Ben Berg Opens Turner’s Cut Steakhouse and Sylvie’s in Houston

What’s better than a steakhouse? Three, or at least that’s the number of restaurants that Benjamin Berg, a Houston restaurateur, now manages in Space City.

The New York native officially opened two new restaurants this week, including Sylvie, an all-day cafe located in downtown’s Texas Tower. Turner’s Cut, Autry Park’s new steakhouse, rumored to be the most opulent restaurant on Berg’s list, opened its doors to the public on Friday, June 28, featuring rare cuts of meat, sultry live music and sophisticated design but comfortable. “It doesn’t look like a steakhouse. It’s almost like dining in a house, almost,” he tells Eater Houston.

A team of chefs including Eric Damidot, Pablo Peñalosa and Chelsea Cummings designed the menu, which features rare cuts of meat from America and Japan, including Kobe and Japanese A5 steaks, American wagyu and dry-aged prime rib eye. The menu also offers customizable dishes and tableside preparations. Turner’s Carving Cart features bone-in prime rib, while the Raw Cart offers an impressive selection of seafood like sashimi, oysters, lobster, king crab and caviar. Diners can also customize their perfect martini with the restaurant’s Martini Cart and watch servers assemble dishes, including Caesar salad, wild mushroom and truffle risotto and beef short rib Wellington, at the table.

Turner’s Cut guests looking to relax can opt for a six- or nine-course tasting menu, including dishes like Turner’s Ora King salmon pie, Broken Arrow Ranch quail and American wagyu, plus a food pairing. wines optional. The bar offers classic drinks, mocktails and signature cocktails, such as the Honey Vesper, a smooth combination of vodka, Cocchi Americano and Jelinek Bohemia honey, and the Toki Japanese Apricot Smash, made with Toki Suntory whiskey, mint, fresh lemon and a spritz of apricot liqueur. At the bar, guests can order chic bar bites, including what Berg describes as “the finest chicken nugget,” a piece of tender chicken fried and topped with white butter, grated truffle, green oil and sorrel.

The decor leans toward quiet luxury. Berg teamed up with Gail McCleese of the hotel design firm Sensitori to create the ambiance of what he calls New York’s golden age. Inside, dark hues mix with pops of white and gold beneath glittering chandeliers. The bar, which seats 15, is made of gold-cut crystal glass and features a wall of gilded Venetian glass bricks. Diners dining in the dining room will be seated on white leather banquettes and can listen to live music nightly from a band that plays from the restaurant’s mezzanine. Hidden doors lead to the private “state room,” which seats 24 for private gatherings, while its enclosed patio offers a taste of the outdoors with its peacock-shaped floral wallpaper.

The wine cellar, a respite from the bustling restaurant, allows two people to dine surrounded by more than 2,000 bottles of wine curated by sommelier Royston Remnick. And if it’s any evidence of Berg’s commitment to “opulence,” the women’s bathroom has a vanity with a Hollywood mirror and champagne, while the men’s bathroom sports a large television. screen and whiskey.

The steakhouse follows Berg’s live-fire steakhouse, Prime 131, which opened in March. Berg also owns B&B Butchers steakhouse, the first restaurant he opened in Houston in June 2015.

Berg also opened Sylvie in Downtown, in the 47-story Texas Tower downtown, on Wednesday, June 24. The restaurant, which Berg calls the “nicest all-day cafe and bar in town,” starts the day with takeout pastries. , plated breakfast items like avocado toast, Belgian buttermilk waffles, lemon chia seed parfaits, and a full-service coffee bar. Lunch includes salads, sandwiches and gourmet pizzas prepared in Sylvie’s glass mosaic oven; dinner includes dishes like lamb meatballs, honey-roasted chicken breast, and sides like duck fat roasted potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

The decor takes some notes from the restaurant’s name, which is the French form of Sylvia and the Latin word for forest. Its dining room, which seats 85 between its bistro bar and dining room, is anchored by an illuminated tree-shaped sculpture that stretches from floor to ceiling, complemented by a palette of brass tones, rust and pink.

Turner’s Cut is open for dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 811 Buffalo Park Drive, Suite 160. Sylvie is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays. 845 Texas Avenue, 77002.