THE HOLY GRAIL: CREATIVITY, FOOD AND DESIGN IN PERFECT HARMONY

1. petit fours | 2. triniti interior| 3. snapper with sunchoke puree 4. executive chef ryan hildebrand

If you’ve been on Shepherd you’ve probably noticed the facelift on the space formerly known as Pravada (and Chrome). Local architect firm MC2 has revamped the entire space from inside out. You definitely have to see it to believe it. How this space was transformed into the beauty it is now is unfathomable. The corrugated metal panels on the outer shell change from green to orange depending on the direction you are facing the building. This organic, rust-hued theme is carried throughout the build out/interior – even to the chef’s garden at the entrance. The metal containers will change over time to develop a natural beautiful patina. No detail was overlooked with Triniti.

Upon entry white walls define a bar, large dining room and open kitchen space. Patio seating is available in an intimate atmosphere (only 40 tables) with three custom-made water features.
Ins décor is very light, California-style organic with metal, woods, concrete all exposed to create a space that is not too casual but not overly modern. It’s comfortably perfect. It appeals to not only business lunches but also families.
British designer Tom Dixon’s wooden, surprisingly comfortable chairs, along with his light fixtures plus a custom chandelier, lend more beauty to the space. Renowned artist Todd Murphy created an oversized painting that hangs facing the dining room and surprises you with new elements from any angle in the room – from hidden birds to changing dominate colors. Chef Ryan Hildebrand and his team succeed in creating his goal “to merge white tablecloth food and service with a casual, interactive dining experience.” The feel of the space is transformed from light during the day with the sunshine to a warm beautiful glow at night.
We tested that theory by not only dining here for lunch but also dinner … in the same day. It helps to note that the menu also varies at both.
We started with the soup special for the day. A decadent lobster bisque with melted leeks and a brioche nugget awoke our taste buds. I had the luxury of tasting this same soup for an amous bouche at dinner and both experiences were heavenly. The texture, light and fluffy, disappeared the moment it hit your mouth with its luscious flavor. If this is on the menu, it’s a must try.
To be fair we also had the celery root soup to compare. Like night and day, the bisque was savory; the celery root, a beautiful, creamy fluff of sweet with savory notes. With a dollop of cinnamon cream sprinkled with cinnamon as well as an apple fritter nugget.
We couldn’t resist the endive salad with a combination of slivers of diver scallops, citrus (orange and grapefruit) wedges, pistachios, veldhuizen cheddar shavings and polenta crisps atop a bed of greens. It’s not only a light and clean salad but also a beautiful palette of colors. Our entrées followed suit with beautiful presentations, colorful plating and simple, clean flavors.
The beet and butternut squash toast is the epitome of this. With the bright fuchsia of the beet, the orange of the squash, the bright green arugula and pear all atop a square of toast, the goat cheese and dots of balsamic, this dish is as aesthetically pleasing as it is divine. The roasted vegetables with the crisp fresh greens and fruit and a swipe of smooth cheese in the thick, aged balsamic that has just a hint of truffle is a wonderful marriage of components. Plus the serving size is perfection. This was a recurring theme with the rest of the entrées as well.
The beef pinwheel had two medallions sitting on top of potato puree with a dollop of chimichurri, a couple baby bok choy and a few roasted carrots. Again, the ideal serving size for a lunch dish, just enough so you don’t feel weighted down afterward. This tender beef paired with the puree and subtle chimichurri is a simple pairing expertly prepared.
You can’t pass up their chicken “in” dumplings. The plating is whimsical with the little dumplings sitting atop a small potato circle surrounded by fall peas with mini globe carrots all drizzled in a sage gravy. It brings to mind Peter Rabbit. The playful dish is a taste bud pleaser. This savory dish is gourmet comfort food, portion control.
With Chef de Cuisine Jose Hernandez (you will recognize his style from his days at Philippe) helming dessert, one can only expect pure delectable art for a nightcap. And he did not disappoint.
Among our favorites is the Gianduja. Gianduja is a style of chocolate made from combining chocolate and hazelnut paste. Here it is turned into a mousse with a ricotta cream center, covered in dark gianduja and served with a side of hazelnut ice cream with hazelnut dusting. The texture is that of a cloud. It’s so incredibly light and fluffy, it literally evaporates in your mouth. A piece of heaven on a spoon.
While at lunch, thoroughly pleased with our experience, we changed our dinner plans to be back at Triniti to taste the dinner menu as well.
If you’re looking for a light starter, look no further than the beet and pear salad. Golden beets and the norm dot the plate with Pure Luck goat cheese, mint, oregano, yuzu and a sliver of pear right on top. If you want something a little more filling and full of flavor, try the rich Kale salad. A bed of kale is topped with a slice of toast with a sunny-side-up egg in the middle topped with a crispy pancetta wheel, lemon and olive oil, along with a white anchovy. Once you cut into the egg the yolk oozes into the bread and kale for a mind-blowing bite.
Since we were a large group, I got to taste the salmon, striped sea bass and the pork. A beautiful salmon filet is served atop white asparagus stalks with a bed of mushrooms, welks, tarragon and chestnuts on the side. The salmon is cooked to perfection, just a bit pink on the inside. It makes for a beautiful bite and the quality is obvious with this preparation as well. My bite of a friend’s striped sea bass with adzuki, saffron rutabaga, shallots, bok choy and red wine proved to be a different palette completely. Equally good, the bass was more robust and complex than the light, simple flavors with the salmon.
Another dish that had that robust nature was the pork. I’m not usually a pork eater but my friend ordered it and couldn’t stop raving so I had to try it. And she was right. The pork with pumpkin, parsley, cranberry and yams is a wonderful seasonal item. It tastes of wintertime with your family. The cranberry, yam puree is delightful with pork. It’s sweet, savory, hearty comfort.
It’s all in the details and Triniti has taken those details to another level. The creativity in the kitchen with an unforgettable team plus the team on the floor in the dining room is unparallel to anything in Houston at this time. One can expect and hope for wonderful things from the trifecta of creativity, food and design.

