MORTAR
Last year Iris Siff and Sacha Nelson opened Mortar, a men’s wear
boutique stocked with such indie faves as Zero + Maria Cornejo, Kansas
City, Missouri’s Baldwin Denim, and Brooklyn’s Hollander & Lexer. In
February the pair inaugurated a back-room “meeting place” in their new
space with Randy Twaddle’s “Transformer” series of minimalist charcoal
prints (on gouache and T-shirts) of the city’s ubiquitous electric
boxes. Says Siff, “It’s taking what’s terrible and ugly about Houston
and making it modern, contemporary, and beautiful” (shopmortar.com).
PHILIPPE RESTAURANT and LOUNGE
Philippe Schmit earned his stripes in kitchens that matter (New York’s
Le Bernardin, Houston’s Bistro Moderne), so when it came time to open
his namesake restaurant in January, he felt it was okay to show off just
a tiny bit. “I have a camera in the kitchen so guests can see the food
being made,” says Schmit, who’s mixing local ingredients, French
techniques, and cowboy faves in dishes like a BBQ Caesar salad or seared
scallops in a pomegranate sauce with Houston’s Saint Arnold beer
(philippehouston.com).
HAMILTON SHIRTS
For 128 years Hamilton Shirts has been dressing spiffy Texans in bespoke
Egyptian and Sea Island cotton button-downs. In February Kelly and David
Hamilton debuted a new ready-to-wear collection with the same rich
fabrics and plush placket and collar linings. The brother-sister duo is
also planning a women’s line for next year (hamiltonshirts.com).
LA COLOMBE D’OR
Modeled—and named—after the French inn where Picasso and Matisse traded
art for food, this small hotel on Montrose Boulevard has just reopened
its restaurant as Cinq (for the mansion’s five guest rooms, which got a
Tex-boho facelift). New owners Dan and Mark Zimmerman tapped 27-year-old
Mansion on Turtle Creek alum Jeramie Robison to tackle the locavore menu
comprising both classic fare (herb-rubbed Colorado rack of lamb) and
modern (roasted rabbit saddle with pear d’Anjou)
(lacolombedorhouston.com).
SLOAN/HALL
For years Marcus Sloan and Shannon Hall have sold baubles to Houston’s
social queens. Now they’re going edgy, via local designer Jessica
Meyer’s BulletGirl line of gold-plate bullet shells sourced from her
grandfather’s Mexican ammo factory. This spring the shop is also
introducing a namesake collection of necklaces made from Native American
beads and arrowheads—many pavéed with diamonds (sloanhall.com).
FOUND FOR THE HOME
At Found, their four-year-old design emporium, Aaron Rambo and Ruth
Davis turn industrial scraps into must-have furniture pieces, like a
chandelier made by fitting Edison bulbs into an inverted 19th-century
bottle-drying rack. “I spent nine days in France last summer,” says
Rambo, “and brought back a 40-foot container full of stuff.” Expect that
trove to become the fall 2011 lamp collection (foundforthehome.com).
