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The Pass & Provisions – the dual restaurants from chefs Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrence Gallivan that have been among Houston’s top restaurants for seven years – is closing.
In a surprise announcement Friday, Siegel-Gardner and Gallivan released a short statement that May 25 would be the last day of service for their operations at 807 Taft. The two restaurants under one roof – the casual Provisions with its wood oven-fired pizzas and accomplished pasta menu, and the fine dining The Pass with its dazzling, prix fixe chef’s menu – both opened in 2012. That was an epic year for Houston when Underbelly, Oxheart and The Pass & Provisions all opened their doors. After Saturday, none will remain on the Houston dining scene.
In announcing the closing, the owners offered this statement:
“Owning a restaurant is very much (to us) like having a child. There’s the upfront excitement, the agony of the name, the big reveal and then the work. The ups, downs, the sweet moments and the hard ones, the tears and the smiles. Over the past seven years, from seeing the pilot lights burning in the morning to sometimes watching the dawn rise we have been honored to be a part of your celebrations, graduations, weddings, and first nights away from the baby, your drinks out with friends, awards and promotions and even more for the bad times when you just needed a place to have a drink and a good meal to cheer you up. You are a part of our family, which is why this part of our story is so hard to write.
“Please come and say goodbye. Raise a glass with us and know that we appreciated your support.”
CALLIN’ IT QUITS: Our latest roundup of Houston bar and restaurant closures, only on HoustonChronicle.com.
A spokesperson for the restaurants said the owners would not comment further at this time.
When it opened in November 2012, The Pass & Provisions marked a major milestone for chef-partners Siegel-Gardner and Gallivan, who first met in New York in 2005 while running Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant Maze. Siegel-Gardner, a Houston native, convinced Gallivan to move to Houston to open a restaurant. But first came the boundary-pushing pop-up Just 8 Project with Justin Yu, which led to Siegel-Gardner and Gallivan launching the Pilot Light Restaurant Group and the eventual opening of The Pass & Provisions.
The accolades came quickly. In 2013 Bon Appetit put P&P on its list of Hot 10 restaurants in America. In 2014, the restaurants took the No. 1 spot on Alison Cook’s annual ranking of Houston’s best restaurants. For years The Pass was the sole tasting-menu-only restaurant in Houston.
Siegel-Gardner and Gallivan were among the most active chefs in Houston, participating in many culinary fundraisers and as founding members of the HOUBBQ Collective, a tight-knit group of chefs formed to support the annual Southern Smoke fundraiser. They also adopted the culinary program at the nearby Gregory-Lincoln Education Center where for years they’ve mentored grade school students interested in nutrition, gardening and culinary arts.