Sharon Torres, Elia Gabbanelli and Maritza Gonzales at ‘Latin.'
Ernest Hunter at ‘JDRF.’
Chocolate souffle tart at Turner's Cut (photo by Brian Kennedy)
Newcomers Turner’s Cut in the Autry Park mixed-use development aims to be Houston’s most luxurious steakhouse, and The Sylvie is an all-day café in downtown’s Texas Tower high-rise. Next up will be Dunn Road, the group’s first seafood-centric concept, also in the Texas Tower.
“Turner’s Cut is more evocative of a dinner party in a luxurious estate than a modern-day restaurant — but yet with all of the bespoke touches, and elevated food and cocktails that our clientele could want,” says Berg. “It’s an establishment unlike any other Houston has seen.”
With inspiration from the Gilded Age, Berg teamed up with hospitality design firm Sensitori to create a chic look of natural hues mixed with gleaming white marble and gold glittering chandeliers. The lofty dining room features white leather banquettes and guests can take in live music nightly, which plays from the mezzanine level.
The exterior of Turner's Cut at Autry Park
Turner's Cut
Kampachi Crudo at Turner's Cut (photo by Brian Kennedy)
The Sylvie selections
Its wine cellar allows two guests to dine while surrounded by more than 2,000 bottles of vino. Opulence continues even to the restrooms, where the ladies’ room boasts a vanity table and Champagne, and the men’s room dons a huge television and whiskey.
As imagined, the menu spotlights rare cuts of beef including Kobe and Japanese A5 steaks, American wagyu, and prime dry-aged rib-eye. Turner’s Carving Cart offers bone-in prime rib, while the Raw Cart brings fanciful presentations of seafood including oysters, lobster, king crab and caviar. Service is showy with tableside preparations of many dishes like Caesar salad and risotto. Can’t decide? Perhaps opt for the six- or nine-course tasting menu.
The Sylvie, which Berg calls “the most beautiful all-day café in the city,” opens early morning with plated breakfast dishes and grab and go, plus a full-service coffee bar. Lunch on salads, sandwiches, and gourmet pizzas baked in a glass mosaic oven. Honey-roasted chicken, lamb meatballs, and sides like roasted cauliflower and Brussels sprouts headline the dinner menu.
The name Sylvie originated from the Latin word for forest, which represents the effect of the lighting, architecture and tree-like sculpture within the space. Berg now operates 14 different Texas restaurants. We wonder: Is there no stopping him?
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Il Cuculo at Hotel Lulu
But it’s becoming clear that the quaint community — a unique mix of old-time western and coastal-shabby-chic, with a high-end shellac finish — is worth a visit year-round.
Places to stay nearly outnumber the count of official residents (89, fyi). There’s the Frenchie — a glam getaway for the girls, with a boutique-hotel-style main building and a trio of poolside chalets, all infused with a signature scent.
Hotel Lulu, owned by Houston’s Cinda and Armando Palacios, is a favorite — not only for its crisp Italian linens and Tuscan poolside scene, but also for its lobby bar, Il Cuculo.
And the Cotton Pearl Motel has a main house and several suites, all with access to pickleball courts, fire pits and a private pool.
The town itself, walkable from all of the above arrangements, is just a handful of cafes and shops, ranging from curated and perfectly posed to a tad chaotic — yet infinitely charming — in presentation. (It appears that shopkeepers are either busily hosting the weeks-long Antique Shows, or equally busily “preparing for Show” at any given moment.)
In addition to the classics — Royer’s, and intimate wine bar Prost, which lives in a stone cottage lined with string lights and facing an empty field — there are a number of trendy new restaurants popping up. Merritt Meat Company, previously Round Top Smokehouse, is newly owned and operated by Truth BBQ proprietor Leonard Botello. And Boon is a casual-chic café with an artful gift shop proffering Houston-kissed items like Maidas accessories and cheesecakes made by Tony Vallone’s daughter; its upstairs bar and lounge just opened, and is already a see-and-be scene — not unlike the nearby Ellis Motel, which is, in fact, a lively bar and not a motel. Nightlife abounds in Round Top, again perhaps disproportionately.
A few minutes from town is a hidden gem, not just within the Round Top vicinity, but the entire region. The Round Top Festival Institute is a concert venue, music school and conference center established by pianist James Dick more than 50 years ago. It hosts promising instrumentalists from around the globe each summer, and its current building — stunning and medieval-recalling — was designed by Dick and built out over many decades.
The Festival Institute is one of many surprisingly poignant moments to be enjoyed in Round Top — whether it’s Show time or not.
World-famous Royer’s Cafe
A stylish selection of boots at Junk Gypsy
Pastries at Boon & Co.
Round Top Festival Institute
The pool at the Frenchie