Tag Archives: James Hamous

Barmoire, Dallas, Diet, Food and spirits, Shots, Trinity Groves, You gotta eat

At this avocado-crazy Dallas restaurant, the superfruit is in your cocktails — including an avocado toast shot

Avocado: You may have heard of it. The current lord of the fruit kingdom is officially everywhere, the most visible (and notorious) sign of its cultural sway the dish known as avocado toast. So naturally, it was just a matter of time before someone created an avocado toast shot.

The Avocado Toast Shot at newly opened AvoEatery, at Trinity Groves.

It’s fitting that that someone is Faith Railey, beverage manager at recently opened AvoEatery in Trinity Groves, where the ubiquitous superfruit graces every dish in some way. The same goes for Railey’s 10-drink house cocktail lineup, and with this weekend’s launch of AvoEatery’s brunch menu, the avocado toast shot made its debut.

Railey’s $5 shot is a mini-smoothie mix of avocado-infused Prairie vodka, spinach syrup, lime and a rim coated with a mix of salt, cayenne and panko breadcrumbs. It’s tasty enough to enjoy as a sipper, savoring every bit of crisp from that clever rim.

Avocados are no stranger to cocktails in the occasional sense, typically muddled or infused; their flesh offers velvety texture without the cloying sweetness of banana and a Grinch-green shade that’s visually arresting. Rich in healthy fats that are the current craze, avocado appeals in cocktails, too: “It’s like blending in butter to your coffee,” New York City’s Ariel Arce told Vogue in 2016. “It adds a deep, creamy and rich flavor while still keeping the drink light.”

The Lemon Blossom cocktail at AvoEatery incorporates avocado honey for a bourbon spin on the classic Bee’s Knees.

In Dallas, Meso Maya’s tasty avocado margarita capitalizes on the fruit’s sweet muddled creaminess, while the since-departed avocado gimlet at Moxie’s gleaned the fruit’s savory flavor into rosemary-and-infused gin. But a full-on cocktail lineup forged from avocado? Railey, formerly of Republic Texas Tavern in North Dallas, took it as a challenge, putting simple but crafty avocado spins on established classics.

“We tried to use the entire tree, not just the fruit,” she says. “I think we used everything except for the bark. And the pits.”

Suddenly, the pink neon sign screaming from one side of AvoEatery makes sense. “Be Anything But Predictable,” it says in words you might imagine coming straight from an avocado itself (if an avocado could talk). It’s like, “Y’all! I can do anything!”

Yes, little avocado. Yes you can.

Until she joined AvoEatery, Railey’s avocado interest had been minimal. “I’ve always liked avocados,” she says. “But I would just eat them for breakfast.”

Faith Railey, AvoEatery’s beverage director, spun a 10-drink lineup of avocado-influenced cocktails.

Now, ‘cados are her avocation, and you’ll find ingredients on the menu like an “avocado elixir” – a slightly sweet, amber-colored tea made from steeped avocado leaves – which flavors the Pinkies Up, a vodka sour variation. Or the avocado syrup (“my baby,” she says) that adds a light touch to the Avo Colada.

Naturally, there’s an Avo ‘Rita, and it’s a winner, livened up with melon liqueur and a rim of hibiscus salt. The Lemon Blossom employs floral avocado honey in a bourbon variation of the gin-based Bee’s Knees. Meanwhile, the formidable Avo Old Fashioned hews close to the traditional cocktail with the addition of Railey’s avocado-chocolate bitters, which like her “elixir” is crafted from the leaves of the avocado tree.

“We wanted to make sure we paid respect to the cocktail movement and how far it’s progressed,” says James Hamous, AvoEatery’s operations manager. “But we have to make it approachable.”

Railey’s When The Smoke Hits is a margarita with mezcal and a rim of spicy Tajin.

The oddball of the group is the Let It Go, which really isn’t a cocktail at all, just a pour of tequila lapped around an avocado iceberg. The short glass promotes sipping, because you’ll want to give the frozen avocado time to melt – or will you?

