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“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Mark Zientek, co-owner of The Refuge Steakhouse and Bourbon Bar in Creekside Park. For Zientek, the mission had always been to provide a refined escape from life’s worries, where patrons could relax over a fine meal, along with a beverage from the restaurant’s formidable selection of whiskies. During the shutdown of March 2020 and the ensuing months of restrictions, that business model was turned inside out.
Learning to adapt had to happen, literally, overnight: A decision was made to temporarily close a sister restaurant, Refuge Bar & Bistro. Staff was furloughed, with management taking on all roles at Refuge Steakhouse. A new menu was created, consisting of family-style meals, and the restaurant even offered “butcher shop” cuts of fresh steak that customers could prepare at home. When the state ok’d to-go alcohol sales, Refuge responded with portable batches of customer favorites--flasks of Manhattans, Old-fashioneds, and Martinis. Zientek said customer response was extremely positive.
As soon as the state allowed dine-in service to resume, the entire Refuge staff returned to work. Now, as 2021 draws to a close, Zientek says Refuge is back to business as usual, however, he notes that “people’s patterns have changed.” The popularity of eating al fresco is one new development. To meet the demand, Refuge has added 10 more outdoor tables to its patio and has partnered with neighboring restaurant Avanti to offer live music on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Zientek said demand for private dining is surging too. Reservations for Refuge’s private event rooms and its catering services are filling up. “Everyone is booking again for the fall and upcoming holiday season.”
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“Ambience is important, but food is the focus,” said Santiago Pelaez, owner of Zanti Cucina Italiana on Research Forest. Weeks before the shutdown in Texas, Zanti Executive Chef Stefano Ferrero, was receiving dire news from family and friends in Italy already experiencing the full force of the virus.
So Ferrero and Pelaez preemptively mapped a way forward that entailed going to 100% to-go, something they would never have envisioned before the pandemic. Pelaez said that above all, they were determined that Zanti would meet the needs of the community. So the booths and tables of the beautiful restaurant, which had only opened its doors a few months earlier, would have to sit empty as recipes were adapted to meet the rigors of carryout containers and car travel. As with Refuge, reception of the new to-go menu was overwhelmingly favorable.
Today, patrons once again fill the tables at Zanti. Now, the focus is on ensuring that product is available, despite the slowdown in the supply chain. Of prime importance is the imported Italian flour used for breads and pizza dough at the restaurant.
Pelaez said demand for private dining has resulted in a surge of bookings for their event spaces. A new catering service is also in the works. And, most exciting of all, a new Zanti location is set to open in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston early next year.
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“We’re going to weather the storm,” Executive Chef Austin Simmons recalled telling his team at TRIS. One of the most talked-about chefs in the Houston area in recent years, Simmons was preparing to present an 8-course menu at Manhattan’s storied James Beard House in March of 2020, when the gravity of the pandemic became clear.
Back at home, he and his staff set to work, devising a way forward. “I said, ‘We’re going to “to-go,” and we’re creating a completely different menu for it.’” Many team members were unsure. TRIS was a special occasion dining experience. How would that translate to a carry-out menu?
But Simmons pushed ahead, developing a new menu, training staff, and making the transition overnight, in one fell swoop, becoming the first fine-dining restaurant in the area to offer meals to go, according to Simmons. The question was, how would customers respond?
Success was vital. To Simmons, temporarily closing the restaurant was unthinkable. If the lights were turned off, he reasoned, how hard might it be to reopen? So TRIS did not close, not even for a day, said Simmons. The to-go concept turned out to be wildly popular, and TRIS received outstanding support from The Woodlands community.
Simmons said that today, the restaurant is the busiest it’s ever been and that nothing he’s done in his career has been as fulfilling as keeping his team together and TRIS open through the confusion and turmoil of the pandemic. Along with Zientek, Pelaez, and Ferrero, he said he believes the future is bright for the restaurants of The Woodlands area. “People have to eat!”