing it all at night in the dark but was also convinced that I had to come back for Christmas, which is even better I was told.

I was fortunate to have a few free days in town bookending a special event and as I’d never been there, I was hoping to discover what makes it different from Dallas which seems to get all the limelight. I knew that it was a global city with a first class ballet (good enough to play Paris and Montreal last season, no small feat) and I was aware for years that it was the home of the Menil Collection, a private museum for seminal modern art founded by the affluent de Menil family (more on them in a bit). What I didn’t know was how evolved the restaurant scene was (almost on par with Los Angeles) and how ambitious the menus and drink programs had been planned.

Houstonia Magazine, the local voice in town, classified Houston as America’s coolest food city. I have no doubt that Austin would argue that fact till the cows come home, but I have to admit that our meal at Triniti on the first night there was exceptional. The restaurant is the brainchild of Ryan Hidebrand and Greg Lowry whose “progressive American” concept, which focuses on the triad of sweet, savory and spirits, seems to be hitting all the right notes. It’s made it to Houstonia’s list of 50 restaurants that define Houston dining and, on the Sunday night we visited, the restaurant was bustling even though it was approaching 10 pm. While savoring a perfect Negroni and admiring the dazzling interior throughout the meal, the kitchen turned out stellar food including a “Foie Gras Breakfast” that was nothing short of eloquent and a nouvelle version of Crepes Suzette with foie gras, sausage and Grand Marnier crème from the menu du jour. I think we may have been ready for lunch after that and the next day Eleven XI was the ticket for it.

Eleven XI occupies a modern townhouse in the heart of the city with roof top bragging rights and an adjacent sports bar that’s mixing all the right formulas, definitely the result of Joe Welborn’s input. Try one of Joe’s special concoctions like a Pimm’s Cup mixed with fresh cucumber and just the right amount of soda … you’ll feel like you’re at Wimbledon. Well, that is until you chow down on the restaurant’s Pecan Smoked Baby Back Ribs, which will put you right back in Texas, after licking your fingers and thinking about dessert. Only the Peanut Butter Tower will make you understand just how far Houston’s culinary scene has progressed. The dessert’s ode to Reese’s is unmistakable, yet it goes much further as far as sweets satisfaction and proves Eleven XI’s claim to culinary wizardry. And their cocktail menu is scoring some points for masterful invention, too.

In my mind I kept returning to the event venue, Goro & Gun, a downtown mixology den with taxidermy displays and a clientele bent on nurturing a few libations from their extensive menu. When did Houston suddenly become cool? It was clear after the first couple days that Dallas’ stepsister had aces up its sleeve as far as food and drink ventures go. While most big cities across the U.S. have similarly jumped on the culinary train to lure tourists (and dazzle the natives), Houston is rolling out the hospitality red carpet.

By the time we were sitting in one of the snug banquettes at Latin Bites, chatting with Chef Roberto Castre and savoring amazing and unique cocktails like the Pepino with Peruvian pepper-infused pisco, I was again struck by Houston’s alternative nature. Who would dream of pairing lamb with cilantro and rolling out a menu of ceviches, tiraditos and small bite creations with a daring attitude usually reserved for Miami? As I stared up at the Beer Can House the next day on Malone Street, it dawned on me that this tin can covered home along with those Halloween decorations all around the River Oaks neighborhood and the immensely creative menus everywhere in town were simply furthering a precedent set long ago. Houston is a genetically artistic urban hub.

So, on a hot, sunny October morning when we finally drove down Branard Street under the graceful arching oak trees and past the row of stately grey bungalows facing the “art campus” known as The Menil Collection, we came face to face with Houston’s powerful DNA. The life’s work of John and Dominique de Menil, The Menil Collection is a museum complex like no other and its impact registers even before getting out of your car. Classified a “neighborhood of art,” it incorporates 5 separate structures built upon a single foundation – the link between art and spirituality. Those two entities are woven into the founders’ vision by way of the Rothko Chapel and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum, however, as one meanders around the park-like urban neighborhood it’s obvious that the tranquil landscape containing the singularly unique buildings was envisioned to provoke a profound emotional response in visitors.

In his first commission in the U.S., Renzo Piano’s startlingly designed all white centerpiece, The Menil Collection, contains more than 25,000 square feet of galleries and public space and the dazzling collection of international art, rotated so the public would “never know museum fatigue,” is largely displayed under natural light. Dominique de Menil was determined to avoid merely showing the works and wanted visitors to experience art as she did in her home, hoping to provide viewers with the opportunity to develop a relationship with certain pieces. She achieved perfection; the effect is moving and her vast collection is a knock-out, right out of the ballpark. With works by Braque, Cezanne, Leger, Matisse and Picasso and one of the most definitive collections of Surrealist art in the U.S., you’d be crazy not to spend the whole day here.

But it gets better. Across the street stands the Cy Twombly Gallery (also designed by Piano), which like the museum incorporates a roofing system that diffuses harsh sunlight, allowing the artwork to be seen primarily in natural light.  Hard to imagine, but Houston’s sunlight is so bright that on the day we visited we were treated to a private showing with no artificial light. I think I will be forever haunted by three of Twombly’s  “Blackboard” paintings from that moment on. More than 40 of the artist’s works are organized chronologically and his idiosyncratic style was such an influence on Dominique that she allowed him to design his installation so that “he could create the climate in which he could be understood.” Again, this girl knew her stuff!

Completing the “campus” is the Dan Flavin Installation at Richmond Hall, three blocks south and the Rothko Chapel, an artistic statement so personal it reigns up there with Gertrude Stein and her band of renegade artists in 1920s Paris. Rothko’s fourteen canvases laid out in an octagonal format (reflecting the chapel’s shape) represent the fulfillment of his life-long desire to display his works in a spiritual setting. Warning: you may be moved to reflect a moment or two while here, such is the impact of this place.

The memory of the de Menil’s vision hasn’t faded, no way. Like Scarlet vowing to get back to Tara, I know I must get back to Houston again for the surprise of what will be hanging at the Menil, the ever evolving menu at Latin Bites and who knows, maybe to see those fabulous Christmas decorations.

The area code for Houston is 713.