Agnes and Sherman explores a fusion of American and Chinese language dishes.
When Nick Wong was rising up in San Francisco, eating out with the household typically offered a dilemma. His dad, who was raised in America, would sometimes recommend steak or fried hen, however his mother, who grew up in Hong Kong, would request Chinese language and Cantonese meals. And she or he all the time gained the battle on the place to eat.
However with Agnes and Sherman, he’s in a position to carry collectively one of the best of each worlds.
The long-awaited diner has lastly made its debut within the Heights, within the former dwelling of Alice Blue. Wong, beforehand the manager chef of the now-closed UB Preserv, beneath Chris Shepherd’s Underbelly Hospitality, teamed up with enterprise accomplice Lisa Lee to introduce their tackle Asian American delicacies.
“This meals is sort of like, if my dad and mom have been to have a restaurant [where] they may each get one thing that they each actually need, this may be the restaurant for them,” Wong says.
The restaurant is called for Nick Wong’s dad and mom, Agnes and Sherman.
Wong’s exploration of fusion meals is exemplified in menu gadgets just like the savory scallion waffle, his tackle a scallion pancake, a well-liked Chinese language starter made with a wheat dough folded into layers to make the flatbread flaky. To dwelling in on the American Asian side of the diner, Wong tops the waffle with sambal honey butter.
“I didn’t need to put syrup throughout this factor as a result of it’s fermented for like eight hours, and has scallion oil and scallions in it,” Wong says. “I’ve to be very considerate about how I incorporate the candy factor. Effectively, Texans additionally love honey butter, and that does positively go along with some extra savory dishes, so [I thought] let’s incorporate this into our sambal butter.”
Wong additionally blends the 2 cultures with the wedge salad, a combo of Chinese language sausage, ginger scallion ranch, and Chinese language doughnut croutons. Houston-inspired dishes are on the menu, too, to pay homage to town he’s referred to as dwelling since 2018: the al pastor fried rice, which is made with achiote, pineapple, and cilantro; the egg foo younger, a dish with crawfish, gumbo gravy, and rice; a hen fried steak made with Vietnamese gravy; and a masa corn cake for dessert. Sandwich choices embrace a smoked onion patty soften on rye and a Chinese language BBQ membership with char siu.
The al pastor fried rice is made with achiote, pineapple, and cilantro.
David Perez, beforehand of Lei Low and Maven, is Agnes and Sherman’s bar lead. The beverage program consists of cocktails just like the Heights Ball, made with gin, yuzu, and glowing soda; the Pandan Colada with vodka, pandan, and coconut; a frozen margarita; and the Dr. Wong, a mixture of rum, hibiscus, passionfruit, lime, and spice.
The drink Wong and Lee are most enthusiastic about is the Lean Kwai Fong, the restaurant’s home old style. It’s a play on the Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong district and lean (“purple drank”), made with Pei Pa Koa, an natural Chinese language cough syrup. Wong and Lee joke that they appeared ahead to having sore throats as children as a result of they genuinely loved the style. Wong additionally incorporates the ingredient into the ice cream sundae, which is made with peanuts and pandan ice cream.
When the enterprise companions met as undergrads on the College of California, Berkeley, they by no means would’ve imagined their careers would circle again to one another. After graduating, Wong went on to attend New York’s French Culinary Institute, whereas Lee’s profession zigzagged throughout the tech world earlier than she ended up in human assets—gaining data that might change into vital to their new enterprise. Lee’s objective is to create an inclusive place not just for its clients, but additionally its staff.
“I actually really feel like creating an important place to work the place folks come to work and really feel actually secure—the place folks can be taught and develop,” Lee says.
For those who ask them the place the concept for Agnes and Sherman got here from, you’d get two totally different tales, however Wong admits Lee has the higher reminiscence of the 2. Lee’s reminiscence is from round 2012. She was working in tech nonetheless and would typically journey to New York Metropolis for work. Whereas on a enterprise journey, when Wong was nonetheless working at Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the 2 met up. She posed a query—“what if, or in the future…?”—they usually acquired to speaking a few potential new restaurant.
Lee says Wong gave her his spiel on his upbringing within the Bay Space, and the way he would like to create a delicacies that represents what he grew up consuming—from pho to burritos. Then got here her subsequent query: What would he identify it?
“We have been sort of capturing the shit, so I used to be like ‘what are you dad and mom’ names?’” Lee says. “And when he stated Agnes and Sherman, I used to be like, no approach, that’s good. That’s the identify of your restaurant. So, that’s what I bear in mind.”
Nick Wong is the mastermind behind Agnes and Sherman’s menu.
Wong says the dialog he remembers is from 2020, smack dab in the midst of lockdown. Throughout his downtime, he realized he was able to take the primary steps towards proudly owning a restaurant. So, Wong turned to Lee to share the thrilling concept, for what he thought was the primary time. As soon as she reminded him, he realized he’d come full circle.
The plan to carry Agnes and Sherman to Houston started to fall into place in 2022. Regardless of being from the Bay Space and having expertise on the East Coast, Wong was adamant on opening the restaurant right here due to the sense of neighborhood and generosity he’d skilled within the metropolis’s culinary business.
“Feeling the heat and love from the neighborhood has been such an enormous draw to construct right here,” Wong says.
When Lee flew right down to Houston to scope out town, she additionally felt it was the right match, and she or he agreed to go all in with him. It then took them virtually all of 2023 to decide on a spot. They appeared throughout—Montrose, Heights, Backyard Oaks, Spring Department, East Downtown—however nothing felt proper or was giant sufficient to be modified for a restaurant.
Lisa Lee’s objective is to create an inclusive atmosphere for the restaurant’s staff and clients.
After driving by Alice Blue a number of occasions, Wong says he felt a pull to it—its character and skill to draw good foot site visitors appealed to him. So, he requested his realtor if they may discover out if the restaurant proprietor needed to resume the lease. Fortunately for Wong and Lee, Claire Smith was planning on closing, so the 2 hopped on it and made a suggestion.
“We really feel like we have been in a position to land a spot the place the owner…noticed simply as a lot potential in us as we believed we may ship,” Lee says. “We actually sort of lucked out in how we landed the house within the Heights, and we’re very pleased to be right here and to be a part of the neighborhood.”
To assist carry the house to life, the 2 labored with 2X Studio and Dong-Ping Wong, of AD100 fame. Lee says they deliberately selected major colours like pink and yellow, ones used within the logos of mainstream American meals manufacturers like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola. Agnes and Sherman is decked out in basic diner vibes with retro tilework, giant cubicles, images of each Lee’s and Wong’s dad and mom, and an previous rice cooker from Wong’s household.
Though the meals could be the star of the present, Wong says he hopes company depart with an expertise stuffed with tons of laughter and new recollections made alongside their family members.
“We’ve already had so many people coming in from the neighborhood who have been regulars at Alice Blue who at the moment are telling us that they’re so trying ahead to creating Agnes and Sherman their common spot,” Lee says. “It simply means so much to us.”
