Chef Chris Williams is making large modifications to Late August, his Michelin-recommended, Afro-Mexican restaurant in Midtown. After a two-week pause in September, the restaurant, which opened final spring within the Ion mixed-use improvement, will swap issues up with a brand new menu and a modified design which might be designed to show it right into a destination-worthy eating expertise.
The largest modifications might be at dinner, the place Late August will supply two distinct choices — cocktails and shareable snacks in a renovated bar/lounge space and a seven to nine-course tasting menu in the primary eating room. As Williams explains, changing the eating room’s a la carte menu with a tasting will higher showcase the skills of govt chef Sergio Hidalgo and the produce being grown at Lucille’s 1913, the restaurant’s affiliated farm in Kendleton, Texas.
“I need everybody to interrupt bread collectively and have the identical expertise,” Williams tells CultureMap. “That is the easiest way to do it. I wish to make it approachable. We’re not attempting to get wealthy off this. We wish to decelerate and lean into who we’re and what we consider in. Take the experience.”
Later, he provides, “It’s [also] an awesome alternative to decelerate and practice our employees. They don’t must promote. They’ve to carry [diners’] fingers as they undergo the expertise. We’ve gotten sufficient suggestions that we all know will probably be nicely obtained by our core viewers.”
Fashionable dishes from the present a la carte menu, akin to mustard inexperienced memelitas and 1913 salad, might be reworked for a tasting menu format, whereas dishes akin to area pea hummus with fry bread might be served within the lounge. As well as, Hidalgo will introduce new, seasonally-inspired dishes for the tasting menu akin to a tuna aguachile and stuffed okra with she-crab bisque. Pastry chef Jennifer Parsons, a cousin of Williams’ who not too long ago moved to Houston, will contribute a banana pudding-stuffed churro (with extra to return).
To maintain issues comparatively reasonably priced, the tasting menu might be priced at $95. An elective wine pairing might be $55.
“We wish to offer you all the pieces in the best way we wish to eat,” Williams says. “I get tired of entrees. I like snacks. I wish to hold it shifting. It’s a option to power that have at an accessible value level.”
As for the wine record, Late August will proceed to function wineries which might be owned by girls and minorities, in addition to these utilizing biodynamic and natural practices, however Williams needs to supply as a lot worth within the wine pairings because the tasting menu does on the plate.
“I wish to have a few bangers, some Previous World juice that runs us $200 a bottle to present you one thing you’re accustomed to,” he says. “Let’s give the those that know a extremely good return on their funding and deepen the expertise.”
The inside modifications to the bar and lounge are anticipated to take roughly 10 days. Late August is scheduled to reopen with its new tasting menu on September 17. Reservations will go stay on OpenTable starting September 5.