A wooden spoon served with the drink makes it an interactive experience: You can coax the cube around the glass, chip avo-nibbles out of it or break it into chunks. Either way, the melting avocado cube gradually adds savory silkiness to the tequila, testing your will with its ever more murky green tint.

Whatever drink you choose, you might want to offer a toast to the once lowly, lumpy avocado, which now rules the land. As Railey now says, “it’s more than just a fruit.”

Alchemy, Downtown, Fancydranks, Supper Clubs, You gotta eat

Don’t Tell Supper Club aims to make cocktails a feast for your senses

Sam Houghton, Don't Tell Supper Club
Don’t Tell’s Green Eggs and Ham. I would drink it on a boat.

I’ve just sipped from a glass brimming with vodka, fruit puree, lemon and champagne on crushed ice, and the crackle of Pop Rocks is still rocketing around my tongue.

“This is going to be a full sensory experience,” James Hamous says, casting a nod at the room as he takes it all in. “Not the humdrum of your typical restaurant.”

It may look plain on the outside, but inside it’s a sensory wonderland.

Do tell, sir!

Actually it’s the Don’t Tell Supper Club we’re in, but it’s clear from our grand surroundings that the folks behind the curtain want the place to be anything but a secret. The décor is whimsical bordering on outlandish, with designer mirrors, slanted shelves, an array of sexy crossed legs along a wall and a stack of books behind the bar that transform into a flock of flying seagulls.

At Don’t Tell, already in soft opening but which officially launches its dinner menu July 27, it’s going to be all about the show, stage and all. The place transforms from dinner club to nightclub at 11 p.m. and will be open three nights a week, Thursday through Saturday, with former Top Chef contestant Tre Wilcox the architect du cuisine.

Sam Houghton, Don't Tell Supper Club
Houghton’s vodka and fruit puree-powered Contortionist is sprinkled with Pop Rocks.

“It’s going to be socially interactive,” says general manager Hamous, also co-owner of The Standard Pour in Uptown, who prefers to describes his role at Don’t Tell as “facilitator of entertainment” and then, on second thought, as “director of crazy.” He’s thinking maybe geishas in the future, or mermaids in a ginormous water tank.

Yup. It’s going to be that kind of place – a cabaret of contortionists, aerialists and dance revues wriggling and prancing as you devour another forkful of lamb, the sort of spectacle you might find in such clubs in Amsterdam, Miami or New York City.

Likewise, the showy ‘tude infuses the drink menu from bar manager Sam Houghton, formerly of Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza and The Standard Pour. Think dry ice, smoke and fanciful touches like those Pop Rocks in the so-called Contortionist, added, as the drink list says, “to bring the party to your mouth!” (Exclamation point not mine.)

The tiki-esque Trainspotting includes four syringes of rum piercing its icy depths, to be injected upon serving into the highball of orange, lime, pineapple and coconut.

The Most Unusual Tea, a name playing off the brand phrase for Hendricks Gin, is poured from a beaker into a tea cup that bubbles smoke rings like a magic potion of gin, lime, basil and citrus-chamomile bitters.

Sam Houghton, Don't Tell Supper Club
Houghton’s Bumbledypeg, a twist on the classic Bee’s Knees designed for a friend who’s allergic to honey.

One standout is the Green Eggs and Ham (pictured above), a cool mix of tequila, egg white, jalapeno/cucumber puree, St. Germain and spicy Firewater tincture. With a slice of candied bacon crawling from the lime-green surf over the rim of the coupe, I would drink it on a boat, or with a goat. The name even references “Sam I am” Houghton herself.

My favorite may be the Bumbledypeg, whose name recalls mumbledypeg, the old-timey childhood game played with a pocketknife; Houghton says she wanted to make a Bee’s Knees (gin, lemon and honey syrup) for a friend who’s allergic to honey. Her version nicely substitutes almond-y orgeat for honey, but the coup de grace that graces the coupe (boom!) is a Bit-O-Honey speared with a tiny plastic sword.

Drink prices are expected to hover around $12, with many echoing the venue’s theatrical theme: “They’re things that alter and play with your senses,” Hamous says.

DON’T TELL SUPPER CLUB, 2026 Commerce Street, Dallas.