Fratelli’s: Always Fresh, Always First Class
Looking for some great pasta, a sip of a delicious Tuscany red wine, and maybe listening to some live music in a piano bar? Fratelli’s has all that; it even has a fascinating piece of Houston history.
Owner Barbara Marquis knows her way around a restaurant and has created a world of beautiful yet comfy décor, mouthwatering menus, entertainment, and a true neighborhood gathering spot in Memorial. “My family had restaurants when I was very young,” says Marquis. “El Patio and Loma Linda, both Mexican food. I started as a bus girl when I was just ten years old. In the 1980s the family split up, and most of the restaurants were sold.”
But those work experiences never left her.
“At that point, I knew everything about the daily running of the operation but nothing about P&Ls (profit and loss statements),” she says. “So, I went to work at Landry’s. My first job at Landry’s was at the Cadillac Bar ‘You are never too far from the Cadillac Bar ‘ We made a club and did big banquets.”
She went on to Las Vegas and the Golden Nugget casino. But, she says, all Texas girls have to come back to Texas, so she soon wound up at the Downtown Aquarium. After 13 years with Landry’s properties, she felt she had a great education on the business of the hospitality industry and started counting her own pennies, with a dream of opening her own place one day.
In 2010 she opened Fratelli’s in Spring Branch. There were a lot of reasons she chose that restaurant, but one, in particular, was that it was a perfect fit for a piece of Houston history, a piece that was part of her own childhood.
“While looking at what restaurant to buy I came across the bar from the Shamrock Hotel,” Marquis says. As any Houston history buff knows, the Shamrock Hotel was the lap of luxury. Built by wildcat oil tycoon Glenn H. McCarthy (the real-life model for James Dean’s character Jett Rink in Giant) and opened with true Hollywood hoopla in 1949 on the site of what is now part of the Texas Medical Center, the 18-story, 1,100-room hotel was nicknamed the Houston Riviera. It was known for its fan-shaped pool — a 165-foot-long pool known for hosting celebrities and water-skiing exhibitions.
“That restaurant was closing, and everything in it was for sale,” noted Marquis. Including a gorgeous vintage bar. An original bar from the Shamrock Hotel.
“When I was a kid, I went swimming at the Shamrock Hilton,” Marquis says. “Never thought I would ever own such a magnificent bar from there. Now we have music every weekend at the Shamrock Bar. We have an older crowd, so I hear many
stories of the movie stars, proms, and weddings held there in the glory years starting from the 1950s. I bought the bar before I had a restaurant to put it in, just hoping it would work out and it did!
“Now we have been here for 13 years,” says Marquis. “We have chefs from all over the city and are very proud of what we have created here. We have the bakers from Ashland House, staff from the great chef Mark Cox’s restaurant, and many more fine restaurants in Houston.”
If you drop in for dinner, you can start off with the chipotle glazed fresh quail or roasted crab cake and corn pudding, move on to a Neapolitan stone oven pizza, delicious pasta, or one of the house specialties such as melt-in-your-mouth beef tenderloin or the roasted rosemary chicken. Of course, Marquis has her own favorites.
“My favorite dishes are the redfish, the Chilean sea bass, the veal piccata, and the truffle pasta.”
Whatever you order, chances are you’ll be back for more.
Fratelli’s
1330 Wirt Road
713.263.0022