The Leader • Saturday, July 21, 2018 • Page 1B
Summer Sweets
Dessert is a must
Photo by Zarah Parker Matthew McKenzie, co-owner of Avid Coffee Co., and Milk tea with boba created from his own recipe.
Quench your thirst this summer By Zarah Parker zarah@theleadernews.com
Photo by Jean Dukate
To create the chocolate shell that holds the mousse, the chefs use a balloon as a mold.
Cavatore adds creativity to the season Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com After a full meal at Cavatore Italian Restaurant, 2120 Ella Blvd., you might be tempted to skip dessert. That would be a big mistake. Although many of the favorites on the menu have been around for a long time, Federico Cavatore, who has worked at his family’s restaurant since 2001, says that in the past couple of years, they’ve taken their desserts to the next level. After sampling most of them, I’d have to agree. Cavatore said that they get some of their cakes and pies from Three Brothers Bakery, but in a recent informal social media poll, readers mentioned the in-house offerings as their runaway picks.
Photo by Jean Dukate Tiramisu has been a staple on the menu at Cavatore since the beginning.
Giancarlo and Ana Cavatore opened their Italian res-
taurant in 1983 but what you may not know is that two
years before that they opened La Tour d’Argent – now the Rainbow Lodge – across the street. Their French restaurant was where mousse first appeared on the dessert menu. To create the chocolate shell, or bowl, that the white or dark chocolate mousse rests in, the chefs at Cavatore heat chocolate and dip a balloon in it. When they pop the balloon, presto – a chocolate vessel. Another Cavatore specialty with a French influence is their profiteroles, sometimes known at choux à la crème. A profiterole is a pastry ball filled with something moist and sweet, like whipped cream, custard, pastry cream, or ice cream. At Cavatore, the See Cavatores P. 3B
Sometimes water doesn’t cut it in this Houston heat and you just need something sweet and delicious to slake your thirst. From milk tea and smoothies to cocktails our local hubs have the perfect drinks to make summer a little more bearable. The latest addition to the Avid Coffee Co. truck is milk tea with boba. It’s made in the truck by Avid’s co-owner, Matthew McKenzie who became familiar with the different techniques and styles of making milk tea while in China. “Being in a foreign country, especially one with a vastly different culture than yours for an extended period of time, you experience culture shock...it’s good to have something you can latch onto for comfort. Mine was milk tea,” McKenzie said, “it being my comfort food, I drank a lot of milk tea.” With the sealing machine and boba straws already available from a different almostbusiness venture, McKenzie decided to create his own recipe and add it to the menu. And although he couldn’t reveal the entire recipe, he gave enough information to know the drink is perfect for the summer heat. “The boba is created by boiling tapioca balls and then after the process of cooking them you soak them in a syrup. Then the tapioca absorbs the flavor of the syrup. So, I use half brown sugar and half white sugar for the syrup then
I throw in honey,” McKenzie said. The milk tea is pretty sweet, but McKenzie is careful not to overdo the sweetness. “I brew tea concentrate and then I use whole milk with a little bit of half and half and make a syrup for it. I actually throw in a tiny bit of cold brew to give it a little bit of oomph,” McKenzie said. Other cold drinks available on the truck are frappes, smoothies, and a cold brew latte. Currently the Avid truck parks at Millie’s (the old Oak Forest Chill) at 3542 Oak Forest Dr. You can also catch the truck at Eleanora’s Market on Saturdays. For something healthy and refreshing, Juiceland has options aplenty. They offer wellness shots, superfood lattes and tonics, fresh juice smoothies, and cold-pressed bottled juices. “One of our bestselling drinks in the summer is fresh pressed watermelon juice. Watermelons are in season, so their juice is more flavorful in the summertime! Watermelon juice is a popular summer goto because it is refreshing, and you can get a large juice for under $5,” said Lexie Shook of Juiceland. Another summer favorite is the Rehydrator smoothie, which has watermelon, raspberry, mango, peach, beet, coconut oil, mint, lime, and sea salt. The Rehydrator keeps the promise of its name and will hydrate you in the Houston heat. See Summer Drinks P. 2B
Pick your flavor and celebrate with ice cream Since July is national ice cream month, two ice cream shops in the Heights spilled the milk on what makes their ice cream special. Fat Cat Creamery, 1901 N. Shepherd Dr., began because the Heights was absent of an Ice cream shop. Owner Sarah Johnston began making ice cream at home and soon it developed into Fat Cat. “The thing that sets our ice cream apart that I don’t think everybody realizes is that we make it completely from scratch,” Johnston said, “we get all the eggs from the farm and hand separate them. Our waffle cones—the batter is made completely from scratch, so everything that we do, we make from
scratch; we make it from raw ingredients.” “We pasteurize our own milk; our own base, and that’s the difference between fresh made ice cream and made from scratch,” input Dylan Rodriquez, the ice cream chef and production manager at Fat Cat. Rodriquez is inspired to create new ice cream flavors from all over the world like Asia and Europe. But he also tries to do modern takes on classic flavors, like whiskey butter pecan, milk chocolate stout, chai tea coconut, and reverse milk and cookies. They change their seasonal flavors, soft serves, and sundae every month. Salted butter caramel and whiskey butter pecan have become the most popular seasonal flavors. And because they ro-
July is officially National Ice Cream Month. How will you top it?
