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Every week, CultureMap Editor Eric Sandler examines the Houston culinary landscape, giving you the latest news, restaurant reviews, and interviews with some of the most interesting people in the scene. New episodes of the What's Eric Eating? podcast drop every Tuesday and Thursday.
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Eating With Eric is a weekly dining podcast hosted by Eric Levin, the Deputy Editor and Dining Editor of New Jersey Monthly magazine. Eating With Eric features freewheeling interviews with some of the most fascinating people on the vibrant New Jersey culinary scene. If you love dining out, have a passion for great food, or want to hear about the latest food trends, Eating With Eric should be on your plate.
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by frequent cohost Mary Clarkson. The pair dive into some of the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene including chef Christian Hernandez bringing his new restaurant Barbacana to downtown Houston and country music star Koe Wetzel bringing a new location of his Koe Wetzel's Riot Room to Houston. In t…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Michael Posey of Wild Sol. Michael speaks with Eric about how he began working with Alex Bregman, why they decided to transition off the Breggy Bomb branding, what Wild Sol is, how Wild Sol is different from other salsas out there on the shelves, how involved Alex and Reagan Bregman's involvement, the flavor d…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Michael Fulmer to go through some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The guys discuss Gulf Coast Distillers' announcement that they're taking over the former Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company facility for their Tejas Beer brand, Noble 33 saying their luxury steakhouse Toca Madera w…
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Today on the show Eric is joined by Brock Wagner of Saint Arnold Brewing Company. It's Saint Arnold Brewing's 30th anniversary this year so Brock takes Eric back down memory lane to discuss the early days of Saint Arnold Brewing. The guys talk about how hard it was starting up a craft beer company 30 years ago, doing tastings at grocery stores, whe…
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On today's episode Eric is joined by the Swanky Maven herself Felice Sloan to discuss some of the latest happenings in the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The duo speak about the new concept coming from Aaron Bludorn and his team, Gold Tooth Tony's heading to Bellaire for it's second location, Prego's surprising announcement that they will now cl…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Patrick Pham and Daniel Lee of Duckstache Hospitality. The guys speak with Eric about how they got into their respective culinary careers, what brought them together, how they came up with the idea for Kokoro, why Kokoro has proven to be a staple of Bravery Chef Hall while other concepts in the food hall have …
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On today's edition of What's Eric Eating, Eric is joined by Monica Danna to discuss some of the latest new from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Monica and Eric discuss Vibrant's new location in Memorial Park, the soon to be open restaurant called Blue Tuba that's not quite like anything Houston has seen before, and the new cocktail lounge cal…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Nina Quincy and Sarah Dowling of Underbelly Hospitality. Nina and Sarah speak with Eric about how their respective career paths that led them to Underbelly Hospitality, what the transition period was like at Underbelly following the departure of Chris Shepherd, the current state of Underbelly Hospitality, how …
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Chelsea Thomas of The Infatuation Houston to dive into some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Eric and Chelsea discuss Magnol French Baking's announcement of their new location in the Heights, Arizona based breakfast concept Hash Kitchen bringing multiple locations to Houston, a…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu of JŪN. Evelyn and Henry speak with Eric about why the spot on 20th street was the right location for JŪN, what convinced Henry to come to Texas for this concept, the development of the menu, their time working pop-ups together, the moment things got real for them, what Henry has lea…
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On the podcast today Eric is joined by Mary Clarkson to go through some of the latest news hitting the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair discuss Emmanuel Chavez of Tatemó being the only chef of the 11 Houston semifinalists to be named a James Beard award finalist this year, the announced 2nd location of Pinkerton's Barbecue, and Ben Berg's…
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Last week the Houston culinary scene lost one of it's most prominent chef's, Alex Au-Yeung. Alex, the owner of Phat Eatery, passed away due to cancer on March 21st at the age of 52. Today's episode is dedicated to him and celebrating his memory. Eric alongside Terry Wong, Stevie Vu, Isabel Protomartir, Felice Sloan, Thomas Nguyen, and Abbas Dhanani…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Michael Fulmer from the Houston BBQ Festival! Eric and Michael discussed... The results of the 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards The opening of Houston restaurant Late August What they expect from Bar Bludorn Plus reviews of Houston restaurants including Prime 131, and Pizzana! Follow Eric on Instagram/Threads…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Travis Tober and Karole Hardwick of Nickel City. The pair speak with Eric about their respective careers in the bar industry, how Travis' travels with Aviation Gin influenced his idea for Nickel City, why they decided to bring Nickel City to Houston, opening the first Nickel City in Austin, Karole's biggest ad…
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It's a swanky feeling kinda day as Eric is joined by the Swanky Maven herself Felice Sloan to discuss the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Felice and Eric discuss Dozier's BBQ & Meat Market closing at the end of March, the closure of Pastore Italian Kitchen, and L.A. based Pizzana opening it's first location in Houston. In the…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Jacques Varon and Max Lappe of Baso. The pair speak with Eric about how they both got into professional cooking, how they first began working with each other, their time in California working at Angler, coming to Houston to open their own restaurant, why they decided to go with a basque style of cooking at Baso,…
