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86 S ome people throw parties. Chas Martin stages epic culinary revels. When the guest list swells, the party migrates to the soaring glass sunroom out back. There, a monolithic stone table becomes an ever-refilling feast — steaming pastas, fragrant curries, and crisp fried chicken. Wine bottles jostle among the platters, uncorked and passed along. Martin is not a tweezers-and-microgreens guy; he wants big, generous flavors set down simply so his guests, not the plating, steal the scene. Corbin See, his partner at Duro Hospitality in Dallas and a regular at these blowouts, says, "It may be Indian, it may be Italian, but whatever it is, it's always five to 10 times the amount of food that he needs, and that dining table becomes a huge buffet filled from end to end." Martin orders from new places he's eager to try or taps Duro's kitchens, and he's usually poolside at the grill, replenishing the spread with platters of meat and vegetables. No matter the hour or the head count, he's always ready for an encore — another course, another pour, another story. Champagne at 10 am? Espressos at midnight? Of course. For Chas Martin, hospitality isn't a social grace but a practiced instinct honed over decades in the restaurant trade: culinary school, a formative stint at Nick & Sam's, and a turn reconcepting Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa with Benji Homsey. In 2020, Martin and Homsey — together with brothers Corbin and Ross See — co-founded Duro Hospitality, one of Dallas' buzziest restaurant groups. Their hot-ticket lineup includes Sister, The Charles, Bar Charles, Mister Charles, Café Duro, and, most recently, The Chumley House and El Carlos Elegante. "We're considering moving into new markets, and Houston is at the top of our list," Martin says. "It's a great food scene that's really diverse with loyal customers, so we'll need to earn their respect for sure." Long before he helped launch Duro — where, as a managing partner, he now focuses on concept development — Martin built his reputation at the door, as an attentive host who knew everyone by name and treated each arrival like a VIP. He still personally interviews front-of-house hires across Duro's restaurants, and his credo has never changed: Give guests what they want, not an upsell. Away from Duro's dining rooms, he brings that same read-the-room instinct home, holding court in a house as unlikely as it is transporting. Now a Neoclassical fantasia with Mediterranean accents, the property began life as a 1920s cottage and was transformed through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s by celebrated architectural-lighting designer Craig Roberts, who lived there for decades before putting it up for sale in 2018. Designer Corbin See spotted the