As a food and wine destination, Houston is bit of a sleeper. It doesn’t have the historical and culinary culture of its famous Gulf Coast neighbor to the east, or the border character of much of the region to its west. But Houston is remarkably diverse and inclusive, so it does have a particular mix distinct from its neighbors. A Houstonian friend of mine says it is as diverse as Queens, the famously inclusive New York borough. And it has quietly become the leading wine destination in the state of Texas. It has three Wine Spectator Grand Awards, compared to Dallas’ one, which is held by an outpost of a Houston-based restaurant group.
There were a number of good candidates for My Town Houston. But I never ever doubted who I wanted: Lindsey Brown and Chris Shepherd have been in the industry there for more than a quarter century and are in many ways the public face of Houston dining—and even, to some extent, its conscience.
Brown has long advocated for the city, and especially its hospitality industry, as a public relations professional. Shepherd is a chef, first at Brennan’s of Houston (where he was also a sommelier for a spell) then at his own places, most notably the celebrated Underbelly, which embodied the great local stew of backgrounds. He sold out of his restaurants in 2022. Both are broadly active but now primarily known for their Southern Smoke Foundation, which since 2015 has distributed more than $16.5 million in emergency relief and more than 11,000 free mental health sessions across 14 states for the food and beverage industry. (The next Southern Smoke Festival is on Oct. 3, 2026.) But let’s let them explain it …
A lot of Houstonians are quietly and fiercely proud of the city’s diversity and breadth and its inclusivity, in the food scene especially. Can you talk about the people there?
Shepherd: They’re generally welcoming and hospitable. The hospitality here is amazing. People are just people here. There’s no pretense for the most part. I mean, you could be sitting next to somebody in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt who’s worth a billion dollars. It’s just this community like no other that I’ve seen, and when people come here, they say the same thing: Everybody here’s just nice.
Brown: The diversity of the city plays into that because, living here, you’re used to all different types of cuisines, all different types of cultures. You’re really open to anything. People feel that when they come here.
Shepherd: You know, you could be sitting at a table at Rosie Cannonball and everybody’s talking about their favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Or, hey, let’s go down to [local Chinese seafood favorites] Hai Cang, or Fung’s Kitchen, and take a bunch of wine with us and have king crabs. It’s a fun-loving, good city.
Fung’s Kitchen is like the OG 30-year-old Cantonese restaurant, with dim sum in the morning and live seafood all the time. Go and get a lobster mountain. We went in one night and they were like, “Hey, we want to try this new dish on you. It’s a lobster thing.” We’re like, “All right, we’ll order our normal order.” And then this mountain of deep-fried lobsters and French fries shows up at our table with like six lobsters! And I was like, “What? We thought like one lobster, man!”
Brown: Houston’s like the only market that’s doing great, it feels like.
Shepherd: Steak houses are jammed, and people are drinking wine, you know? It’s crazy.
Can you tell me about the wine scene?
Shepherd: It’s the unseen thing that nobody really knows about. There are so many places with amazing wine lists here. Houstonians drink and collect wine like crazy. When wine people come to Texas, it’s gotta be in Houston. There aren’t a whole lot of cities that have seven Master Sommeliers who all like each other.
When you have that kind of culture here and you’ve got folks like June Rodil … she and the Goodnight Hospitality team and March have changed the landscape for what we can buy as consumers now.
Brown: There are also these clubs where people can buy and store their wine and hang out and drink together.
Shepherd: They’re like wine storage facilities and retail, but they have winery licenses, so they can literally drop pallets. I walked in one day and literally saw a pallet of Krug. And they have retail licenses and cool spaces.
Brown: When vintners come to town, they will usually make stops at those places, too. Brandon Kerne, one of our Master Somms, runs one called AOC Selections.
Shepherd: He also runs the Texas Wine School out of that. I go in and buy older vintages of bottles at really good prices at that shop.
Brown: And then June Rodil and the Goodnight crew have Montrose Cheese & Wine, which is a wine and cheese shop.
Shepherd: There’s also Houston Wine Merchant run by Antonio Gianola, who I worked with, and we actually started Southern Smoke for. That guy is the king crab of cool stuff. He’ll get the allocation for a wine in and it’ll be gone tomorrow.
Brown: We had no idea that Southern Smoke would turn into what it is now. We just threw a party in 2015 in the back parking lot to raise money and awareness for multiple sclerosis, because about six months before Antonio was diagnosed with MS there was a chef in Houston who also was diagnosed, but he didn’t tell anybody. He was unable to hold his knife anymore, and he died by suicide. And it was a huge shock in the city and in the industry because nobody even knew about his diagnosis. When Antonio found out he had MS, he’s like, “I want people to talk to me about it. I don’t need the money. I just want to raise awareness.”
That’s how it started. Then in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey came through, we changed the focus to crisis relief, because none of the fundraising going on in Houston was going to the dishwasher, or the busser, or the somm, or the farmer, and we had the ability to do that. Then we started thinking about it, that crisis is not unique to Houston, and the industry doesn’t have a safety net, so why can’t that be us? Then in 2020 we launched our mental health program.