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Eric is back on a regular podcast schedule this week and today he's joined by the returning Monica Danna to discuss the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair discuss Alex Padilla leaving The Original Ninfa's after 18 years, Portillo's opening soon in Houston with 2 locations, and a new cocktail bar called High Five M…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Ricardo Molina of Molina's Cantina. Ricardo speaks with Eric about his family's history in the restaurant business, starting the business back in 1941, the changing of locations over the years, keeping a balance between staying current but also paying homage to the restaurant's roots, the evolution of the drink …
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Today on the podcast, Eric is joined by Cinda and Armando Palacios of of Palacios Murphy Hospitality. Cinda and Armando speak with Eric about how they first met, where the idea of combining Tex-Mex with fine dining came from, the story behind Armando getting fired from Ninfa's for giving out sopapillas, starting Armando's Restaurant, developing the…
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On today's edition of the podcast CultureMap Editor Eric Sandler is joined by Mary Clarkson to discuss some of the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair speak about Tilman Fertitta's recent multimillion dollar development purchase, Harold's in the Heights shuttering after 10 years, and Tacos Doña Lena opening it's 2nd loca…
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Today on the podcast CultureMap Editor (yeah that's right someone got a promotion) Eric Sandler speaks with Jason Ryczek of Little's Oyster Bar. Eric and Jason discuss how Jason's culinary career first began, how his time in San Francisco helped shaped him, what got Jason into caviar, coming to Houston, working with Pappas, developing the menu, kee…
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Today on the podcast CultureMap Editor (yeah that's right someone got a promotion) Eric Sandler is joined by Michael Fulmer to dive into the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar world. The guys discuss Katami topping Texas Monthly's Best New Restaurants in 2024, Houston's newest food hall Conservatory Galleria opening it's doors, a…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Julia and David Grossman of Fusion Eats and Fusion Taco. Julia and David speak with Eric about how they met, what brought David back to Houston from New York, Julia's interest in the food truck scene early on in her career, the early food truck days, David's time at Branch Water, transitioning from food trucks t…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Chelsea Thomas of The Infatuation Houston to go through some of the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair discuss the opening of PostScript which features the return of chef Bryan Caswell, the opening of MF Lobster & Ceviche by the team behind MF Sushi, the recently shuttered coffee s…
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On this week's episode, Eric speaks with Jason Gould of Common Bond, and 1891 American Eatery & Bar! They discussed bringing the first classic croissant to the Houston restaurant scene, the decision to close the downtown Brasserie, trying to change the way we think about sports bars, expanding the Common Bond brand, and how the Houston restaurant s…
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We're back to normal programming this week as Eric is joined by regular cohost Mary Clarkson to dive back into the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Eric and Mary discuss the bagel drama happening with Space City Bagels formerly known as Brazos Bagel just a short time ago, Dominick Lee returning to Houston with the upcoming ope…
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Episode 350 - The Ultimate Houston Date Night Draft Winner Reveal with June Rodil of Goodnight Hospitality
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Time to find out who won The Ultimate Houston Date Night Draft! To determine our winner, Eric has enlisted the help of June Rodil of Goodnight Hospitality. Listen as June reveals the winner of the Date Night Draft, why [redacted]'s lineup won her over in the end, what she would have selected if she had participated, Eric's team 7 picks, and more! F…
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You know what your special someone deserves from you for Valentine's Day this year? You to listen to this episode of What's Eric Eating because then you'll be fully prepared to plan the best possible date night. That's right, it's the Ultimate Houston Date Night Draft on today's edition of the podcast. Join Eric Sandler, Felice Sloan, Rafael Nasr, …
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Ernest Servantes of Burnt Bean Co. Barbecue and Robert Jacob Lerma. The guys speak with Eric about how they first became friends, eating birria tacos in Robert's backyard before it was cool to eat birria tacos in your backyard, how Ernest got started in competition barbecue, transitioning away from competition…
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The Swanky Maven herself Felice Sloan joins Eric on today's podcast to go through some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Eric and Felice discuss the 11 Houston restaurants/chefs named James Beard Award semifinalists, the sudden closure of Buffalo Bayou Brewery, and saying their goodbyes to Clare Smith's Alice Blue.…
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On today's edition of the podcast, Eric is joined by Felipe Riccio and Austin Waiter of Goodnight Hospitality. The pair speak with Eric about the vision for Goodnight Hospitality's new concept The Marigold Club, the status of the concept currently, what exactly is continental cuisine, the type of food customers can expect from the concept, the serv…
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On today's edition of the podcast Eric is joined by Michael Fulmer to dive into some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. Eric and Michael discuss Common Bond claiming a spot in Tanglewood for their 5th bistro location, Layne's Chicken Fingers opening their third Houston area location, and the opening of Hando's new s…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Morgan Weber of HiWay Cantina. Morgan speaks with Eric about why he and the rest of the team at Agricole Hospitality decided to change things up in the east end of Houston by closing Indianola and Miss Carousel, coming up with the ideas for HiWay Catina and Lightnin's Good Times, the development process for Hi…
