Contents
 

Links We Like
 

Bradley Manchester, a graduate of the culinary arts program at Art Institute of Houston, has been named executive chef for the new Hotel Zaza in Houston. Manchester will also oversee the hotel's new restaurant Monarch.

Most recently Manchester was exec chef at the Renaissance Hotel in Las Vegas, where he directed culinary operations for 40,000 square feet of meeting and event space and three restaurants, including ENVY Steakhouse, which received kudos as “Best New Restaurant Off the Strip” and Wine Spectator's "Award of Excellence."

Manchester's extensive resume also includes:
Assistant Executive Chef, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas;
Mobil Travel Guide rated 3 stars
Chef Tournant, Caesar’s Palace Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas; 3 stars
Chef de Cuisine, Hudson’s on the Bend, Austin; 3 stars
Sous Chef, Four Seasons Hotel, Austin; 4 stars
He has also worked and trained with:
Chef Alex Stratta, Renoir Restaurant, Las Vegas; AAA rated 5 Diamonds
Chef Ron Siegel, Masa’s Restaurant, San Francisco; 4 stars
Chef Gary Danko, Gary Danko Restaurant, San Francisco; 5 stars
Chef Julian Serrano, Picasso Restaurant, Las Vegas; 4 stars
Chef Dean Fearing, Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas; 5 stars, 5 diamonds

Hotel Zaza Houston and Monarch are not open yet.
Scheduled opening is sometime later in 2006.

Luxury boutique Hotel Zaza Dallas (3 stars) has been a big success with its unique fantasy room themes. Their restaurant, Dragonfly, received critical acclaim under opening chef Stephen Pyles.

Warm Red Wine Survey
 

Click here to take our short survey

NOTE:
Could it be that you will soon hear
about another restaurant that's leaving downtown?...

Zsweet

Zsweet is an all natural, zero calorie sweetener.

Whether your goal is reducing calories, blood sugar control,
or just cutting down on sugar, Zsweet all natural sweetener can help.

With Zsweet all natural sweetener as a part of your healthy lifestyle,
you can make life sweet again!

Zsweet is available exclusively at Whole Foods.

Click here for Zsweet recipes & schedule of tastings at Whole Foods

FYI-We have a hospitality job listing newsletter that
goes out to a separate mailing list. If you would like
to be added to the jobs mailing list, email me at:
Cleverley@CleverleysNewsletter.com

I visited the not-open-yet Catalan yesterday at 5555 Washington Avenue, Houston. Chef/partner Chris Shepherd and general manager/partner Antonio Gianola were
hard at work putting the finishing touches on the white tablecloth restaurant,
getting ready for their upcoming opening.

The floor plan of the restaurant is similar to Ibiza, the restaurant owned by their partners, Charles Clark and Grant Cooper, with its open kitchen and great wall of wine.

It differs from Ibiza with its full bar and lounge area. And leading into the bar area,
beautiful glass butterfly 'interpretations' are suspended from the ceiling.
(Antonio told me that catalan is a word for butterfly in Spanish.)

I also visited Ibiza and saw that construction on their Ibiza Lounge Next Door is continuing. The multi-colored tile floor is in place and it's a bigger space than I expected.
It's going to be very nice.

Catalan hopes to open for business next week, but it will be a very quiet opening.
No big hoopla.
Let's give them a chance to get things going before we all converge upon them.

Hi Cleverley,
I wanted to see if you could give me some info on what happened to
Texas Cheese Steaks on far west Westheimer? After I read about it
in your newsletter, I took my kids and we absolutely loved it!
(I am from Philadelphia and the other options in town are not worthy.)

We loved the cheese steaks as well as the fresh cut fries.
The guys who worked there were great, too.
We went there at least twice a week.

Can you tell me what happened?

Best regards,
Judy

Hi Judy,
Thanks for your email. I am flattered that you took my recommendation
and tried this tasty restaurant. I attended college in Philadelphia
(Wharton at Penn-any fellow alums reading this?) and I, too, could not
find a good cheese steak in Houston until I found Texas Cheese Steaks.

Donald Chang's Texas Cheese Steaks, 12225 Westheimer, has been closed
for over a month because there is no electricity in the strip shopping center
where he is located. A posted sign states that power was knocked out due to
a storm. Because there is no power, construction has also been halted on Chang's
newest restaurant, Bluefin Sushi, next door.

Actually all of the tenants in the shopping center are closed due to no power including
a check cashing store and It's a Grind coffee shop. And, a brand new Cabo Mix-Mex Grill
 stands ready for its grand opening but can't do it without power.

It seems very strange to me that there would be no power and those businesses remain closed for so long. A chat with an employee of one of the businesses in that strip center said that the landlord knows what's going on and that power might be restored in late September.
 

Fun Food Facts

How much do you know about what you eat?

Take the America Fit quiz from TIME magazine
and test your knowledge.

Take the quiz

About the Author

Photo: Cleverley with Wolfgang Puck

Cleverley Stone knows her way around a menu. The Houston Business Journal & Houston Chronicle have used the words 'dining diva' when referring to her (is that a good thing?), but she really prefers her real name over a nickname.

Cleverley's credits include food & wine editor of ME-Style & Decor magazine and Restaurants & Resorts magazine.

Food correspondent on the Emmy nominated TV show,
"The After Party" with Ernie Manouse on Houston PBS/KUHT, Channel 8.

Editor & publisher of Cleverley's Newsletter, now in its 9th year.

Former executive producer & host of the Stevens&Cleverley radio program.

Look for Cleverley's new radio show to debut this fall.