Photo by Zarah Parker Sarah Johnston, owner of Fat Cat Creamery, and Dylan Rodriquez, who is the ice cream chef and production manager.
tate them in and out, customers are often calling inquiring whether or not they have a certain flavor because of how much they love it.
This summer season is pushing out watermelon, berries, and cucumbers, so the flavors at Fat Cat are more likely to reflect what’s fresh
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months ahead. Some of the new flavors to look out for at Fat Cat soon are coconut macadamia nut, stone cold cream Austin, which is caramelized white chocolate ice cream with brownie bits, strawberry ginger beer sorbet, honey toffee ice cream, chocolate banana nut, and more. Over the Moon, 238 W. See Ice Cream P. 3B
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on the market. “We’re really heavily influenced by the seasons,” Rodriquez said, “I just got ahold of sugar cube melon, so I made a bunch of sugar cube melon sorbet.” A typical batch of ice cream takes about three days starting from the kitchen with nothing to the front of the shop. That means they’re always thinking at least a week ahead and with new flavors,
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Page 2B • Saturday, July 21, 2018 • The Leader
Summer Drinks from P. 1B If craving something sweeter: “If a guest asked for a sweet summer drink, we would recommend our Home Run smoothie which has apple, banana, and strawberry. The Home Run is a smoothie that’s simple, sweet, and refreshing,� Shook said. There’s something for everyone at Juiceland, with customizable drinks and menu options for people with dietary restrictions. They focus on health and sustainability, so grabbing one of their smoothies will help you feel great. Visit them at 3206 White Oak Dr. But sometimes you need a little kick in your drink. That’s where BCK: Kitchen & Cocktail Adventures comes in. “The biggest thing about BCK, which is short for Bosscat Kitchen, is that we wanted to come to the Heights and we wanted to be nostalgic American fare, non-pretentious and fun,� said Matt Sharp, bar director and part owner of BCK. A part of the way they accomplish that is with their cocktails, which are broken into three parts on the menu. The top portion is the house cocktails, where there’s something for everybody with drinks featuring cucumber vodka, bourbon, gin, and more. At the bottom of the menu there’s the classics, like the Old Fashioned and Manhattan. The middle section is called “The Good Times� and features one of a kind cocktails that will transport you right back to your childhood. These are also the cocktails that
Photo supplied Dr. Feel Good and First Crush, nostalgic cocktails from BCK Kitchen & Cocktail Adventures.
Sharp calls the most “Instagramable.� When gathering ideas for BCK’s nostalgic menu, the staff was asked what they most enjoyed eating or drinking growing up. And from that many of the choices on the regular and cocktail menu were created. “The first one is the First Crush, and this is a play on like an Orange Julius or an orangesicle,� Sharp said. It’s made with Jim Bean Vanilla, Orange Crush, and cream. It’s refreshing, sweet, and will make you forget about the high ninetydegree weather waiting outside. When taking from what the staff loved drinking growing up, Dr. Pepper was also a big one for many, so they created the Dr. Feel Good. “So, we said, ‘okay we all love Dr. Pepper, how do we make that fun and engaging and a great cocktail?’ We take Dr. Pepper, we reduce it, make a really good syrup out of it, almost an orgeat, which is kind of a flavorful syrup, and
then we add rye whiskey to it, a little bit of lemon, and bitters. When we talk about fun, it doesn’t get more fun than that,� Sharp said. Especially
when it comes served in a Dr. Pepper can. Berry Crunch Milk Punch (say that five times fast, as Sharp joked) is another throwback on the menu. This concoction is inspired by Sharp’s love for leftover cereal milk. Every night before closing time they take Captain Crunch Berry and put it into two gallons of milk, let it sit overnight, and then strain it, creating cereal infused milk. In the cocktail with the milk is Buffalo Trace Bourbon and strawberry, with Captain Crunch sprinkled on top. All three are sweet, but still perfect for quenching your thirst. They are great throwbacks that were fun for the
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Use 1 cup Greek vanilla yogurt and 1 cup any fruit of your choice. Mix that in the blender and fill up popsicle molds.
