First look: Superica and La Lucha

Tampiquena: marinated wood-grilled skirt steak, two cheese enchiladas topped with a fried egg, Mexican rice available at Superica in the Heights.

Tampiquena: marinated wood-grilled skirt steak, two cheese enchiladas topped with a fried egg, Mexican rice available at Superica in the Heights. Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Photographer Photo: Karen Warren, Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close First look: Superica and La Lucha 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

The air outside the city's hottest two restaurants – they're side by side, for your convenience – is fragrant with sweet wood smoke. That's because both Superica and La Lucha have wood-burning grills in their kitchens to cook and finish individual dishes with a deft, smoky wallop of Texas perfume.

The two restaurants also have another thing in common – owner Ford Fry's meticulous culinary and design vision. That perfectionist DNA is what makes Atlanta-based Fry one of the nation's most successful restaurateurs, and why Houston foodies are abuzz about the two operations now lighting up the Heights.

Let's take a look inside each.

SUPERICA

Houston is home to the fourth Superica (two in Atlanta, one in Charlotte, N.C.), a concept celebrating the simple pleasures of Tex-Mex staples and slushy margs. Fry and his company vice president Kevin Maxey were raised in Texas and bring their own passions for iconic Tex-Mex foods to the communal table. Their menu, which mines what they call the "Tex-Mex playbook," will be familiar to anyone who ever craved nachos for dinner.

Begin your meal with guacamole, queso (add chorizo, or chicken fajita, or picadillo and guacamole), stringy queso fundido to which rajas, shrimp or chorizo can be added), nachos and tamales. For seafood fans there's a bold campechana made with shrimp, octopus and lump crab, and a ceviche (shrimp and snapper) tostada. Main plates includes enchiladas, fajitas al carbon, steak, tacos, and grilled seafood. The menu also offers chile relleno, carnitas, Hamburguesa Superica served with steak fries, carne guisdaa with twice fried frijoles, and a puffy or hard shell taco dinner.

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For brunch, Superica offers aguas frescas, migas plate, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, chorizo and eggs, steak and eggs, tamales with chili gravy and eggs, and a barbecue brisket sandwich.

The house margarita, called El Frio, uses El Jimador blanco tequila, triple sec, and fresh lime juice (shaken or frozen). The Superita is made with proprietary barrel Herradura Double Reposado tequila. The Texas Star cocktail is composed of Gran Centenario Rosangel tequila, elderflower liqueur and ruby red grapefruit juice. If you order a La Paloma it's served with a glass bottle of Squirt.

The design, especially the patio with its chunky wood tables, patio furniture, rock garden and potted plants, is Austin chic. In the dining room the floors are Mexican tile and the seating is hacienda simplicity. There's a Felix neon sign anchoring the bar which glows like a Tex-Mex blessing. Smart of the owners: If Superica plays its loteria cards right it has every reason to become as much of a fixture in everyday Houston dining, as Mr. Tijerina's iconic restaurant did.

Superica, 1801 North Shepherd, 713-955-3215; superica.com/heights/. Open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. "Siesta hour" weekdays from 3 to 5 p.m.

LA LUCHA

"Fun" is the operative word for this handsomely (and cheekily) designed dining room that is Fry's homage to belt-busting Sunday dinners at the fabled San Jacinto Inn he enjoyed as a boy. La Lucha – with is 70's rec room design, inviting bar, and kick back soundtrack – is a singular extrapolation of culinary memories built on fried chicken and biscuit dinners and oyster indulgences.

Fry didn't do it alone. Executive chef Bobby Matos, who holds the same title at Fry's first Houston restaurant, State of Grace, added his own flair and substance to Ford's notions of Houston dining traditions. That's why you'll see a "Pharmacy Burger" (classic cheeseburger) on the menu – a nod to both Whataburger and Avalon Diner. The crispy shrimp tacos are engineered to remind diners of Jack in the Box tacos. And the center-of-the-menu fried chicken dinner is a crispy-skin valentine to San Jacinto Inn's famous finger-lickin' Sunday suppers.

The rest of the menu is both clever and essential: Lipton-style onion dip spread with a sparkly veneer of bowfin caviar and served with a mini can of Pringles; crispy French fries doused in oyster chowder; a decadent pile of fried oysters sandwiched between mayo-slicked white bread (Mrs. Baird's, of course); a luxuriously stuffed and pressed crawfish bread sandwich; redfish on the half shell with fireball red pozole; and crave-inducing side dishes such as shrimp macaroni salad and crab boil corn.

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"It's stuff that's comfort food and relatable," Matos said. "But done with a higher level and with great technique."

And let's not forget fun. The menu suggest that bubbles make the best accompaniment to the mess of fried chicken. Dig in with your hands and don't be shy, Matos said: "Get your champagne flute greasy."

The bar also can whip up a first-rate cocktail such as Dad's Daiquiri (a traditional rum frappe that takes a kooky path with Fernet Branca and cracked pepper) or the Analog (a suave merger of mezcal, sweet red vermouth and two Italian aperitivos). There's a nifty mezcal program and plenty of wine and champagne options.

Don't pass up the soft serve ice cream for dessert. Yes, that's an olive oil drizzle and saltine cracker crumble on your vanilla swirl.

"We like he high and low juxtapositions," Matos said. "We just want people to have fun."

La Lucha, 1801 N. Shepherd, 713-955-4765; laluchatx.com. Open Monday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m., Friday 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday noon to 11 p.m., and Sunday noon to 10 p.m.

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.