A few years ago, Houston lost two great black owned restaurants Holley’s and Davis Street at Hermann Park.  As I have traveled this year, I am learning that Houston is lucky in that not only do we have a plethora of black owned restaurants, but they also run the gamut in terms of restaurant type.   For example, we have high-end celebratory kind of restaurants that are also black owned.  Holley’s and Davis Street fell in that “when you feeling fancy” category of a restaurant so I was sad to see them go! Well this year, in 2019, the owners behind both concepts have teamed up to create Davis St. at Hermann Park Featuring Chef Holley.   The team from Holley’s has taken over the original Davis Street restaurant at the bottom of the Mosaic Condos.  With this partnership comes great food, drinks and location!

The Location

I will not spend much time here, because the new partnership did not come with a new restaurant interior.   I always loved the Davis St restaurant so I am glad they did not change much.  If you have visited Davis Street before you will be familiar with the black decor with green accents.  A large bar will likely be popular once again for happy hour.  Especially for those folks trying to fight that med center traffic after work.

The other thing to note are the private rooms!  These are perfect for birthday parties or any other type of private dinners you would like to host.  They are one of the few black owned restaurants in town that can offer this level of dining experience for special events so be sure to consider them for your next big event!

The Food

When I arrived for the tasting, the team had already placed the menu on the table.  Y’all it was six courses.  If you have been a long time follower of my blog, you know I go to a LOT of tastings and I can probably count on one hand how many places had this many courses.  I was just grateful to be wearing stretchy clothes! We started out with Holley’s famous Parker House Rolls.  Homemade rolls that are served hot with pimento cheese.  Let’s just say everyone loved them and some bargaining occurred for the remaining rolls.  I could honestly just come for those and a cocktail and leave satisfied.

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But wait there was more! We began the courses with a wedge salad and Boutte’s Southern Gumbo featuring fried oysters, duck confit and gulf shrimp.  Both dishes had great flavors and put a little spin on other versions you may find around town.  Next up, were the Charbroiled Oysters Trio.  This may have been my favorite.  The NOLA oyster featured garlic butter, parmesan cheese and rosemary while the Baked Oysters Yvonne included crab meat and caviar.  Finally, the Oyster Diablo added smoked chorizo.  I really could not pick a favorite of the three, because they were all SO good.  I would have to order them all again.

Oyster with crab and cavier

For our entree course, we had Pork Belly & Pimento Cheese Grits and an Alaskan Halibut with Crabmeat.  Okay at this point my stretchy pants were failing me.  Ya girl was full!  But I gotta say both of these entrees were delicious.  I especially liked the grits and orzo pasta that was paired with the dishes.   Too often that part of the dish is bland, but here it was packed with flavor pairing well with the fish and pork belly.   We ended things with a dessert trio featuring a Coconut Cake, Key Lime Cheesecake and Ol’ Smokey Chocolate Cake topped with Caramel Popcorn and Dulce de Leche Ice Cream.   In short, SO MUCH GOOD FOOD!  You will absolutely find something that you like on this menu.

Pork belly with cheesy grits

Coconut Cake at Davis St.

The Takeaway

I loved my dining experience as I knew I would.  In addition to the great food, there were also great drinks.  I recommend the Penthouse View cocktail, a refreshing cucumber cocktail that is great for those who are not big cucumber fans like myself.   There is also an in house sommelier ready to pair your meals with great wines.

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The final point I will make about my dining experience is this… I always enjoyed visiting the old Holley’s restaurant because the staff was as diverse as Houston.  Often times, when you visit Houston’s higher end restaurants you will find a diverse dining crowd, but the staff often does not reflect that.  This may seem simple, but hiring young black men and women provides them an opportunity to make a higher wage (people tip off of the menu prices), learn dining etiquette (they are trained to serve from the left etc) and to engage with a different type of clientele.  It is just another added bonus when visiting Davis St. at Hermann Park featuring Chef Holley!