The festival in October is still our largest fundraiser, but we also just completed our third year of Southern Smoke Decanted, which is our wine auction. [The next Decanted is on Apr. 3, 2027.] And that, I feel, is getting very close to becoming our largest fundraiser. It’s one of the coolest events ever because the somms bring bottles and wine people choose really personal things to share. We stood in a circle and they all told their stories about why this bottle was special. And the people who won that auction item were blown away.
One thing that’s available nationwide is the Southern Smoke Bottle Club. We work with distilleries or wineries to purchase a really special barrel from them. And then, our members donate $1,500 a year for access to purchase these bottles. We’ve done a single barrel with Hirsch. We’ve got one from Paradigm coming next year. We did an old bottle from the early ’90s with Miner.
Wow. That is impressive. But I do need more places to go in Houston …
Shepherd: We use March as our wine bar. Pappas [Houston Galleria and Downtown locations], of course. In addition to the steak houses they have Little’s Oyster Bar and Yiayia’s. Both have really incredible wine lists that are very focused on their food.
Brown: When they opened Yiayia’s, we walked in, and he’s got what, 100 Greek wines on the list?
Shepherd: And he’s like, “And I have 100 more waiting.” It’s such a novel thing, and very smart and thought-provoking. When they opened up Little’s, which is a high-end seafood and oyster bar, they had maybe 10 red wines on the list of 150 wines. I was like, “Nope. That doesn’t work here.” But I was blown away by the list of Champagnes and Chablis and the crisp whites. He’s like, “Nope, this is what’s right.”
Oh, and the Bludorn restaurants, Navy Blue or Bludorn.
Brown: Actually, all four [including Bar Bludorn and Perseid]. He came in 2020 and has four places. They move fast.
Shepherd: Solid wine lists, too.
Shepherd: North China Restaurant. They’re celebrating their 50th anniversary. The son has now taken over and it’s really beautiful to watch—to see them kind of get into improving their wine program. We help them out. You give ’em something that’s thoughtful and they’re going to drink it. You’re going to sell it.
Mala Sichuan too. Justin Vann is the somm at Nancy’s Hustle, and he’s done some work on the Mala list. As far as local spots, there’s a restaurant called Nobie’s that has a short, maybe 60-bottle list, but it is awesome! And the food is awesome.
Brown: It’s so great! It’s a husband-and-wife team. She runs front-of-house and beverage, and he runs the kitchen. It’s pretty vegetable-forward. The names of the dishes are ridiculous and funny and you can tell that they don’t take themselves seriously, but the food is excellent.
Shepherd: State of Grace. That’s a good … uh, I don’t know how to say this ... when you’re just having Friday lunch, but you’re not going to do anything else for the rest of the day. (laughs) If I want to fuck off Friday.
Brown: Yeah. (laughs) It’s our favorite boozy lunch spot.
Shepherd: Milton’s American Trattoria is a kind of a new Italian American spot, by Benjy Levit and his team at Local Foods Group. The wine list is really sick.
What about non-wine things? Houston has this sort of secret weapon art scene.
Brown: We live just a couple of blocks away from the Menil Collection and Rothko Chapel. When people come visit us, that’s one of the first things that they want to do. I’m a huge fan of Houston Ballet. I’m on the board and have been for a while. Chris is starting to love it! (laughs) But Houston also has the quirky art scene. The Orange Show, and the Beer Can House, and lots of sort of lower-brow arts opportunities, too. Oh, and Smither Park has art and mosaics.
Hotels?
Brown: We love the Four Seasons. That’s our host hotel for all of our events, but also in our neighborhood is the Hotel Saint Augustine, and Aaron Bludorn has Perseid there.
There’s this very cute place called the Marlene in a 1910 mansion. It’s impeccably designed and it has a very cool bar called the Bar Madonna. It’s a very cool spot.
The question that I did not know how to answer, but I’m intrigued by it, is: What’s the one thing we never tell tourists?
Shepherd: I think that’s kind of all of Houston. We kind of keep it to ourselves. We’ll shout it from the rooftops, but, I mean ...
Brown: Houston doesn’t make it easy on tourists. That’s the thing: You really have to do your research. People get here and they’re not quite sure what to expect, but it really grows on you, and then you can’t get away.
Chef Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown’s Top Recommendations in Houston
To Eat
- Rosie Cannonball
- Hai Cang
- Fung’s Kitchen
- March
- Pappas Bros. Houston Galleria
- Pappas Bros. Downtown
- Little’s Oyster Bar
- Yiayia’s
- Navy Blue
- Bludorn
- Bar Bludorn
- Perseid
- North China Restaurant
- Mala Sichuan
- Nancy’s Hustle
- Nobie’s
- State of Grace
- Milton’s American Trattoria
To Shop
To Visit
To Stay
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