LOCAL Houston | The City Guide November 2016

PERFECT PAIR Pairing Up with Springbok DID YOU KNOW HOUSTON HAS A SOUTH AFRICAN RESTAURANT & SPORTS BAR? We’re never short on options for our Perfect Pair, but seriously? SERIOUSLY. Springbok, downtown on Main just off the light rail Central Station, is just that. The understated but appropriately manly detail of the interior decor gives off a great atmosphere for game watching and fine dining. Downstairs, Springbok is a solid restaurant and bar, while upstairs seems best suited as an upscale sports bar with some great leather couches and plenty of TVs, and space for those group events. While we say upscale, service and overall atmosphere at Springbok is very casual and down to earth. This is the kind of place you can order a well drink and a well-done steak, or a craft cocktail and steak cooked perfectly medium rare. Springbok just wants to serve high-quality, unique food and drinks in a nonpretentious atmosphere where you can watch all the rugby and good old American sporting events you crave. Centrally located in Downtown, you better believe they have a solid following of lunch and after work crowds, while on weekends they offer another quality option for a late night out by indulging you in the “happier hour” which starts after 9pm. do it right, lemon juice from the charred lemon. There’s some tasty baby spinach and potatoes in the dish as well, which unless we told you, you would never realize was inspired by fish stew. But this is not fish stew; it’s a heck of a meal from a Michelin-trained California transplant chef and his crew (in case you want to blame someone after you get caught drinking the broth out of the skillet, which is not shown here). It just tastes so good! The easy route would be to pair this Texas Redfish with a glass of wine. It would have worked just grrrreat. But what works even better, especially with the chorizo, is this rosemary lemon drop. The rosemary really brings out something in the chorizo. The beauty of that rosemary lemon drop (look at the separation in Kennon’s photo) comes from mixing BJ Hooker’s (premium Texas) Vodka, housemade rosemary simple syrup, lemon juice and Creme de Violette, which is Austrian and literally macerated violet flowers which result in that purple hue you see in the photo. This drink, like the Texas Redfish, is delightful, so if you get one, might as well mentally prepare for drinking two. If it were us, we would have a second Texas Redfish as well. Now that you’re fully convinced a trip to Springbok is in your future, let’s get into our pair, which was the result of significant deliberation amongst the staff. The Texas Redfish is prepared, then cooked with the skin on and set in a broth bed of local chorizo, white wine, shallots, garlic and if you By Mike Cook Photography by Kennon Evett SPRINGBOK TEXAS REDFISH + ROSEMARY LEMON DROP SPRINGBOK | 711 Main Street | Houston, TX 77002 | 832.767.5574 | www.springbokhouston.com 22 L O C A L | november 16

LOCAL Houston | The City Guide November 2016 | Page 22