MENU SELECTIONS (lunch)

salads
• simple greens- winter greens, pickled root
vegetables, dried onion, tomato preserve 8
• frisee- pulled pheasant confit, lamb bacon, quail egg 16
sandwiches + toast
• dungeness crab- melted leeks, asparagus 15
• mblt- mortadella, bacon, smoked romaine, tomato jam 12
• pulled pork- root vegetable kimchi, cilantro 12
fish + pasta
• clams and scrambled eggs- leek, parsley, toast 12
• carrot cavatelli- brussel sprouts, bay scallop, chorizo 17
• buckwheat fettuccine- charred eggplant, root vegetable ragout, broccoli rabe, ricotta 12
meat + poultry
• dewberry hills chicken- egg, barley, shimeji 19
• pork belly- creamed sauerkraut, red potatoes, cider vinegar 18

TRINITI
2815 SOUTH SHEPhERD
Houston, TX 77098
713.527.9090 | www.trinitirestaurant.com

Hours
Lunch: Monday – Friday, 11am-2:30pm
Dinner: Monday – Thursday, 5-10pm; Friday & Saturday, 5-11pm; Sunday Supper, 4-10p

By Beatrice Allen
Photography by Kimberly Park

1. scallops & shrimp | 2. duck waffle | 3. bistro alex interior 4. executive chef rolando soga | 5. bar area

KNOCKING YOUR SOCKS OFF ONE DISH AT A TIME!

Although they’ve been on the block for two years, the fare at Bistro Alex just keeps getting better each season. Literally, that is. Their menu is ever-evolving with what’s available or representative of the season. While many tried and true favorites remain on the menu, new dishes that become recurring favorites grace the page with the change of weather.

Perched at the chef’s bar overlooking the kitchen, you get a bird’s-eye view of all the details that go into preparing your meal. It’s limited seating with an interactive touch, with chefs preparing flatbread, steaks and more right before you. They make every process look so simple.

What we thought would be a standard order-what-you-want meal turned into a 6-course menagerie of outstanding dishes. Each different, complexity ranging from mature to basic.

We started with a trio of their soups: the ideal honey apple butternut squash, their famous turtle soup and the unrivaled Gumbo Ya-Ya. This is how you really get to taste a range of what they are capable of in this kitchen. The honey apple butternut squash, prepared that very morning, was my favorite and not anything that I expected. Just from the name alone I thought it would be somewhat sweet. Wrong! The texture is incredibly creamy, smooth and fluffy, almost whipped in nature at times. The taste is pure savory comfort. It’s the kind of “curl up on the couch in front of a fire” comfort. Had I not been served all three soups, I probably would’ve NEVER ordered the famous turtle soup but I’m glad I did. It has more of a tomato base flavor with familiar spices. The turtle factor is very mild so any fear you may have should be squelched. The broth of the soup is so familiar, like something you’ve had at home, that you must taste it alone for that nostalgia. The gumbo is a recipe I would pay for. Rather than having that “dirt” flavor that some enjoy, this has been fine-tuned to a rich mild Creole spice with their homemade andouille sausage and steamed white rice. I could eat bowls of this any day!