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It's Tuesday, which means it's time to dive into the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene with Eric Sandler and this week's cohost Monica Danna. Eric and Monica talk about ChópnBlọk opening its first brick and mortar location, the new wine bar from Gr8 Plate Hospitality, and since Monica missed the annual Year in Review podcast she…
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Today on the podcast Eric is joined by Benchawan Jabthong Painter and Graham Painter of Street to Kitchen. The couple speak with Eric about how they first met, coming to American from Thailand, the story of Chef G's braised green curry brisket that ended up leading her to SaltAir Seafood Kitchen, Chef G's experience working at SaltAir, how Graham's…
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Eric's back! The first podcast of the new year is here and on this episode Eric is joined by Mary Clarkson to catch up on the news that we missed during the holidays from the Houston bar and restaurant scene. The pair discuss Aaron Bludorn's announcement of Bar Bludorn, Kaitlin Steets leaving Theodore Rex after 8 years, and the new upscale Japanese…
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We're doing things a little differently. The podcast is taking time off until January 9th, but that doesn't mean no episodes until then. Eric is bringing back some of his favorite episodes to your feeds while the podcast is away. Today's episode is a reairing of Episode 310, originally released September 5th, 2023. In this episode, join Eric Sandle…
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We're doing things a little differently. The podcast is taking time off until January 9th, but that doesn't mean no episodes until then. Eric is bringing back some of his favorite episodes to your feeds while the podcast is away. Today's episode is a reairing of Episode 266, originally released January 12th, 2023. In this episode, Eric is joined by…
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We're doing things a little differently. The podcast is taking time off until January 9th, but that doesn't mean no episodes until then. Eric is bringing back some of his favorite episodes to your feeds while the podcast is away. Today's episode is a reairing of Episode 271, originally released February 16th, 2023. In this episode, Eric assembled a…
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We're doing things a little differently. The podcast is taking time off until January 9th, but that doesn't mean no episodes until then. Eric is bringing back some of his favorite episodes to your feeds while the podcast is away. Today's episode is a reairing of Episode 240, originally released May 12th, 2022. In this episode, Eric assembled a pane…
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We're doing things a little different. The podcast is taking time off until January 9th, but that doesn't mean no podcast episodes at all. Eric is bringing back some of your favorite episodes to your feeds while the podcast is away. Today's episode is a reairing of Episode 294 with Justin Yu, originally released July 11th, 2023. Eric and Justin dov…
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It's that time of year again! It's time to look back at the year that was in Houston food, it's the What's Eric Eating Year in Review - 2023 Edition. For this go around Eric is joined by Felice Sloan, Mary Clarkson, and Michael Fulmer to look back at some of the biggest stories, best dishes, saddest closures, best new restaurants, old favorites, an…
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Today on the show, Eric is joined by Aaron Bludorn and Alexandra Peña of Bar Bludorn. The trio discuss how the new Bar Bludorn concept came to be, coming up with the name, what type of food customers can expect, the design, the reactions they're getting from deciding to open in the Memorial area, and more. The group also discuss Alexandra's story o…
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Eric is joined on today's edition of the podcast by Mary Clarkson to discuss some of the latest news from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair react to the recent closings of Acme Oyster House and Common Bond's brasserie location. Plus, Eric and Mary discuss Ben Berg's announcement of the opening date of his new concept Tavola and Matt Pa…
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On today's edition of What's Eric Eating, Eric is joined by Tony Nguyen of Xin Chao and Saigon House. The guys speak about how Tony got into the restaurant business, starting Wokker, why Tony got a cease and desist letter from Chuck Norris... yes that Chuck Norris, how he started Saigon House, where Tony first got his name on the map, moving Saigon…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Monica Danna to discuss some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene. The pair speak about Nonno's Family Pizza Tavern being named Pizza Joint of the Year as part of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in America list, Michael O'Connor being named the new executive chef at Andiron, and the …
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Today on the podcast, Eric is joined by Kyle Noonan of Free Range Concepts. The pair dive into how Kyle got into the hospitality business, everything that went into starting up Free Range Concepts, creating The Rustic, working with Pat Green, developing The General Public, how they expanded their portfolio in Houston, Kyle's observations of the dif…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Michael Fulmer. The pair dive into some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene including the opening of Dallas-based Tex-Mex staple Mi Cocina in the River Oaks area and the beloved El Bolillo Bakery opening up their 4th location in the Mission Bend neighborhood. In a packed Restaurant…
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Today on the show Eric is joined by Deets Hoffman of Leaf & Grain. Deets speaks with Eric about his high school sandwich shack dreams, his early culinary career, underestimating the day to day prep of a restaurant, the idea behind Leaf & Grain, what the first year taught him, how things work at Leaf & Grain, when it became clear that they could exp…
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On today's podcast Eric is joined by Mary Clarkson. The pair dive into some of the latest happenings from the Houston restaurant and bar scene including Seth Siegel-Gardner becoming the new culinary and creative director for Benjy Levit's restaurants and rising star chef Tim Reading heading to Leo's River Oaks. In a jam packed Restaurants of the We…
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