FM Kitchen and Bar
Picture it. Houston. 2017. It's the tail end of July and it's unbearably hot. Scorching hot. My sister and I had just finished a 4 hour long photo shoot and we were hungry. Starving to be exact. The shoot was in downtown Houston, so we took the opportunity to find a centrally located new restaurant to try. From downtown, I knew I could find a good place within a 10 minute drive. All I needed was google. Then bingo.......I found a good spot that Houston Press named the place with the best new burger in Houston, beating out both Hopdaddy and Shake Shack. Sold!
Ahhhhh. This place is cute. There is a ton of outdoor seating on artificial turf, which is pretty unique and keeps it from looking like a true bar dive. I'm also a sucker for adirondack chairs, which were also sprinkled across the lawn. Too bad its way to hot to sit outside and enjoy the scenery. Although the place does gives me more of a bar vibe than a restaurant vibe, it's definitely more upscale and inviting. There were also a plethora of outdoor games, including a ping pong table, which I thought was a nice touch. They completed the space with outdoor big screen TVs, which will make this a natural candidate for Sunday funday game watching. In my mind, I'm already thinking about reserving a spot for the first Sunday of the NFL season.
As I mentioned earlier, Saturday was hot as fish grease. The temperature was about 99 degrees with a heat index of about 108 degrees. So I needed a look that would keep me cool. I reached for a bandeau crop top that I purchased as a two piece set from Zara. Yellow is a relatively cool tone, so it helped to keep me from completely burning up throughout the day. I paired that with a high waist distressed denim skirt from H&M. I finished the look with my "barely there" gladiator sandals I got from Madewell. I talked about these "barely there" sandals in a recent blog. I have reached for these sandals more times than I can count over the past few months. They go with absolutely everything. And of course, my signature over sized hoops pulled the entire thing together. It's too hot that time of day for me to have anything on my neck, so I left it bare. Here are a few more photos of the outfit. As always, outfit details will be listed at the end.
Okay, now on to the important stuff. As we were exploring and perusing outside, we could smell the aroma of food on a grill. The smoke permeated from behind the closed in fence. In that moment, I knew that I was going to have whatever it was that was cooking on that grill. We walk inside and were seated right away by the window. It was relatively busy for one o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday. The place was very bright and open with a semi art deco vibe with antique pieces sprinkled throughout the restaurant. Other than that, the seating itself was pretty basic.
We eventually grabbed a drink menu which was relatively small besides the long Texas brew list, which is what you would expect from this type of place. I'm always suspect of casual places having extensive drink menus, which usually means that half are not done well. This one was short and sweet, not unlike the food menu, so I quickly settled on the watermelon mule. It was so darn refreshing! I die, it was so good. It was touched with the right amount of sweet and a little bit of heat. In short, it was perfection. I will order this every time. I also loved the piece of watermelon that garnished the drink. I highly recommend it, particularly on a hot summer day.
I ordered the ribs and my sister ordered the infamous FM Burger. She enjoyed her burger a lot. I read some earlier reviews about the burger being relatively small. However, the burger was about $5 and some change, and there was a double meat option available for a couple of dollars more. So I don't understand this call out, especially for the price, unless the menu has changed. This place has only been open since May, so that is entirely possible. The burger in general reminded me of Shake Shack's burger at first glance. I later read that the chef was indeed inspired by the Shack Shack burger, so I clearly hit that nail on the head. I opted for the ribs and I rather enjoyed them. They were so freaking tender and they came out plated beautifully. I was relatively impressed with their attention to detail, considering the menu consist of basically upscale bar food. The sides were sold a la carte, so I opted for the potato salad. It wasn't my favorite thing to be honest, but I'm particular about potato salad in general. I'm old school and I'm Black. I like my potatoes completely mashed with a slight yellow hue. That's what I grew up on. However, the flavor wasn't bad, it's just more of a tossed potato salad, which is not my thing. But overall, I was pleased with my meal.
My final thoughts on this place is that I predict this is going to be an extremely popular neighborhood spot for the foreseeable future. It's in a popular location with a full parking lot, a great outdoor space and above average bar food and cocktails. It's also relatively inexpensive for the area, which is a major win. They also have a fairly extensive beer list, which makes it the perfect spot to catch local games. I've also learned, after doing a bit more research, that street artist, Daniel Anguilu, designed the art wall shown in earlier pictures. The restaurant has made a pledge to use this venue to highlight featured artists to show their work. Their dedication to preserving the arts and supporting local artists is refreshing and it's so damn Htown. This is what the city of Houston represents, so its nice to have entrepreneurs giving voices to this under-served art community. In short, FM Kitchen has all of the ingredients to be a Houston staple for years to come. I recommend it.
FM Kitchen and Bar
1112 Shepherd
https://www.fmkitchenandbar.com/
Outfit Details
Top: (No Longer Available) Alternative: Click Here
Distressed Denim: Click Here
Gladiator Sandals: Click Here