{"id":356450,"date":"2025-11-05T02:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356450\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T02:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:50:14","slug":"small-sliders-sets-opening-date-for-first-sa-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356450\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Sliders sets opening date for first SA restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio jazzman Brent \u201cDoc\u201d Watkins has a very specific reference for Doc\u2019s Houston<\/strong><\/a>, his new jazz supper club that\u2019s opening November 15 in the historic Tower Theater in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. <\/p>\n

\u201cI ask them if they\u2019ve seen the movie Goodfellas,\u201d Watkins tells CultureMap. \u201cIf they have, there’s that famous scene where Ray Liotta takes his girlfriend to the supper club. They walk through the secret entrance and go in through the kitchen. They bring out a special table with the white tablecloth and they sit down and the show starts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The very famous scene captures the spirit of what Watkins wants to create at Doc\u2019s Houston \u2014 an intimate venue serving classic American fare and showcasing live music in genres such as jazz, R&B, soul, and the blues. It\u2019s a formula that Watkins developed at Jazz, TX, his original jazz supper club that\u2019s part of San Antonio\u2019s Pearl District since 2016. He says Houston was always a logical choice to expand the concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing a proper jazz supper club, there wasn\u2019t anything like that in Houston 10 years ago, and there wasn\u2019t anything like that now until Doc\u2019s,\u201d Watkins says. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the jazz part first. Doc\u2019s will host live music Tuesday through Saturday in a variety of genres. Artistic director Graeme Franci, who, like Watkins, holds a doctorate in music from the University of Texas, is a Houstonian with a deep knowledge of the local music scene. He\u2019s been reaching out to musicians and booking them to play Doc\u2019s. In addition to local acts, the venue will host national touring acts \u2014 Tony Danza recently played San Antonio \u2014 and as many as 30 performances by Watkins himself. <\/p>\n

From his perspective, Doc\u2019s provides an essential space for friends and neighbors to connect during a shared experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t inventing a brand new concept. We\u2019re reviving something that had been lost,\u201d Watkins explains. Later, he adds, \u201cThese are really essential spaces. It\u2019s a very ancient tradition to gather as smaller groups of people for a meal and some music. It\u2019s a very timeless thing. There was a blip on the radar where we lost these rooms for about a generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the food, chef Jose Avila\u2019s menu is built around classic supper club fare such as steaks, seafood, and pastas. Specific dishes include grilled octopus, short rib empanadas, pork belly chicharron paella, coq au vin, and Chateaubriand that will be carved to order tableside. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a massive kitchen. We\u2019ve got the ability to do a big menu and do it right,\u201d Watkins says. \u201cYou can\u2019t be all things to all people, but we\u2019ll get pretty damn close.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Doc's Watkins has assembled an experience team to lead Doc’s Houston.Courtesy of Doc’s Houston <\/p>\n

The Tower Theater has had a number of lives. Most recently home to Acme Oyster House and El Real Tex-Mex Cafe, it\u2019s also been a movie theater and a video store, among other iterations. To turn it into Doc\u2019s, Watkins and his team added all-new lighting and sound, built a stage, and added a wraparound balcony. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found it, it was pretty wonky. The orientation was all wrong,\u201d Watkins says. \u201cWe decided to go big and do it right. That balcony is new, but it looks like it\u2019s always been that way. It\u2019s how the space needs to be and wants to be, even though for 100 years it did not have a full wraparound balcony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reservations and tickets will be available via the Doc\u2019s website in the coming days. Memberships will be available that come with perks such as preferred seating and advance access. <\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we\u2019re around for a very long time,\u201d Watkins says. \u201cI think we\u2019ve set ourselves up to be around for a very long time. We\u2019ve got all the ingredients that go into success. Now we just have to execute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio jazzman Brent \u201cDoc\u201d Watkins has a very specific reference for Doc\u2019s Houston, his new jazz supper…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":356451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,17925,20494,10084,7202,7203,173809,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-356450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-burgers","10":"tag-chains","11":"tag-openings","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-sliders","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115494821847979783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}