Joe Mercuri might be known for the grill in his eponymous fine dining restaurant in the Old Port. But he’s also been the man behind the menu at the Houston’s chain of restaurants for years.
Apparently they begged him.
And he finally caved, as long as he could introduce a local, seasonal cooking and train the staff. “Lets take processed food out of the chain and bring in fresh food,” he said at the opening press party. “The first six months was tough. But the cooks started to appreciate it. They started to learn.”
Now Houston’s restaurants make their own fresh pastas, they mix their own spice rubs for ribs and they make their vinaigrettes. Thank goodness it doesn’t all come from Aubut.
This is the seasonal insert in the multipage menu. It’s fusion cuisine with a lot of international ingredients but a grounding local product in each. There’s raw Quebec asparagus with pancetta, oka cheese and apple. There’s Gaspésie crab with avocado, melon, lime and chili. And there’s lobster with chorizo and a spicy papaya emulsion. 
Most of the regular menu is comfort food: poutine, burgers, tacos, ribs, tartars and big crunchy salads with teriyaki or Caesar or chipotle dressings. Nothing’s cheap, but it’s better quality than most of Peel and Crescent Street for the same price.
But there are two important things that impressed me about Houston’s.
1. Everything tasted really good.
There was no wilted lettuce. The tartar wasn’t drowning in mayo. The strawberries were actually sweet. And the radishes and corn and every little extra in a dish had a reason for being there. If you examine each dish like you might a dish in a fine dining restaurant (forgetting about the fact that there’s soy sauce in almost everything helping to create that big umami falvour – but if it’s good enough for David Chang…), it’s all delicious.
2. The kitchen was able to adapt to dietary restrictions.
This doesn’t usually happen in chain restaruarnts. Of course Joe Mercuri could do it, but his chef de cuisine, Giuseppe, could too, which is important because you know executive chef Mercuri won’t be the one overseeing the kitchen every night. He’s there to train the team, develop the menus, make sure they can execute each dish. Giuseppe needs some more credit. When I let him know that I was gluten and lactose intolerant, he made me the spare ribs with just salt instead of soy. He gave me the strawberry, salmon and quinoa salad without the feta and he took the rice krispies and wontons out of the tuna tartar (note: Rice Krispies contain malted barley and are NOT gluten intolerant, but I’ve never met a chef besides Giuseppe who knew this).
I should also give a shout-out to General Manager Andrew Levesque, who was a pro, not some first-time server. I would happily place all my fragile customer satisfaction in his capable hands. He remembered what I couldn’t eat and made sure none of the other servers gave me the wrong dish. If you’re Celiac, which I’m not, this is an even bigger reason to sigh in relief.
BUT! There’s one hiccup for gluten free-ers: the menu indicates dish that are “Low in Gluten.” What the heck does that mean? There’s a big difference between something having a chance of contamination in a kitchen (aka everything) and something containing soy sauce. And according to the menu, something containing soy sauce would be considered “low in gluten.” Why not just indicate menu items that are actually gluten free (still not including cross-contamination)? And unless GM Andrew Levesque was serving me or I’d spoken directly with Giuseppe, I’m not sure I’d trust the server to know what “low in gluten” actually meant.
Oh, and there’s a second floor with a glass walled private room, there’s lounge/club music later in the evening and there are screens to watch the game.
Burgers, ribs, poutine and a party. I don’t miss Cavalli one bit.
Houston Avenue Bar & Grill
2042 Peel St, north of de Maisonneuve
514-844-2121
Hours: Mon-Wed 11am-11pm, Thurs-Fri 11am-midnight, Sat 4pm-midnight
How much: $40-$50 for dinner and a drink with tax and tip
www.houstonresto.com
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