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Pour your favorite champagne have way in the popsicle mold and add chopped or sliced fruit (apples, strawberries, peaches, etc.) and freeze. You can also make a purĂŠe of fruit in the blender and add champagne and few tablespoons of sugar, then pour that in the popsicle mold halfway and add some sliced fruit and freeze.
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Sharp said. If you’re feeling a little wistful of the past, happy hour is 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. at BCK, where you can have the comfort of home (without any of the family drama.) BCK is located at 933 Studewood St.
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The Leader • Saturday, July 21, 2018 • Page 3B
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506 W 19th 713-880-1187 urbansolesoutpost@yahoo.com Gretchen Todd, owner of Over the Moon, with her daughter at the ice cream shop that serves 100% vegan products.
Photo by Zarah Parker
Ice Cream from P. 1B 19th Street, has one hundred percent vegan ice cream and toppings. Owner Gretchen Todd began creating her own vegan ice cream at home after she became allergic to dairy a few years ago. She’s been selling juice at farmers markets for eight years, so she was able to add prepacked pints of the ice cream to her offerings. Soon, she was in her first brick and mortar. “This space became available, and then we moved in here last September after
the hurricane. It just kind of evolved naturally,” Todd said. For the most part reception to vegan ice cream has been great, with a few who are timid to try the dairy-free treat. “It doesn’t really taste any different [and] it’s pretty simple to make,” Todd said. “We don’t do artificial flavors and colors, so everything is colored with juice or natural products and then we’re trying not to do any gums or binders. That’s the biggest challenge, not using any bind-
ers and not having [ice cream] be rock solid, but sugar helps it to keep from icing up.” Todd is experimenting with sugar-free ice cream, but because sugar is what makes ice cream creamy, they only offer those prepackaged. Over the moon uses nut milks for the ice cream base and even offers hemp seed milk-based ice cream for people with nut allergies. “Our most popular flavor is probably coffee, and we have a charcoal lavender
marshmallow and the unicorn magic that are popular,” Todd said. Unicorn magic is a blend of a lot of different fruits, like lime, mango, dragon fruit, blueberry, and more. The product looks a lot like a tiedyed shirt. They offer all the normal ice cream shop varieties, like Sundaes, banana splits, and floats. Although they do also offer a kombucha float and a cold brew float.
Federico said. “It has a creamy texture, and is great with coffee. It’s what we bring out to those celebrating a birthday. You can’t go wrong with it.” One dessert that they have experimented with is their cannoli. Federico said that they used to use a cherry filling but it made the dessert too pink and it was too sweet. “We’ve been playing around with it for the past two years,” said Federico. “Now it’s an amaretto filling with Nutella. I was brought up on Nutella.” For the adults, there is also a
Cavatore Coffee with assorted liquors, including crème de mint. “We’ve had it on the menu for 25 years,” said Federico. “It’s wonderful.” Customer favorites from Three Brothers Bakery include the Italian cream cake and the key lime pie, which is a seasonal offering. Federico notes that Three Brothers won first place for their Key Lime pie in a Florida contest last summer, which is quite a coup, as the pie originated in Florida.
Cavatore is still a family owned restaurant. Giancarlo has passed away, but Ana still comes by the barn that her husband had brought in from Bastrop, to have coffee mornings with Federico and his sister Dolores, who keeps the books. Federico said that typically people get dessert there after a meal and that they don’t come in just for dessert. But if you are just in the mood for something sweet, a solo stop may be just the ticket.
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Cavatore from P. 1B puff pastries, which are made twice a week, are filled with white chocolate mousse and served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Tiramisu, a coffee-flavored Italian dessert, has been a staple on the menu at Cavatore since the beginning. It’s Federico’s grandmother’s recipe and he says that he remembers eating it all the time as a boy visiting his Nonna. Even as an adult, for many years, he had the Tiramisu for breakfast. “We haven’t changed it,”
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ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR Grown-up summer camp 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Friday, July 20 McCheeck’s Academy Clay Classes 619 W. 9th St. Join the Grown Up Summer camp! You will get to take ceramic and fiber workshops making hand built bowls, planters and wall hangings. All projects will be hands on starting with a ball of soft clay or a ball of yarn. You will concentrate on hand building with clay using coiling, slab and pinch pot methods. The fiber workshops will be weaving and pom pom making. Suitable for beginners and full instruction will be given for all the projects and all materials are included!’ Backyard pub crawl 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, July 21 Eureka Heights Brew Co. 941 W. 18th St. It’s time for Eureka Heights to host their very first pub crawl. Since they are still pretty new (not quite two years in business) they crawling near home. Come out and have a good time while drinking good beer. If you go to all five locations they’ll have a very smart and attractive pint glass waiting for you at Cedar Creek. Stops on the pub crawl are: Providence Bar: Houston Heights, McIntyre’s, Bungalow Heights, Cedar Creek Bar & Grill, and Wicklow Heights.
