First taste of Hugo's new Zaranda

Now that I'm not a professional restaurant critic anymore, I can do things I never used to. Like show up at chef Hugo Ortega's new downtown restaurant, Zaranda, when the doors open for their first official dinner service.

That's how eager I was to get a feel for the possibilities at this brilliant new concept, at which Ortega draws from the seafood and rancho vocabularies of both Baja and Alta California. If you love speculative fiction (and I do), the notion of cooking like the two Californias had never been separated by a border is irresistible.

Ortega has noted that he wants to fold in the Pacific Coast's Japanese and Chinese influences, along with the extended region's agricultural bounty. Wines come from both ends of the region, too, from Baja to Sonoma. "Las Californias," as they're calling it, is a big playground.

Nominally, Zaranda focuses on Pacific seafood: the zaranda is a wire basket used to grill fish and shellfish, and it's the root word for dishes that appear on menus as "zarandeado." But there's a hefty, rancho-inspired meat section to the restaurant's menu that makes excellent economic sense for a restaurant located at the heart of downtown's convention and tourist district.

That location—on the flank of Discovery Green, opposite Ortega and Tracy Vaught's Xochi—is another reason I was excited to hear about Zaranda. I have long mourned the scarcity of serious restaurant options where visitors are meeting our city for the first time. I was crushed when chef Dawn Burrell left the oh-so-promising Kulture on Avenida de las Americas in 2020. To now have another downtown venue from James-Beard-winning Ortega feels like a big deal.

The restaurant looks sleek and sophisticated, in the fashion of Ortega and Vaught's H-Town Restaurant Group projects from Caracol onwards. An airy sweep of aisled seating leads diners into a broader dining r0om, lounge and bar area, with even more seating upstairs. Floor-to-ceiling window walls let in the light. Outside, praise be, an ample patio with a green view stands ready for Houston's mild months, which start now.

Behind the bar, the estimable Carlos Serrano reigns. I've followed his work from Hugo's to Xochi, where he really began to shine. On Zaranda's opening night, he gathered staff along one side of the bar to school them on his whole colorful cocktail lineup. I tried his brilliant gin and tonic, in which a lychee-and-vermouth ice cube relaxed into the Baja-made Gin de Las Californias in the most beguiling way.

The food shows the same promise. I'm not silly enough to make sweeping pronouncements on Day One of service, but I was wowed by two dishes and intrigued by two others.

The wows: immaculate little raw-tuna taquitos illuminated by sesame, soy, ginger, chile, seaweedy furikake seasoning and an inspired touch of fish oil. Dark ash-tinted tortilla shells and a glittering bed of mock sea-glass made for a gorgeous plate. Same went for pastry chef Ruben Ortega's chocolate sea-urchin shell filled with electrifying lemon verbena cream and passionfruit sponge, with subtropical flashes of calamansi orange, mango and hibiscus. At 18 bucks, it's pricy, but it's a worthwhile splurge.

On the savory front, I was intrigued by two intricate shellfish preparations that tasted exuberant as all get-out—a very Houston-friendly effect—without stepping back enough to let the oyster and clam flavors really shine.

Both the "soft-shell oysters" and the baked clams played with delivery vehicles in amusing ways. The oyster "shells" were formed from a delicate masa dough tinted grey with ash, to mimic mottled oyster shells. Inside them sat a juicy bivalve swaddled in smoked oyster aioli, a lemony crunch of coleslaw and a topknot of smoked trout row. The flavors popped, but I longed for the ocean tang of the oyster to have a bigger say.

Same deal with a huge, cheesy shellful of what you might call a rampaging Clams Casino hash: chopped clam in a mesh of bacon, tomato, banana peppers, white wine and a seriously hot ancho- and morita-chile aioli. The crusty mantle of cheese on top? Sonoma jack. At 20 bucks, this huge edifice served with toast crisps wants to be shared by a group.

What else? There's palpable pride in the air. On Night One, both Ortega and Vaught were in attendance, along with their daughter, Sophia, who has clearly inherited the family hospitality chops. Executive pastry Chef Ruben Ortega, Hugo's brother, came and went, greeting guests along with general manager/sommelier Elvis Espinoza and head chef Adrian Caballero.

To this jaded observer, it all felt fitting, like a gift to downtown. Right down to the surprising Sakura Maya sake service Serrano had devised.

Delivered in an iced-down cruet swirled in cherry blossoms, it blended raspberry-and-saffron-infused sake with pulque and Pisco in a way that seemed completely natural. Almost inevitable, to my amusement.

For now there's only dinner, starting at 4 p.m., but lunch will follow. I'm eager to return.