Updated: Foreign Correspondents closes as founding chefs depart Nationally recognized regional Thai spot loses PJ and Apple Stoops

The February/March issue of Garden & Gun magazine features "The Southern Hot List" of Southern talent. The spread includes an article about enterprising Southern chefs that includes Houston's PJ Stoops of the new Foreign Correspondents northern Thai restaurant. From left: Joseph Lenn, Kelly Fields, Lisa White, Elliott Moss, Jeremiah Langhorne, Matthew Raiford, and P. J. Stoops, photographed at the Dabney in Washington, D.C. (By William Hereford) less The February/March issue of Garden & Gun magazine features "The Southern Hot List" of Southern talent. The spread includes an article about enterprising Southern chefs that includes Houston's PJ Stoops of the ... more Photo: Garden & Gun Photo: Garden & Gun Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Updated: Foreign Correspondents closes as founding chefs depart 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Nationally recognized regional Thai restaurant Foreign Correspondents closed Monday following the Sunday departure of its founding chefs, husband-and-wife team PJ and Apple Stoops. Just shy of 14 months old, during its short life the adventurous Thai spot had become a darling of critics such as Eater National's Bill Addison and Bon Appetit's Andrew Knowlton.

On Sunday evening, amid text and phone discussions with owners Treadsack group about the restaurant's future, founding chef PJ Stoops returned to the Heights-area kitchen to pack up his knives and go. As of Monday, he and his Thai-born wife, Apple, would no longer be associated with the groundbreaking restaurant.

By late Monday afternoon, Treadsack's Chris Cusack had announced the restaurant's demise. "I've heard you're not a real restaurateur until you've closed your first place," wrote Cusack on Twitter, whose restaurant and bar mini-empire includes Down House, Hunky Dory, Bernadine's, D&T Drive Inn, Johnny's Gold Brick and Canard. "I guess I finally made it. FC was a blast but is no more. Amazing food, even better staff. Tons of recognition in the press. Never pulled down the covers, sadly."

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Foreign Correspondents has earned both local and national accolades since it opened in late October of 2015, one of three ambitious projects opened by Treadsack in the year's final quarter.

With its farm-to-table slant, its working relationship with Cambodian farmers Sameth and Lee Nget, and its exhilaratingly different menu featuring Isaan and other regional Thai dishes, Foreign Correspondents earned the number 25 slot on this year's Houston Chronicle list of the city's Top 100 Restaurants.

Eater National critic Bill Addison praised the restaurant in two different articles, and Bon Appetit critic Andrew Knowlton included it in his yearly roundup of the 50 best new restaurants in America.

Southern lifestyle bible Garden & Gun put PJ Stoops on its 2026 Southern Hot List roundup of culinary talents to watch.

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Despite the positive critical reception, Foreign Correspondents had trouble growing its customer base and filling up the big 144-seat space it occupied in the refurbished North Main strip mall that houses Canard, a cocktail bar that is another Treadsack venture, and the Morningstar coffee and doughnut shop.

Save for a gangbusters August during Houston Restaurant Weeks, says Stoops, "we had never really made money." Under pressure to make his distinctly (and delightfully) non-canonical menu more accessible, he had added crowd-pleasing pad Thai to the menu in recent months.

During back and forth about whether the restaurant would close at the end of the year or try a "Hail Mary" approach to staying alive, according to Stoops, he concluded he and his wife should leave.

This fall another high-profile Treadsack talent, bar director Leslie Ross Krockenberger, also left the company. Canard, the exciting cocktail bar she opened for them next door to Foreign Correspondents, is still in business.