Hubcap's Ricky Craig sets sights on Galveston

Ricky Craig at Hubcap Grill 19th St. Ricky Craig at Hubcap Grill 19th St. Photo: Alison Cook Photo: Alison Cook Image 1 of / 69 Caption Close Hubcap's Ricky Craig sets sights on Galveston 1 / 69 Back to Gallery

Hubcap Grill founder Ricky Craig, Houston's preeminent burger guru, has leased an 1890 historical building at 2021 Strand in Galveston, with an eye to opening a po' boy and Gulf Coast comfort restaurant there as early as December.

His operating partner in the venture will be Josh Martinez of The Modular food truck fame and the recently closed Chicken Ranch in the Heights. The pair will be serving New Orleans style po'boys using meats smoked, roasted or grilled in-house (none of that Boar's Head stuff," stipulates Craig), along with fresh seafood from a harbor side vendor and a more ambitious evening menu of plated Gulf Coast entrees and Southern sides.

Think blackened redfish with cheese grits; barbecued shrimp done properly with their heads on, so diners can suck the fat out or smear it on a hunk of French loaf; and such accessories as yams, greens, or stewed okra and tomatoes over rice. At lunch the po'boy roster will include house-smoked pastrami, brisket and ham along with fried fresh seafood. And yes, there will be débris, the blackened meat crust frizzles so beloved in New Orleans at po'boy meccas like Mother's.

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Galveston, with its hothouse insularity and strong BOI (Born on the Island) culture, is a notoriously hard nut for outsiders to crack. "I've had a lot of people tell me I'm absolutely out of my mind for trying this," Craig admits. "I keep hearing that I should just open another Hubcap in Katy or something."

But ever since Craig bought an East Beach condo four months ago and started spending time on the Island, he found himself obsessed with sampling and assessing the nearby dining scene, figuring out what it lacked and — second nature to a serial entrepreneur who has opened eating places since he was 21 — what might work in the east end of The Strand historical district, within striking distance of his weekend retreat.

With a few exceptions, like the ineffable Sonny's burger and oyster joint, Craig rated much of food he tried as mediocre to downright horrible, with inflated prices and lots of frozen product the norm. "What this place needs is a good solid mom-and-pop type restaurant," he found himself thinking, "with good product at a good price." He longed for classic, essential dishes like a shrimp po'boy that made him sit up and take notice.

Inevitably his thoughts turned to supplying such dishes himself. He networked and talked to the natives everywhere he went, gauging the market beyond the tourist crowd. Eventually Craig spotted a likely 19th-century building for lease on Strand. It had been home to the original incarnation of the late Bistro LeCroy, and it had tall French windows, majestic high ceilings and original dark woodwork that "screamed Brennan's and Commander's Palace" to him. He found the owners congenial, the lease terms he negotiated with them favorable, and the block the space sat on — at the less developed eastern end of Strand — full of potential.

A covered stop for the soon-to-be revived trolley service, which was taken out by Hurricane Ike, sat right across the street. So did the about-to-open Hendley Green, the downtown district's first urban green space. Houston's Lauren Griffith Associates, who did the design for Market Square Park, has transplanted 30 young live oak trees in what was a parking lot, and when the project is finished it will comprise a picnic lawn, a covered stage and pavilion, umbrella-shaded seating and fountains.

Craig got a city permit for outdoor seating, visualizing diners sitting in front of the restaurant drinking champagne or sangria or craft beers, lingering over Sunday brunch or a Sunday night special of fried chicken, a Martinez specialty from the Chicken Ranch. In his mind's ear, he heard a live old-school jazz trio playing quietly in the background.

He imagined catering daily box lunches to UTMB, and maybe even putting up a sign at an occasional lunch touting his mom's spaghetti and meatballs, an old favorite from his family's Craiganale's Italian restaurant. Sticky ribs, oxtails … as usual, he had a hundred ideas.

Craig has already installed his kitchen equipment — including the important smoker — and applied for a beer and wine license, the arrival of which will determine his opening date. He's found his local shrimp supplier and secured the po-boy loaf services of Romero's Bakery, his longtime supplier of muffuletta bread and, according to Craig, the maker of a fine French po'boy loaf that gets crisp on the outside and stays soft on the inside.

If all goes according to plan (which of course it seldom does when launching a restaurant), they'll open at the end of November or in early December.

He's got a name in mind: Forks & Loaves. That sounds like it might have come from the Hipster Restaurant Name Generator of recent meme, in which two not-necessarily related nouns are connected by an ampersand. It's an unexpected choice, because Craig is more working class hero than hipster dude; he runs hot rather than cool.

Maybe that's what drew him to Galveston in the first place, well down the Gulf Freeway from the Kemah Hubcap outpost he opened so successfully last year. Craig's father was born and raised in Galveston, and the hard-charging Craig finds the Island to be "another world," a theme he returns to again and again in discussing his plans.

"I'm really tired of the city," Craig says. "I ain't trying to be rude, I just like being able to escape everything and my craziness. I'm happy and comfortable in Galveston." He likes the laid-back Islanders he has met, and he's hoping to make his money from the locals rather than the tourist trade.

Will it work? Craig has a lot on his plate right now, with two Houston Hubcap locations, a third in Kemah and a fourth due to open this coming spring at Intercontinental Airport. That's a project that will take him to the umbrella company's test kitchens next month to try to figure out ways to make a time- and labor-intensive burger and fries product suitable for a big operation where customers are in a hurry.

Yet he plans to be hands-on in Galveston, and he notes that his condo is just four blocks from the restaurant.

Craig sounds sanguine about his chances on the Island. He'll open there with no debt and no financial partners, a fact about which he is particularly proud. He notes that his graduated lease terms give him time to get established before higher rents kick in.

Not to mention that people telling him he's crazy just makes the very determined Craig even more determined. His Galveston restaurant plans mean more to him than a bottom line. "It's showing people that I can do some other stuff," Craig says. "That I'm not just Burger Boy."

Click through the slideshow above to see the burgers that made Ricky Craig famous.