​I received an e-mail today from Underbelly, one of my favorite restaurants, announcing that the restaurant was beginning lunchtime sandwich delivery today to centrally located worksites: “Dubbed UB Sandwich, this newest venture from Shepherd and team will feature a selection of six sandwiches and three salads plus several options for sharing such as a crudité platter, a charcuterie platter and a mixed-sandwich platter,” adding that they “already have a great team at Underbelly that can execute this.”
 
All Sandwiches are $15 and come with Underbelly Chips, which I assume are house-made, and Victoria's Chocolate Chip Cookie.  Salads are $15, with an additional $5 to top it with chicken, and come with the cookie, a very good cookie, I'm guessing.  Having suffered through awful lunchtime boxed sandwich lunches – our two onsite eateries are pretty much incapable of making a halfway decent sandwich on a consistent basis – I think this is a great lunchtime meeting option to have.  And, Underbelly is just a mile from my offices. The minimum order for this is $150, and must be in by 9:30 AM of the day of delivery.  There are no delivery charges for locations inside the Loop. 
 
The sandwiches and salads from which to choose:

• House Smoked Turkey Grinder – In-house pit-smoked turkey breast, lettuce, tomato jam and avocado on a whole wheat hoagie roll
• The Double Club – In-house pit-smoked ham and turkey breast, cheddar, lettuce, sliced tomato, pickled peppers and mayonnaise on a white hoagie roll 
• Cold Korean Fried Chicken – Fried chicken breast, cucumber, cabbage and gochujang mayo on a white hoagie roll
• The Caprese – Fresh mozzarella pulled in-house, arugula, sliced tomato and basil cream on a white hoagie roll
• Smoked Corned Beef – House-cured 44 Farms corned beef, fresh slaw, Swiss cheese, pickles and Russian dressing on marble rye
• The Cha Ca Sandwich – Tumeric- and yogurt-marinated gulf fish salad, cabbage, pickled onion and dill on wheat bread
• Underbelly Chopped Salad – Baby greens, chick peas, pickled peppers, dried cherries, feta, sunflower seeds and roasted red pepper vinaigrette 
• Vietnamese-Style Roasted Chicken Salad (Gluten-free) – Slowly roasted pulled chicken, cabbage, baby greens, fresh herbs, pickled onion and nuoc mam vinaigrette
• Salmon Salad – Smoked salmon, arugula green mix, red onion, cucumber, caper dressing, croutons 

There are also trays that can feed about two dozen:

• Charcuterie Tray – Assorted meats, cheeses, pickled vegetables, whole grain mustard and toast
• Sandwich Tray – Assortment of half-size sandwiches. includes underbelly chips
• Farm-Fresh Crudite Tray – Fresh assorted vegetables and spring onion dip
• Pimento Cheese Tray – Pimento cheese, pork cracklin’s, sesame rice crackers, pickled okra
• Cookie Tray – Assorted cookies

 
From left to right:  The Caprese, Double Club, Turkey Grinder and Korean Cold Fried Chicken.

​At the semi-annual risotto festival a couple Sundays ago, I was surprised to see Maurizio Ferrarese, the longtime chef at Quattro in the Four Seasons not manning the Quattro booth but making risotto under his own banner.  As it turns out, Ferrarese left the restaurant in October.  He was coy about the departure when I queried, not giving me much information about it other than he plans to stay in Houston, which is the most important thing for local diners.
 
Maurizio Ferrarese, after all, is one of the best Italian chefs in the state, and one of the best chefs in the city, in my opinion.  Heading up the kitchen at Quattro for since the summer of 2010, he lead a kitchen that served approachable, refined contemporary, broadly northern Italian fare while also satisfying the more mundane, meat-centric palates of the typical middle-brow, middle-aged business traveler.  It was all executed with copious skill, top-notch ingredients.  Maybe it was not overly ambitious with items like potato gnocchi with roasted shrimp and bacon, agnolotti with beef and black truffle, and seared ahi tuna, but I always found it very satisfying. 
 
Especially so, was a dinner that he cooked for my dinner group a few summers ago in their kitchen dining room.  I asked him to create a menu of items from his home area for a dozen of us, which he did magnificently.  It was an updated, upscale restaurant chef’s version of a homey meal, more refined, more attractively presented and likely much tastier.  It began with four small appetizers that each worked very well: tuna with a bit of mayonnaise like a veal tonnato, steak tartare, and a cured white fish, plated for each diner.  Then was the primo course, with two versions of risotto, one with fried frog legs – frogs are a popular protein with the risotto near the expansive rice fields of Vercelli where Ferrarese is from – and another with fontina and mushrooms.  Both were excellent.  The main course was a modern meat-oriented fritto misto, with several expertly fried items placed charmingly on butcher paper atop their near descriptions.  The dinner was excellent throughout, and a lot of fun, with help from Ferrarese.
 
