Meet the Uchi-trained chefs opening award-winning Japanese restaurants in Houston

Aaron Bludorn has revealed the plans for his next restaurant. The chef, along with his wife, Victoria Pappas Bludorn, and director of operations Cherif Mbodji, will open Perseid at the Hotel Saint Augustine, the boutique hotel opening near the Menil Collection later this year.

Described as a neighborhood bistro, Perseid will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner to hotel guests, Menil Collection visitors, and locals. Named for the Perseid meteor shower that takes place every summer, it will join Bludorn’s three existing concepts — Montrose fine dining restaurant Bludorn, Rice Village seafood restaurant Navy Blue, and Bar Bludorn, the neighborhood tavern in Memorial that opened last month.

As CultureMap has previously reported, Hotel Saint Augustine (4110 Loretto Dr.) will offer 71 rooms across two floors. The first Houston project by Austin-based hospitality group Bunkhouse, the hotel will also include a lobby bar, event space, courtyard pool, and listening room.

“What really excited me about this was the incorporation of the Menil,” Aaron Bludorn tells CultureMap. “Before I even moved to Houston, one of the things I knew about Houston was the rich art scene and the history of the Menil family and the Menil gallery. Upon arriving here, it was one of the first places I went.”

In addition to being affiliated with the Menil, the chef also saw an opportunity to put his spin on a hotel restaurant. It’s a style he knows well. Cafe Boulud, the New York restaurant where he worked for 10 years prior to moving to Houston, was located inside the Surrey hotel on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He thinks being affiliated with the hotel and the Menil Collection will only help his other restaurants.

“It’s an opportunity to create a much different experience than at our other restaurants,” Bludorn says. “This is not an area that we’re in at all, and it gives us an opportunity to reach travelers, get to know people as they arrive in Houston, and be a part of their experience at the hotel and the museum.”

He also appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with Bunkhouse, the Austin-based hospitality company that’s known for properties such as Austin’s Hotel Saint Cecilia and Carpenter Hotel as well as the Hotel Havana in San Antonio and properties in Mexico, California, and elsewhere. In addition to Hotel Saint Augustine, Bunkhouse is also developing Hotel Daphne in the Heights.

“The Bunkhouse team builds incredible hotels,” he says. “Getting to learn from them has been an amazing experience. It seems like it’s working out pretty well so far.”

Post Company, a New York and Wyoming-based design firm, is designing the restaurant in collaboration with Bunkhouse. Details will include “ombre dipped wall treatments” and “hand painted textural abstract murals,” according to press materials.

As for the restaurant’s menu, Bludorn says it will be influenced by the bistros he’s dined at in France during travel with his mentor, superstar French chef Daniel Boulud. Of course, it will incorporate Texas ingredients and Houston influences in the same his other restaurants do.

“I love that classic style of dining, but it’s also very informal,” he says. “It’s a little hedonistic on some level. There’s nothing like steak frites with an extra side of sauce au poivre to dip your fries in.”

The chef acknowledges that his team is already testing recipes, but he’s tight-lipped about specifics. He recognizes that hotel guests have certain expectations for dishes that will be available, and he looks forward to putting his spin on them.

“I really enjoy staying at hotels. I love a really good club sandwich. How do you execute that at a high level? I’m really excited for it,” he says.