The Woodlands Edition | September 2019

DINING FEATURE

Shrimp toast ($14), a guest favorite, includes miso, bonito—fish flakes—orange and radish.

The Big Rib ($55) , a dinner option and personal favorite of chef Austin Simmons, features dry-aged beef, kimchi gold mashed potatoes, shishito peppers and an apple cider vinegar hollandaise sauce.

Tris Rebranded venue puts emphasis on dining experience

S‘mores ($12) are made with Madagas- car vanilla bean marshallows, cocoa powder graham cookies, burnt marshmallow, milk chocolate ice cream and dark chocolate croquettes.

BY ANDREWCHRISTMAN

at pasture, which are typically reserved for ground beef, have a slower muscle growth, which Simmons said provides a better avor. “It’s outselling everything we have,” he said. “That’s new to market. … Nobody is doing wagyu beef like we are. People don’t even know how good this meat is.” Simmons said using an - to -year-old cow is mutually benecial for himself and the farmers because it allows them to use their products more eciently. Simmons oers side-by-side tastings of beef from -year-old and -year-old cattle as well as akaushi steaks that have been dry-aged for days. “We’re evolving the meat industry,” Simmons said. “I want to help cooks and managers have a better life for them and their family, and I want to provide some sort of evolution in the industry.” FINDING A FOCUS Simmons said he originally had no idea what he wanted to do while he was in school. Despite work- ing a variety of jobs starting at age , he said noth- ing really held his attention due to having attention decit disorder. However, Simmons said some of his earliest memories were cooking with his mother and grand- mother every Sunday, and through cooking, he found something that could hold his interest. “I was always around good food, and cooking was easy for me,” he said. “I was intrigued by it, but I didn’t know I wanted to do it for a career. What I found in culinary school is that I can focus when I cook. When you take a person with ADD and you nd what they’re passionate about, they excel above a normal person. I can remember I’m working dierent things at a time because my mind works that way.”

F irst impressions matter to chef Austin Sim- mons, the owner of Tris, who believes a guest’s experience should start before he or she arrives at the door. “We’re all focused on the front-door-to-back-door experience,” Simmons said. “We really want Tris to stand for an overall experience, and we’re really focused on that guest and how they feel when they come into our restaurant.” Simmons said Tris came about aer his experi- ence operating Hubbell & Hudson Market and Bistro at the same location. The idea for rebranding the location in , he said, came from wanting to break away with the association with the market, which closed in , so he named the new restau- rant aer his daughter. “It’s a simple, elegant name,” he said. “It has meaning to what we are here. The community has really accepted this new concept.” STARTING A TREND Simmons said he has partnered with HeartBand Ranch, located in Harwood, to use older cows for the ribs and beef served at the restaurant. The method is currently being used in Europe but has just started to catch on in the United States, he said. The ranch provides akaushi and wagyu beef, which are Japanese breeds of cattle. Simmons said he wanted to continue to support Texas farms as much as possible. “I saw in that Europe was raising older ani- mals, and I said there’s something here,” Simmons said. “Most cows are harvested at years of age; that’s just how the business goes. Old cows have no value to the rancher. … If the rancher grows, I grow.” Instead of focusing on the younger cows, Sim- mons said he highlights cows between and years old. The cows that have given birth and are out

Korean butter poached crab ($24) features a kimchi pancake, brown butter and house kimchi.

Chef Austin Simmons opened Tris in 2018 on Waterway Avenue.

Tris 24 Waterway Ave., Ste. 125, The Woodlands 281-203-5641 • www.triswoodlands.com Hours: Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., closed Sun.-Mon.

O B B I N S D R .

WATERWAY AVE.

The Woodlands edition • September 2019