To note, as it was during the last risotto festival, Ferrarese’s risotto, featuring cauliflower, one of my least favorite vegetables, was nonetheless the best risotto of day, with the rice cooked to a toothsome consistency that highlighted the individual grains, and in contrast to most, which were overcooked and a bit mushy.  I look forward to Ferrarese returning to a Houston restaurant kitchen sooner than later, to eat perfectly cooked risotto and a lot more.  

A contemporary and delicious take on fritto misto at Quattro a few years ago.

​I was about to place my order at the Good Dog outpost on West Alabama when the solicitous and cheerful cashier mentioned that they were also serving half-sized versions of each of the hot dog creations, which was not shown on the menu.  As I was hoping to limit myself to just one hot dog, but having trouble decide upon just one from the myriad of tempting combinations, and buttressed by my memory of the terrific little dogs that Little Bigs had served, this seemed like an excellent solution.  And it was.
 
Of the nearly fifteen hot dog choices, I selected the half versions of The Texican Dog loaded with refried black beans, Oaxaca cheese, avocado, pickled jalapeño, red onion, crème fresh, cilantro, cumin and a bit of lime and the somewhat similar Guac-A-Dog with avocado, fresh jalapeño, tomato, onion, roasted garlic aioli, cilantro, cumin and lime.  Encompassed by a fresh, flavorful bun, the host of quality, well-chosen toppings and featuring top-notch, meaty dogs that had a nice snap when bitten, these made for a very welcome lunch, more so with a side of fries.  Fun and satisfying, and as a testament to the quality of ingredients, tasting even somewhat healthy, well, as healthy as loaded hot dogs can be.  The half-sized hot dogs are $4 each.
 
Good Dog Houston
1312 W. Alabama (west of Montrose), 77006
903 Studewood (between White Oak and 11th Street), 77008
Open Tuesday-Sunday 11am-11pm
gooddoghouston.com

​Across from my seat at the bar at 13 Celsius the other night, I glimpsed a large and squat clear bottle with a metal pour spout affixed on top that drew my attention.  Maybe it’s my fixation with attractive or interesting containers, especially those that might hold alcohol that I might like, but I thought that this bottle might be pretty cool, regardless; it’s shape and size were certainly unique among the hundreds of bottles employed at what I believe is the city’s top wine bar.
 
It proved to be a bottle of 20-year-old tawny port from Graham’s, a 6-liter bottle, certainly the largest bottle of port I had ever seen.  And, a very enjoyable port, to boot, one that I have long liked.  It’s $12 for standard 3-ounce pour that works very well at the end of the night or the end of the visit.  No telling what the entire bottle cost.  This is actually the second bottle the bar has had.  The first ordered in conjunction with their port and Madeira week went fairly quickly.  This one seems destined for the same fate.
 
13 Celsius
3000 Caroline (north of Elgin), 77004, (713) 529-8466
13celsius.com

​While at D&Q Mini Mart on Saturday to try to help salve my mother’s fino sherry fix – true – I asked the knowledgeable owner about the status of the Celis Brewery’s schedule to finally distribute to Houston.  He smiled and went back into the cashier’s area and lifted one of three bottles of Celis that he coincidentally had on the counter and said that they should be available in Houston within a month or even earlier.  Though I am drinking – or at least loudly trying to do so – less beer, I can’t hardly wait until Celis is back in town.
 
The new Celis Brewery in Austin, finally opened earlier this year.  This Flemish beer specialist – glorious, robust yet refreshing and slightly sweet white in the Belgian tradition was, and is, their standard-bearer – is a re-boot of the famed Celis Brewery that brewed in Austin during the 1990s before succumbing to financial issues, selling out and then disappearing from the scene.  Celis White and outdoor seating at The Ginger Man during one of the many warmer months seemed like an almost perfect pairing.  The Celis brand was somewhat sullied by the small Michigan brewery that held the label most recently with beers that never quite tasted as the original Celis, and often much worse.
 
Christine Celis, the daughter of the legendary Pierre Celis is heading the brewery this time.  She worked at the initial one.  Hopefully, the company will be better managed then before.  And, even more, that beers taste as good as they did in the past.  A friend in Austin who used to drink an obscene amount of Celis reports that they are very good and seemed like they once were.  During Pierre Celis’s tenure, Celis White and the estimable Grand Cru were not Belgian-style beers; they were Belgian beers, just brewed in Texas.  Unibroue in Quebec and Ommegang in Cooperstown, New York are current breweries that come close to that mantle, but are not as good as Celis was.  And, hopefully is once again.