Mushroom pizza
“Why pizza and crudo? It was pretty simple,” said Gallivan. “I (and most people) love pizza. Since Houston is hot most of the time, balancing pizza with lighter, cold seafood dishes is a nice combination.” Gallivan describes his place, which is inhabiting a vintage bungalow, as homey — a casual neighborhood spot where you can pop in for a drink and a bite or for date night.
Named after Gallivan’s children, Eleanor and Ronan, Elro also offers salads, elevated snacks and hoagies on housemade bread. Tempting starters include spicy cucumbers with toasted peanuts and mint, saltimbocca sausage, and unagi arancini fritters made with crispy barbecue eel. The opening menu reveals six different crudos – think nepitlla-cured salmon with apples; and snapper with pickled mango, olives and chiles. Come hungry for puffy-crusted pizzas in mouthwatering choices such as mushroom with smoked maitake, rosemary and tomato, and mortadella with pistachio pesto, balsamic, onions and Parmesan. Meat lovers will dig the chorizo with piquillo peppers and arugula and the guanciale with Parmesan sauce and dusted in black pepper.
Cured salmon crudo
Badlands Shandy cocktail
Gallivan, who was the chef and wine buyer at The Pass and Provisions, has curated a concise wine list ranging from natural sparklers and New World favorites to Old World benchmarks. The bar features classic cocktails and house specialties from bar manager Patrick Dougherty, as well as tap beer. Art deco pendants and globe lights hang throughout the space, which is paved in whimsically printed emerald green wallpaper, while the terracotta-like tiles on the main bar are a nod to terracotta used in traditional pizzerias.
Paying homage to its circa-1928 bungalow, the interiors maintain the feeling of coming into someone’s home. Gallivan tapped designer Betty Maccagnan for the interior design, who he worked with previously on The Pass and Provisions. For Elro, she created an intimate, playful space that’s equally welcoming to singles and couples as well as families. The main dining area features vintage chairs updated with grass green velvet, with Terrence’s kids’ favorite colors of yellow and blue highlighted throughout the room. Vintage Salterini-style wrought iron patio furniture updated with white paint and tropical pink fabric grace the patio creating a mix of old and new.
Elro is open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday with plans to open on Tuesdays soon. Lunch service will begin June 28. Don’t leave without trying the towering, chocolate-drenched Maraschino soft-serve ice cream!
Maraschino soft-serve ice cream
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Aaron Bludorn (photo by Julie Soefer) and Sercarz's olive spread with pistachio and rose
This Thursday, June 29, is the Southern Spice dinner at Navy Blue (6pm or 8pm). The three-course meal will highlight recipes from the new cookbook. Optionally, on Friday, June 30, head to Bludorn for a similar lunch. Both events benefit the Southern Smoke Foundation and guests will receive a signed cookbook to take home.
Sercarz, classically trained and world-traveled, has been making his signature spice blends and biscuits under the La Boîte brand since 2006. Sourcing from farmers and small producers around the world, La Boîte’s high quality spice blends transform dishes from everyday into unforgettable. He has authored four lauded cookbooks, with the most recent, A Middle Eastern Pantry, which hit shelves this month. Sercarz, who is also the founder and owner of the forthcoming Spice Brothers café in Manhattan, believes his mission is to inform people about the origin of spices, how they grow, and how to be inspired by them in the kitchen.
Chef-author Sercarz
At the Friday night dinner at Navy Blue, expect multiple courses including a family-style salatim of small dishes including an olive spread with pistachio and rose, tahini and Muhammar accompanied by freshly baked za’tar laffa flatbread and simit, a beautiful circular bread. As a plated highlight and to complement the salatim, guests will nosh on Shish Barak (meat dumplings) served tableside with a grating of yogurt stone. There will be a signature cocktail, Honey Sekanjabin with Terra gin, and a wine pairing available for an additional price. Guests can order other cocktails as well.
At the Bludorn lunch, which will showcase a slightly different menu of cookbook recipes, anticipate Fesenjan, a traditional Persian stew with dukkah seasonal vegetables, crispy tahdig Persian rice, and sabzi salad. For reservations to either event, visit Resy for the Southern Spice lunch or dinner.
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