Films by James Coate 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Saturday, July 21 Visionary Heights 1331 Nicholson St. Come out watch films by James Coate! His films have won various awards at local film festivals. His current project is The Captive Enemy, a WWII drama which takes place on the coastal plains of Texas. The first film they are featuring is Lady Girl: A unique story of lost and found, filmed in one day on Galveston Island. This short film features poetry readings from Elizabeth Barrett Browning and music from Sir Edward Elgar. Next is Baker’s Mound: an insidious force envelopes the lives of a contract killer and his prey. This short film features a soundtrack that includes Texas musicians The Skylights, RichSteveRichard, Chasing Disaster, Carmeci, Wild Rabbit Salad, and David Bean. Doors open at 7 pm. BYOB. Nonalcoholic refreshments and appetizers will be served. The event is free! Apollo 13 with live music 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21 Houston Symphony 615 Louisiana St. Ste. 102 The first-ever performance of Apollo 13 with live soundtrack takes place right here in Houston as the complete film starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton
is projected on the big screen at Jones Hall, with James Horner’s Oscar-nominated score performed live by the Houston Symphony. Relive the incredible story of one of the most thrilling and suspenseful space missions in history like never before in what promises to be an emotional and truly unforgettable concert event. Spring Awakening 7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m. Thursday, July 26 Obsidian Theater 3522 White Oak Dr. Iconotheatrix presents their final show of the season, Spring Awakening, July 26-August 5, 2018 at Obsidian Theater. In Spring Awakening it’s 1891, and grown-ups hold all the cards. Headstrong Melchior and naive Wendla stumble into each other’s arms, passionate and curious, while anxious Moritz struggles to live up to the stringent expectations of society. With only each other for guidance, this group of young men and women travel the fraught and rocky path of adolescence, discovering their bodies, their minds, and themselves along the way. Tickets range from $21 for students to $26 for adults.
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Got an event worth sharing? Send it to zarah@theleadernews.com
Art Valet: 10th Annual art show supports local pet food bank Mitch Cohen Art Columnist
Archway Gallery recently hosted their 10th Annual Juried Art Show, benefitting Rescue Bank, an organization which provides pet food and supplies to area shelters. Sixtytwo pieces of art were chosen for the show from nearly 300 submissions, a record number for this show. “Houston is a creative community and this show is every bit a reflection of that,” selected juror, Diane Griffin Gregory, commented. “I hope gallery visitors will enjoy the show’s whimsy, sculptures, landscapes, and the many forms of creativity on display, which I felt were an overwhelming reflection of all of the collection.” Winners and honorable mentions were announced at a reception at the gallery on July 7 and all are on display until August 2. First place was awarded to Oak Forest resident Betsy Ev-
Oak Forest resident Betsy Evans with her 1st place sculpture Trojan Goat.
ans for her ceramic sculpture Trojan Goat. Evans received a cash award with guest artist privileges for one month at Archway Gallery. Second place was awarded to Judith R. Shamp for her mixed media collage, Generous Sufficiency, and, third place went to Habibah Haugstad for her 3-D work, Songs from My Childhood. Archway Gallery began its juried exhibition series in 2009 to broaden opportunities for artists and to support local nonprofit organizations, donating 50% of the proceeds to a community partner. This year the gallery has partnered
Second place was awarded to Judith R. Shamp for her mixed media collage, Generous Sufficiency
Habibah Haugstad won 3rd place for her 3-D work, Songs from My Childhood.
with Rescue Bank, a Signature tions of pet food through July Program of GreaterGood.org, 28. Donations can be dropped which collects and delivers do- off at the gallery during nornated pet food and supplies to mal business hours, Monday the animal rescue community – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 6 through its regional affiliates. p.m. and on Sunday from 11 There are no formal pet a.m. – 5 p.m. To see a list of food banks for families in the needs visit @archwaygallery Houston area. Rescue Bank, on Facebook. through its mission, has deFor information on upcomlivered more than 250 mil- ing Archway Gallery shows lion meals to pets since 2011. visit www.archwaygallery. Donations are needed to help com. Archway is located at area organizations maintain 2305 Dunlavy, Houston, Texas an emergency supply of pet 77006. food in advance of hurricane season. Cohen is an artist and founder Archway Gallery is hosting of First Saturday Arts Market a pet food drive for Rescue and the new Market at Sawyer Bank and is accepting dona- Yards, find him at ArtValet.com.
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