The nduja roll on Camaraderie’s à la carte menu resembles a cinnamon roll.
Houston is fortunate to have such a heat, welcoming restaurant scene. Our cooks are pals, not cutthroat enemies. Diners are greeted with Southern hospitality. And now, the Heights is dwelling to a brand new, self-described “fine-casual” restaurant that celebrates this mindset.
Named Camaraderie, which opened on March 26, the restaurant is the primary solo venture for Shawn Gawle, who was most just lately the chief pastry chef for Goodnight Hospitality. The inspiration for the new enterprise stems from Gawle’s time as a restaurant employee. He feels lucky to have made so many nice relationships and recollections with staff members and leaders through the years, which he attributes along with his lack of burnout. He jokes that there’s no higher bond than with somebody you belief and know and have been within the trenches with.
“I really feel like when individuals exit to dinner as a bunch, they’re going with shut pals and family members and they need to share a meal and expertise the identical factor,” Gawle says.
At Camaraderie, he’ll be cooking modern American delicacies with French methods, providing an à la carte menu and a $75 prix fixe. He needs to create plates which might be visually interesting, nostalgic, mild however nonetheless filling, and have simply the correct ratio of salt and acidity. For instance, Gawle performed round with the nduja rolls on the à la carte menu for some time earlier than he bought them excellent.
“It type of appears to be like like a cinnamon roll,” Gawle says. “So, it comes out, individuals’s minds suppose that, after which they eat it, and it’s this Tomme-style cheese with spicy sausage and this actually delicate roll, and it’s like, ‘Oh this isn’t what I used to be anticipating,’ and also you’re confused however then it’s like, ‘Wow that is scrumptious.’”
Gawle likes to serve dishes which might be a play on one thing that diners would possibly already be conversant in. Accessible on each menus, the poached halibut is served with purple potatoes, clams, and lobster, then topped with a smoked potato espuma and a contact of smoked paprika. Gawle describes it as a unfastened rendition of the clam chowder he grew up consuming in New England.
Shawn Gawle, the chef-owner behind Camaraderie, already has Michelin expertise below his belt.
The à la carte menu is split between “snacks” (like a tarte flambée) and a “extra substantial” part, with dishes like a carrot cavatelli with carrot high pesto, mimolette, and turnip; and a hanger steak with pomme dauphine potatoes and chimichurri.
To completely create sense of camaraderie in his restaurant, the prix-fixe menu is supposed to be shared family-style, with bites equivalent to a salt-baked celery root with apple, chile, and yuzu; sformato with asparagus, morel, and parmesan; a veal osso buco with bucatini and mirepoix entrée; and a strawberry frozen marshmallow sorbet with lemon and olive oil for dessert.
The restaurant additionally has a beverage program with wines by the glass or bottle—principally French and Italian—in addition to cocktails, together with “mini classics” for $8, nonalcoholic choices, and beer.
Camaraderie’s constructing was beforehand a woodworking shed, which allowed for a clear slate for the design. Due to Houston-based Schaum Architects, the restaurant now boasts a heat, trendy vibe with skylights, built-in wooden banquette seating, a eating room, bar, lounge space, and a 400-square-foot coated patio. “We simply need to make individuals really feel at dwelling,” Gawle says.
Although being a chef-owner is new for Gawle, his time within the business goes again to his childhood. His dad ran a deli in Boston that was handed down from Gawle’s grandfather.
“I’d all the time go to the deli and be round it, it was all the time enjoyable,” Gawle says. “I all the time noticed my dad’s coworkers have enjoyable. [And] the smells felt like dwelling and heat to me.”
When it got here to deciding what he needed to do after highschool, he had his sights set on culinary college. As quickly as he graduated—actually just some days later—he started his research on the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. Whereas others had been having fun with their summer time break earlier than faculty, he needed to make the most of cheaper tuition, for the reason that college raised it every July.
Camaraderie emphasizes enjoyable but wonderful plating, like this salt-baked celeriac dish with apple shingles.
Throughout that point, he additionally labored an externship on the 4 Seasons in Boston, which then led to a number of stints in eating places that provided diverse eating experiences. One of the best a part of these alternatives was assembly so many individuals, every of whom he says contributed to his studying ultimately.
“I attempted to be fairly selective to what eating places I’d work in,” Gawle says. “[I wanted] extra studying kitchens, so I might get a little bit little bit of one thing from everybody.”
Gawle’s expertise was evident. He quickly moved up within the culinary world and labored at a number of Michelin-starred eating places throughout the nation, together with L20 in Chicago, Veritas in New York Metropolis, and Saison and Quince, each in San Francisco. In 2019, Gawle made his Houston debut as govt pastry chef for Goodnight Hospitality, the place he helped open Rosie Cannonball, March, and Montrose Cheese & Wine. He grew to become famend within the metropolis for pastries just like the Basque cheesecake with marmalade that is nonetheless on Rosie’s menu to at the present time, in addition to Cheese & Wine’s addictive pasteis de nata and canelé. He even earned Pastry Chef of the 12 months at CultureMap’s 2023 Tastemaker Awards.
By way of all of it, although, Gawle was working towards one aim: a spot of his personal. He says the concept of turning into his personal boss was one thing instilled in him from his dad.
“I would like to have the ability to construct the tradition and set the requirements, and train and mentor individuals,” Gawle says. “I need to share what I’ve discovered within the final 20 or so years.”
Gawle began engaged on Camaraderie’s marketing strategy lengthy earlier than he got here to Houston, however all the time felt that it wasn’t the correct time. When the pandemic hit, he was inspired to revisit the concept by his now-wife.
He based the restricted legal responsibility firm (LLC) for it in 2021 and commenced fine-tuning the plan. He took suggestions from his spouse and shut pals, practiced his cooking with occasions and a few non-public chef gigs, and labored with a realtor to seek out the proper house. Gawle says his staff at Goodnight Hospitality was there to help him as he labored to convey his goals to life and had been concerned in numerous conversations with him a yr earlier than he formally left in 2023.
Gawle settled on his house within the Heights due to the family-friendly neighborhood. With Camaraderie’s eleventh Avenue location, he hopes households and others residing close by will probably be inspired to stroll there and benefit from the house like he intends—the place they’ll go loosen up and overlook about their days, with togetherness.
“I’m excited to lastly have it open,” Gawle says. “I’ve labored on it for a really very long time and I’m simply glad and excited to place smiles on individuals’s faces.”
