Turning Tables: Pappas Bros. Team Opens Little’s Oyster Bar in Houston

The team that has produced the three Grand Award winners introduces a new seafood restaurant that offers old Hollywood glamour and a French-inspired wine selection, and a new restaurant takes control of space in the Jean-Georges restaurant in Beverly Hills.

To go with oysters and other seafood, Little’s Oyster Bar specializes in. The wine menu is an excellent source of Champagne, White Burgundy, and white and red wines of the Loire Valley, Spain, and Austria.

Pappas Restaurants, the owner of three Wine Spectator Grand Award winners in Texas–debuted its newest venture, Little’s Oyster Bar, in May in Houston’s fashionable Montrose neighborhood. The newest seafood restaurant draws inspiration from old Hollywood. It features stunning chandeliers, an abundant raw bar, exquisite lobster platters, caviar service, and a refined wine menu.

The wine list was developed by Robert Smith, Pappas Restaurants’ wine director and Pappas Restaurants’ expanding concepts director of wine; it was a fascinating task to create a wine selection for a high-end seafood restaurant that aims to appeal to younger patrons as opposed to the menus that were developed for Pappas Bros. Steakhouses. “It’s got a different feel to it,” Smith explained to Wine Spectator. “The area is home to lots of hip bars and eateries. We thought that this would be a great spot for Pappas to try something new, creating an environment that’s upscale but not snooty. It’s a wonderful feeling whenever you’re there.”

The list includes 250 wines, an evident focus on Champagne (the list also lists the dates of disgorgement for each bottling with information available), and the younger white Burgundies from 2021 and 2020 vintages. The list includes horizontals that range from Chablis to Corton-Charlemagne. There are bottles of value throughout. The list also highlights Smith’s love of white wine from Loire Valley, Spain, Austria, and other regions. The wines are both horizontal and vertical in depth.

If you’re interested in drinking red wine alongside seafood, Smith has curated an array of seafood-friendly wines, which include Beaujolais and a few California Cabernets. “With the reds, the challenge was holding back,” Smith explained. Smith. “I tried to keep the reds at about 15 percent of the total However, currently we’re hovering around 20 percent. There are so many great red Burgundies, and the Beaujolais ’21 that were coming out–and I was just too enticed to buy them all. I wanted to buy a few items when they were on sale!”

Little’s also has cocktails focusing on aperitifs by Bar director Oliver Brooks, including refreshing drinks, low-alcohol, and more robust tipples such as the Golden Martini accented with chamomile grapefruit and licorice.

Seafood is, of course, the highlight of the menu, and chef Jason Ryczek lets the quality of his ingredients speak for the elements. With Maine lobster and Atlantic yellowfin tuna, There are also fruits of the sea that come from the Texas Gulf Coast, brought every morning by Pappas his vessels. Crab claws are served with creole aioli and shrimp, a cocktail sauce made of pomegranate, and Texas redfish accompanied by Castelvetrano olive salsa verde. One of Ryczek’s significant interests is caviar. He has collaborated with California Caviar Company for several years and travels to California every October to assist in harvesting. (The Little’s menu has caviar made from the six white Sturgeons Ryczek chose himself.)

The Little’s dining space is intimate, with a capacity of 80 indoors and 50 on the patio with an awning that retracts. Evy Pappas, the design director of the restaurant company run by her family, designed the restaurant’s bright, retro style to feel cozy and inviting with touches like Ryczek’s culinary illustrations on the entryway’s walls. The restaurant also has original neon signage of Little Pappas Seafood House, previously in Little’s space.

Espelette Moves Into Former Jean-Georges Beverly Hills Space

This year it was announced that restaurateur-chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten had closed his Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant located on the level of the lobby in the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills Hotel. Vongerichten’s lengthy connection with Waldorf Astoria continues at the Rooftop by J.G. The hotel swiftly moved to replace the old Jean-Georges restaurant with Espelette, the new Mediterranean concept created by chef Steve Benjamin. Chef Steve Benjamin is the current culinary director. Benjamin has worked at The Beverly Hills Hotel since 2017 and was the chef at Best of Award of Excellence winner L’Atelier of Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas for 12 years.

With more than 500 wines of wine, the selection was mostly inherited from Jean-Georges. However, Escalona explained that the team wants to expand it: “We want to continue and expand the French, Spanish, and Italian selections to add some special touches that tie into the concept a bit more.” The currently available list includes an excellent assortment of Mediterranean bottlings such as Domaine Ott rose, Planeta Etna Bianco, and Bodegas Terras Gauda Albarino.

Angler Closes in Los Angeles

Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence winner Angler shut down earlier in the summer in Los Angeles. Saison Hospitality founders Joshua Skenes, Mark Bright, Gary Gauba, and Jag Kapoor established their eatery in Beverly Center in 2019 as an extension of the first Angler Restaurant in San Francisco, which holds the Best of Award of Excellence. (Saison Hospitality’s portfolio comprises California Grand Award winner Season.)

The L.A. Angler, fresh local, sustainable, locally sourced seafood was the main topic, highlighted in the spectrum of raw and wood-fired food items, including cakes of California stripe-banded bass with cultured cream, Seaweed Rice with cured yolks and trout roe, as example. They were paired with an extensive selection of over a thousand wines that Bright oversaw; France was the center of the show and was highlighted in particular Burgundy, Bordeaux, Beaujolais, the Rhone Valley, and Champagne.

The 128-seat restaurant shifted into outdoor dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was closed for an overhaul and renovation in 2022. The restaurant reopened in February. 2023 under the new Saison Hospitality culinary director Paul Chung before closing in the summer. “Saison Hospitality is proud and honored to have served the Los Angeles community; however, we have made the difficult decision to close Angler L.A. and focus on our efforts and concepts in the Bay Area at this time,” was the statement from the restaurant’s organization on their Angler L.A. website. “[Wewere] deeply inspired by the loyalty of our patrons when we redesigned the concept of the restaurant and then reopened it this year. We are forever grateful for our team and their dedication to our quality product and sustainability ethos.”

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