Peli Peli founder chef Paul Friedman returns to Vintage Park with new concept

Chef Paul Friedman, the founder and a former owner of Peli Peli, will be returning to Vintage Park this summer with a new concept, The Chef's Table.

According to Friedman, The Chef's Table will open in June at 110 Vintage Park Blvd., Ste. P, Houston—the former location of Peli Peli prior to its coronavirus pandemic-induced closure in March 2020. While Friedman said Peli Peli featured South African cuisine, The Chef's Table will be inspired by Friedman's own personal travels.

"When I created the Peli Peli menu it was mostly because of my South African influence and what I had learned back home," Friedman said in an April 5 interview. "So now that it's The Chef's Table and it's cuisine from around the world, I'm not really obligated to any one cuisine. But I'm putting things on the menu from the past—from Peli Peli that they don't have on the menu anymore—so I'm taking some of the items that people loved and keeping them. But for the most part, I'm taking items from around my travels and places I've been to and dishes that I've fallen in love with but [that] I've created and made my own."

While Friedman has not released a full menu for The Chef's Table yet, some dishes patrons can look forward to will be steamed and grilled octopus with scallops, topped with a chimichurri sauce; beef short stack rib sliced off the bone, seared, sousvide and grilled; and Indian curried fried onions. The Chef's Table will serve lunch and dinner daily as well as brunch on weekends.

Friedman said the restaurant will feature both indoor and outdoor seating, a full bar and a retail store where Friedman will sell his spices and sauces as well as wine and beer. The entire venue will feature a 1920s theme echoing "The Great Gatsby," Friedman said.

"You won't recognize it. It is completely different from what it was before," Friedman said. "I don't want people to feel like they have to wear a suit and a tie or a tuxedo to come to my restaurant; I want them to feel like that's the kind of food they're going to get, but in a more casual atmosphere."

Friedman added his son, Kyle Friedman, is serving as the general contractor for The Chef's Table. Kyle Friedman also built several of the Peli Peli locations, Friedman said.

"It's a father-son thing ... and I'm proud to be doing this with him; he and I are partners," Friedman said. www.chefstablehouston.com