The fall season of Burger Friday has arrived, and it was a brisk 50 degrees when I dropped by EaDough Pastries & Provisions, a bakery/coffeeshop in the (ahem) EaDo neighborhood.
The temperature mattered because EaDough operates as a walk-up business that offers a couple of cafe tables on a front porch, plus a line of picnic tables overlooking the greenery of the Columbia Tap Bike Trail.
In true Houston style, I wasn’t really dressed for cold weather. “One more layer,” I thought to myself ruefully, clutching a steaming cardboard cupful of masala chai latte and awaiting the appearance of my smashburger in the appointed service slot. I had paid my tab with a credit card (they do not take cash), and ordered up a pale blue boxful of pastries from the handful left at 1:30 p.m., six and a half hours after the 7 a.m. opening time.
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I was curious about the burger (and the baked goods) after reading about the new restaurant venture from the chef couple that runs EaDough, Kirthan and Kripa Shenoy. They just opened Auden in the Autrey Park development, and their emphasis on seasonal produce and an eclectic cooking style reflecting Houston’s diverse cuisines sparked my interest.
What would the Shenoys bring to the burgeoning Houston smashburger scene? Here’s what I found.
PRICE: $8.50 for the single smashburger with cheese; $4.25 for a small mountain of potato wedges; $5 for a masala chai latte, for a pre-tax-and-tip total of $17.75.
ORDERING: Line up to order at the window, paying with credit only, and wait to be called to the nearby window where food and beverages are handed through. Don’t listen for your name — the items you ordered will be called out. In the meantime, stake out a seat on the wooden front porch or at the nearby picnic tables.
ARCHITECTURE: No salad stuff. On a toasted-on-both-sides potato roll goes a smear of orange secret sauce, a thin smashed Prime beef patty, a drape of American cheese, a smattering of caramelized onion squares, and a paving of dill pickle slices. Then comes a final slather of secret sauce.
QUALITY: The pleasing overall package is the drawing card here. The burger is nicely compact within its pastel blue sack — an amusing contrast to the not-so-dainty contents sprawling forth in a shelf of scalloped smashiness, and it handles well as you scarf.
Scarf I did, egged on by the way the mustardy, hot-pepper heat of the distinctive “smash sauce” sauce boosted the general beefiness of the sandwich. The mellow onion and cheese smoothed things out, as did the softness of the potato roll — which did its job while knowing its place in the beef/bread ratio. Want more heft in the beef department? Order a double ($11.00) or a triple ($13.50).
My sole quibble was that the crisped, lacy edges had cooled, an effect I noticed so soon I questioned whether the 50-degree outdoor temperature had anything to do with it. I’m still wondering if they griddle the patty in two stages, first producing the signature frizzle and later doing a secondary sear to serve up the patty.
Whatever the process, I enjoyed the bumptious results. The pleasant, lingering afterburn of the Shenoys’ signature smash sauce really does speak to Houston’s eclectic palate. As an East Ender, this burger will go on my regular rotation.
OOZE RATING: Mostly condiment-based with some beef-fat leakage in the mix.
LETTER GRADE: A minus.
VALUE: Average
BONUS POINTS: The optional potato wedges here are surprisingly swell. They’re coated in a thin crispy film that’s notably spicy with red chile pepper, and they have a real potato texture rather than a generic, frozen, cotton batting effect. Even if they’re commercial to begin with, which I couldn’t swear to, they’re smartly done. And there are a lot of them!
VEGETARIAN OPTIONS: There’s an Impossible Burger version with plant-based mozz and vegan aioli; plus a grilled cheese sandwich. Both are served during the lunch hours of 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
STUFF FOR LATER: I picked up a bag of Sumatran coffee beans, Pantan Musara, that proved to be excellent, and really did have the refreshing “winey acidity” touted on the bag’s flavor notes. They were roasted in the big, brooding Blackwater coffee roastery that hosts the EaDough operation on its west side, at the corner of Polk and Velasco.
Also of note: a good croissant of the soft rather than shattery variety; a nice blueberry muffin; and a rolled, laminated cinnamon-sugared knot surmounted by baked apple that seemed right for the season. Alas, the guava-and-cream-cheese Danish pastries had long since sold out.
LOCAL COLOR: Everything in Blackwater Universe is in the cocoa and greige tones I think of as Gentrified Tasteful, and there’s a lovely wall of trees and shrubbery across the street, running along the Columbia Tap bike rail. Even the row of picnic tables looks groomed on its bed of reddish gravel. But look up when you’re ordering to see the puckish ceiling art, and enjoy the passing parade of young people toting backpacks, wheeling bicycles, or waiting for an Uber Eats order to be dispensed.
A fellow East Ender in an “Assata Taught Me” hoodie told me it was her first visit, because on all the other occasions she had passed by, “the line was too long for me.”
At 1:30 p.m. in chilly weather, though, we had little competition. We swapped bakery tips (she’s a fan of Mademoiselle Louise and Koffeteria) and made jokes, as Houstonians are apt to do, about our version of winter.