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NOVEMBER | PAGE 22 | 2015 CROSS CULTURES POUR IT ON By Laurann Claridge. Photography Tarakaan James Nielsen. Photography Pour Society Jack Thompson. SOUTHERN TV DINNERS As football, soccer and baseball seasons hit their stride, here's a new place where you can watch all the action when you're not in the bleachers — with no fewer than 17 widescreen HDTVs. No ordinary sports bar, Pour Society is Houston's newest gastropub (one of the first on the West Side, at Gateway Memorial City). It was conceived by James Beard award-winning chef Bradley Ogden and his progeny, who saw Houston as the next great beyond (beyond California, where his empire is based, that is). This is the third in a triumvirate of very different eateries Ogden has brought us. In terms of scale, this one — at a whopping 7,000 square feet — is his largest, a cool industrial warehouse with a chandelier rendered of coal pipes and a canopy of massive ropes (inspired by vintage ship rigging) over one of several seating areas. The menu, crafted by chefs Greg Lowry and Matthew Lovelace, strategically pairs clever plays with great taste. Starters New SpotS A ppearances can indeed be deceiving. Take the gutsy new Tarakaan, a pan-Asian restaurant/bar in Midtown that resides inside the red-skinned geometric façade reworked by architect Stanley Tigerman for Knoll in the 1980s. (The building, which was erected decades before, once housed the Davis Baking Powder Company and Lipper Motor Cars.) Past the rickshaw in the foyer and Tara, the imposing Buddhist tantric meditation deity, you'll enter a Shangri-la conjured by Viviana Blandeau. She and owners Piran Esfahani and PJ Jamea have taken the 6,000-square-foot space back to Tarakaan, 2301 Main St., (second floor), 832.487.9096, tarakaanhouston.com Pour Society, Gateway Memorial City, 947 N. Gessner, 832.831.0950, poursociety.com include seven-layer dip assembled in a mason jar with orderly layers of crab, shrimp, guacamole, pinto beans, corn, sour cream and pico, all meant to be overturned on the plate; the accompanying tortilla chips are an invitation to dive in, scoop up and munch away ($12). We loved the picnic platter app with unctuous chicken liver pate, pimento cheese and cornbread, house-made pickles, country ham and deviled eggs ($17), all of which pair well with the Texas drafts on tap. While Pour Society will no doubt hang their ball caps on their sandwiches such as the mighty Pour K'Burger and classic burger (both CuliNary PAN-ASIAN SPICE for and the rafters to reveal the original brick walls and roof trusses, creating an opium-den-like space with rooms on different levels. In the main bar, Geisha girls etched with pigment sticks line the back wall, ushering patrons to try a blue blushing dragon or white orchid cocktail ($12 each). Young chef Micah Rideout melds the flavors of Thailand, Malaysia, China, India and Indonesia. A child of American missionaries, he was raised in Chiang Mai, Thailand; along the way, he learned to cook the food of his adopted homeland. Here Rideout serves shareable plates with ingredients and techniques so authentic to the East — i.e., palm sugar versus granulated to give a sweet balance to Pad Thai ($18) — that he often has to educate his colleagues on their use and origins. Before he presses cooked pork hock for his bacon bowl ($18), he braises the meat in a Chinese master stock — such prized, flavorsome broths can be passed down for decades, infusing spice and flavorings from dishes past, to impart a complexity impossible to duplicate. I adored the miso brulee sea scallops with carrots cooked with cardamom spice, their fresh green tops pureed into a pesto sauce doled out in tiny dots ($23). I'd also order the glass noodle nabe ($17) again; studded with shrimp, candied bacon, ginger and pickled mustard greens, it makes for a harmonious tasting dish ($17). Tarakaan is open for lunch and dinner, with brunch coming soon. $12), don't discount their take on the Southern fave, shrimp and grits, made with Gulf shrimp and creamy Jefferson county rice grits ($21). But the most winning dish has to be the nightly changing TV Dinner special. Not only did we love the flavorsome King Ranch casserole (encompassing two requisite sides and dessert — a decadent brownie), but the fact that it was served on a divided aluminum tray reminiscent of both Hungry- Man meals and school cafeteria lunches scored big. Tarakaan general manager Geoff Harmison and assistant general manager Nick Berezoski Tarakaan A passage at Tarakaan Tarakaan executive chef Micah Rideout Tarakaan tower salad Tempura green beans The bar at Pour Society Oil on canvas by up-and-coming L.A. artist Mat Herget Pastry chef Kelsey Hawkins' banana pudding, made with banana pudding brulée, vanilla wafer crust, bananas Foster sauce and candied pecans Chefs Greg Lowry and Matthew Lovelace's Kim Cheese sandwich with house-made kimchee, pimento, redneck cheddar and Texas toast