After soup we were served two of their flatbreads: the mature homemade Andouille sausage and Tasso ham along with the more basic Backyard burger. Now in terms of mature and basic, I mean the combination of elements put together to create the overall flavor. The ham and sausage are both made on site – up to three days process for the sausage and two weeks to get their Tasso ham just right. They have a pancetta that has been curing for a month! The sausage and ham version is a true labor of love. And it’s worth all of that labor and more. I don’t usually eat ham but this Tasso is phenomenal. Paired with grilled green onion, baby arugula, shaved manchego cheese and spicy mustard, this flatbread is a gem on the menu. Compared to their Backyard burger, this one is a more adult flatbread. This doesn’t make the Backyard Burger any less delicious though. It’s a wonderfully well thought-out basic pairing that is made impressive with bold additions. Buttery ground sirloin, bold smoked gouda, grilled Texas 1015 onions and surprising BBQ chip pieces are topped with shredded romaine and dressed with cayenne ketchup and pickled okra mayo. It’s literally a burger pizza. The best burger you never thought of. The addition of such bold items as gouda, chips and their version of ketchup and mayo turn this basic flatbread into a fan favorite.

Not sufficiently full, our next surprise dish was their old-school Creole shrimp and grits. Two shrimp, head attached are served atop a mound of roasted jalapeno Andouille grits, blue heron goat cheese, all in a spicy shrimp veloute. Removing the shrimp head is actually quite easy due to the tender nature. The shrimp with the grits and goat cheese in the spicy sauce is what I thought was as rich as I could handle. Then I had their seasonal star, duck debris and butternut waffle. This dish puts a WHOLE new spin to rich.

Sitting atop a butternut squash waffle, they place coffee-braised duck “debris” with old-fashioned cranberry jam, Swiss chard and, on top, a sunny-side-up duck egg. A chicory coffee ganache and a foie gras fondue swirl around the waffle round out the dish. Now what I was served is not nearly what you are seeing in the picture. I got a quarter of that waffle and three bites into this taste bud-tantalizing, tongue enveloping dish, I had to put my fork down. My body would simply not accept one more bite. The moment you cut into the egg and the yolk covers the duck and oozes into the waffle that is already soaking up the ganache and fondue, you’ve created a sweet and savory knockout. It’s mind-blowing, amazing indulgence beyond your wildest dreams. Only a mad man could’ve dreamt up such combination!

And we weren’t done yet…

For our last dish, we were served an ideal prime rib-eye in a chicory coffee ganache with Maytag blue cheese Lyonnaise Potatoes. The meat had the perfect crisp crust achieved by searing it on a flaming hot cast iron skillet. The ganache adhered to the meat so the flavor was all encompassing with each bite. What is in theory a heavy dish is somehow lighter than what we had anticipated. The preparation of the meat is phenomenal. Knowing full well I wouldn’t be able to recreate such beauty, even after getting a summarized tutorial, I enjoyed this to the last bite.

Our meal couldn’t end on a sweeter note than a medley of white chocolate bread pudding, almond cake with macerated blueberries, pumpkin cheesecake, a coffee marshmallow and a chocolate soufflé.

Though our meal wasn’t ideal for the average diner, this was the most unique way to convey to you what this masterful group is capable of producing in the kitchen. It is beyond genius. For a restaurant that can take you through the seasons, Bistro Alex is here to make sure you have an unforgettable meal.

800 Sorella Court | CityCentre Houston

inside the hotel sorella

Houston, TX 77024

713.827.3545 | www.bistroalex.com

MENU SELECTIONS

petite salads

• CREOLE CAESAR SALAD, crisp romaine lettuce, spicy creole Caesar dressing, fried green tomato croutons $8

• THE BISTRO, field greens, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, black pepper brioche croutons, ripped herbs & sweet sherry vinaigrette $8

small plates

• SHRIMP & TASSOS PINCHOS, crispy bamboo skewered shrimp & ham, golden pineapple slaw & crystal hot sauce butter $13

entress

• CRAB CAKE, 100% blue jumbo lump crab, roasted poblano aioli, sweet pequillo pepper coulis $38

• GRILLED BLACK ANGUS FILET OF BEET, roasted garlic yukon gold potato mash, caramelized onions & mushrooms, truffle mushroom butter, port reduction $36

• BLACKENED GULF FISH & JUMBO LUMP BLUE CRAB , creamy smoked corn maque choux,

buttered jumbo lump blue crab $27

• DUCK FOIE GRAS, Truffle risotto, quail egg,

cranberry demi, foie fondue a $29

Hours: Breakfast

Sun-Sat 6:30am-10am

Lunch

Mon-Sat

11:30-2pm

Dinner

Sun-Sat 6pm-10am

Brunch

Sunday 11am-9pm

By Beatrice Allen

Photography by Shannon O’Hara