A few months ago I was at a promotional event and met a well
known Houston TV Foodie. I had mentioned to her that I had a couple
restaurant clients that were willing to participate in the promotion and her
first, initial reply was that they only deal with fine
dining but, corrected herself quickly in saying that Spring restaurants never
participate in their promotions. If her reaction is A typical of
Houstonians in that Houstonians believe that good
restaurants can only be found in Houston,
is that a fallacy in thinking? I was actually stunned at hercomment and
is the motivation between writing this article. My goal is not to prove
that better restaurants exist in Houston or that Houstonians should drive out of the city
to find fine dining or for special occasions but, to prove that fine dining does
exist in Spring, The Woodlands and south of Houston
in Clear Lake.
Fine Dining can be interpreted many ways and is most often
dependent on how affluent one is, their pallet,
ambiance
and some just simply believe that spending money makes them feel like they are
indulging in finedining. Some of the best food I have dined of is not necessarily fine dining per say. Occasionally, Houstonians want a nice dinner and in Houston and or Texas, that can mean barbecue. The best barbecue buffet we have found that is available all week is Larry's Barbeque in the Cypress/ Fairbanks area off of Hwy 290 at Fairbanks-North Houston RD. So, 100.00 a plate restaurants may not be of
plenty in Spring but, some restaurants you can get
rather
close to a $100.00 bill per guest without beverages such as at Perry’s
Steakhouse. Is if the cost
though that
defines fine dining in the mind of Houstonians? I am not sure but, I have
always said that
Houstonians are more interested in
ambiance and service than in good food. Looking for some kind of
definition,
I found a blog on FobBoh, The Restaurant Network,
www.fohboh.com,
where Harry Constantinescu
asked the very
question. An answer by Michael L. Atkinson states, “I think fine dining
is something special...a
rare gift
delivered by some of the most talented and professional FOH and BOH staff. It's
expensive. It's
fantastic and it's elegant. You feel regal
and well fed. You feel pampered and special. You have an
opportunity
to relish in a world of tribute to food...and wine...and superior customer
service. I define fine dining
as a 5 course
meal and a wine paring.” Do restaurants in Spring and or The Woodlands
not fit that definition?
The real question
is, who in
Houston
is defining “fine dining,” is it defined by the consumers or by the media
marketing
companies? Which ever the case, 1 Touch Reservations plans on fixing
the problem with our
new website, FineDining.ws.
The
Woodlands just within in the last five or six years has been gaining
recognition for fine dining and is the only location
outside of Houston listed on Google for fine dining although that is different
with Yahoo. Clear Lake and Kemah have massive listings on
Google and considering that Google corners the market a bit at around
58% usage, Google and the restaurant marketing companies are defining Fine
Dining. OpenTable.com does not even list Spring in
the their Texas
cities. The leading Houston
restaurant reviews site lists one restaurant in Spring
under fine dining and that is the White Flamingo. They have listed an
Asian Grill restaurant, the Waza Sushi & Robata
Grill on FM 1960, which I consider close enough to Spring to call it a
Spring listing. Having access to the profile page of Raoul’s Italian
Grill, since we handle much of their Internet
marketing, I noticed that the category fine dining is not a choice for the
restaurants to pick on this reviews site,
thus they must be defining fine dining themselves. Myself, I am a food
lover, not an ambiance lover so the first sign of fine
dining to me is the experience and staff of a restaurant. Lets take Gratzi’s
for example, which is the photo to the left for
this article, owner Richard White has had an incredible career, “As a graduate
of the Cambridge Institute of Culinary Arts in Massachusetts and a former
intern of the world renowned chef and restaurateur Todd
English, Richard had the strong educational background to vault him into
a successful career as a chef at some of Houston’s finest dining
establishments. After working in the kitchens of such
well-regarded restaurants as Nino’s and Stables, Richard moved on to become the
co-owner of Campioni Italian Restaurant, where he
worked to further hone his culinary flair for ten years.” www.gratziitalian.com Last month, good friends of mine from high school visited Raoul’s Italian Grill for
the
first time and said the food was the best Italian food they have ever had dining out. I personally shot two
videos at Raoul’s Italian Grill of their table side flaming Greek salad and one of their piano players, both
posted at
www.allhouston.net. You can be the judge yourself on their ambiance. The Yellow Pages is the
only company I found on Google listing Spring fine dining. Lets take Babin’s, in Willowbrook, which is close
enough to Spring for me to call a Spring restaurant has an incredible ambiance and some of the best seafood
in
Houston in my mind. They are owned by Landry’s, and if Landry’s restaurants are not defined as fine
dining, I am not sure what the world is going to. Spring does have fine dining restaurants even worthy of Houstonians taking the drive and we hope to assist in listing those restaurants soon. 2012 will bring new light to Spring restaurants if we have
anything to do with it but, Spring restaurants will
need
to put their two cents in as well. Through the grapevine, some
Houston marketing
companies have told
me that Spring restaurants do not
want to participate in raising money for causes. Many Spring area
residents
need help just as much as Houstonians do. 1 Touch Reservations is
discussing with severalrestaurants and a couple churches to organize such a
method. Continuing on with the subject of fine dining,
Valentine’s
Day is not too far away, which is one of most sought after fine dining days of
the year. Mother’sDay is definitely next in line as we all like to take
our mothers to the best of restaurants or fine dining. So
those
reading this who live in Spring, we encourage you to go to
www.houstonrestaurants.ws and
send us an
email of any restaurant(s) in Spring that
you believe should be classified as fine dining. We will research each
restaurant
and will try to create a criteria to define fine dining. Those
restaurants who may not fit our criteria
will be listed in
the same location under the category of something along the line of “Top Spring
Restaurants”
or “Worthy of Mentioning.” Let those
of us in Spring start to make a name for Spring as a city of good
restaurants
and fine dining and for the restaurants, lets say how much we care about
Spring,
Texas,
for it is a
city.
