Cherry Block Craft Butcher and Kitchen at Bravery Chef Hall is one of three Houston restaurants tapped by H-E-B to create a variety of prepared meals for the supermarket's Meal Simple program. They will soon go into a number of Houston H-E-B stores. Shown: Cherry Block chef/partner Jessica DeSham Timmons packages red beans and rice. Photo: Cherry Block

Imagine going into your local H-E-B store and picking up the famous turtle soup from Brennan’s of Houston or chef Chris Shepherd’s spicy meat dumplings.

Starting this week, you can.

Supermarket giant H-E-B has tapped three Houston restaurants to prepare meals-to-go for its Meal Simple program of chef-inspired grab-and-go meals. Cherry Block Craft Butcher and Kitchen in Bravery Chef Hall joins Brennan’s and Shepherd’s Underbelly Hospitality as the Houston restaurants supplying signature dishes for this unique partnership that H-E-B launched this week in Houston, San Antonio and Austin. Three restaurants in each city will prepare dishes for a limited number of stores as an effort by H-E-B to pump money into beloved Texas restaurants struggling to stay alive during the coronavirus pandemic which has devastated the state’s restaurant industry.

“This is all about the restaurants. They need our help now,” said Kevin Blessing, H-E-B group vice president of bakery, deli, restaurants and prepared meals. “We hope our customers look at it as a way to help the restaurant community. There’s a value there. I hope that’s what they see.”

The participating Houston restaurants will prepare and deliver the meals to a limited number of H-E-B stores in Houston (the exact locations for each restaurant were not entirely finalized Thursday morning). The restaurants will set the price for each meal and H-E-B will pay them for what is prepared. H-E-B will not take any portion of the sales; it will go directly to the restaurants.

For restaurateur Jessica DeSham Timmons, the program is a lifeline.

“I couldn’t sing their praises more for everything else they’ve already done for our community. But this is a whole other level of support,” said Timmons, chef/partner at Cherry Block Craft Butcher and Restaurant. “It’s a game changer for us.”

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Beginning Friday, Cherry Block will be going into five H-E-B stores with red beans and rice with andouille sausage, smoked ham hock gumbo, pimento cheese, smoked catfish dip, and Black Hill Meats short ribs with cheese grits.

A spokesperson for Brennan’s said they are starting with turtle soup but expanding with more options.

Underbelly Hospitality is preparing tater tot and bacon sausage casserole, King Ranch Chicken, chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese, Wagyu Helper (a play on Hamburger Helper made with wagyu beef) and spicy beef braised dumplings, a version of his signature Korean goat dumplings. Underbelly is launching today at Montrose, Buffalo Speedway, Buffalo Heights, Heights, Bellaire, Meyerland, Pearland, Bunker Hill and San Felipe stores.

“We can’t thank H-E-B enough for giving us this opportunity. This provides us with additional outlets to sell our Take and Bake items to Houstonians, which will allow us to pay our rent, support our farmers and hire our furloughed staff back faster,” James Beard Award-winning chef Shepherd said. “H-E-B is a company that not only takes care of its communities, but also takes care of the businesses within the communities like us. They’re leading the way, and we’re so grateful to be a part of it.”

Blessing said H-E-B also has asked Bread Man Baking Company and Slow Dough Bread Co. of Houston to stock their breads in select stores.

The program could expand to more restaurants, Blessing said.

Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture.