You can watch a video of my visit to Ishtia on Instagram. (By the way, the background music is “Dragonfly” by Samantha Crain, a singer, songwriter and member of Choctaw Nation.) 

A 2024 Houston Food Finder Best New Restaurant Selection. Our full list will be revealed later this month. 

The entrance to Ishtia, chef David Skinner’s newest restaurant replacing eculent at 709 Harris in Kemah, is graced with a quote from talented (and problematic) author Roald Dahl: “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” Dahl’s books include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which many diners (and writers) pull Skinner’s nickname from: the “Willy Wonka of Food”. 

Yet, the dining experience at Ishtia is wiser and less “nonsense” than eculent. I mean that kindly; eculent was great fun, and Ishtia offers its own type of fun — but it has depth, too. There’s still showmanship, but it’s heartfelt. At eculent, Skinner proved his culinary wizardry. At Ishtia, through his menu honoring his Choctaw ancestors, he’s showing his approach can also be deeply inspired. Where eculent was complicated and magical, Ishtia is exacting and subtly spiritual.

The Ishtia experience starts in the upstairs tasting room of Skinner’s Clear Creek Winery. (The same building holds Ishtia, Clear Creek Winery and th_prsrv, Skinner’s collaborative restaurant with James Beard Award-winning chef Benchawan Painter and spouse/beverage director Graham Painter of Street To Kitchen; I admire the architectural voodoo that carefully separates the three venues.) In the winery’s tasting room, guests are invited to partake in the official Ishtia cocktail, Sun & Earth — or they can instead choose a classic, such as a Rum Old-Fashioned, Lemon Drop or Bee’s Knees, all featuring Skinner’s Meticulous Spirits. (Skinner has his hands in a lot of pies… okay, maybe not pies yet.) Another drink option is one of Clear Creek Winery’s red, white or fruit-infused wines. (Note that none of these drinks are included in the cost of the Ishtia tasting experience, which is $239 plus tax and gratuity. Yes, that’s not a small consideration, but it is a destination-worthy restaurant.) 

The Sun & Earth cocktail incorporates Meticulous London Dry Gin, yaupon holly tea, organic sumac and lemon cordial. Yaupon is a native Texas plant — in fact, it was first documented in Texas by explorer Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1542 — and the Choctaw and other tribes made it into tea. It’s the only caffeine-containing plant that’s native to the United States. In the Sun & Earth cocktail, the yaupon tea adds a pleasant grassy, earthy flavor that doesn’t overpower the other elements. 

Then, the first bites are served — and it’s a chance to say goodbye, not just to the comfortable tasting room environs, but also to some nostalgic favorites from eculent, but also hello to the first taste of Ishtia. Guests are brought baskets filled with dried red corn (just for appearances; not for consumption unless you have hooves). Resting on top are some of the bites that put Skinner and eculent on the culinary map: “Caesar salad”, “French onion soup” and “BLT”. That I put these dish names in quotation marks might get a smile and a nod from those familiar with the late eculent. While the flavors are highly reminiscent of the dish namesakes, the presentations are utterly different. The Caesar salad features a crunchy, dehydrated romaine leaf (I’d buy these by the bag if I could), and the French onion soup and BLT take the form of savory truffles containing all the flavors of their namesakes.

Joining the classic trio is a new bite representing Ishtia: Skinner’s take on pemmican, the dried, long-lasting food of many Indigenous tribes combining a mixture of meat, fat and berries. Skinner’s finger-food version is whipped and served in an airy, diamond-shaped, savory pastry shell. The texture is akin to an air-fried wonton wrapper. 

Then, it’s time to head to Ishtia’s dining room. My fellow diners and I went down the elevator in groups and quickly strode through Ishtia’s kitchen to be welcomed by the busy staff before finding our seats. There, the place settings of a wooden spoon, small, earthenware bowl and woven napkin in shades of red, orange, brown and gold symbolically set the tone for a dinner that would prove structured, colorful and organic. 

Corn, beans and squash were essential foods for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, so it’s unsurprising that each of these elements — sometimes together, sometimes apart — show up at least once in Ishtia’s courses. The dish names on the menu are in Choctaw (the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s dictionary was a very useful resource for this article). 

Including the aforementioned small bites, there are 16 courses. Rather than exhaustively go through the remainder, I’ll cover some that stick in my mind. (Besides, we should leave some surprises.) One of the first courses was Tanchi Labona, a traditional dish of hominy and diced, smoked pork jowl. It’s a comforting, simple stew, and the hominy offers pleasant chewiness while the pork adds a touch of smokiness. 

Skinner sources ingredients and servingware from Choctaw producers when possible. Such was the case with bʋla okchi, deep-brown heirloom tepary beans sourced from a reservation in Arizona. At Ishtia, these are infused with bison for meaty flavor, accented with a vibrant edible flower and served in an earthware pot. 

While the seated dinner starts with elegantly presented comfort food, those seeking a wow factor will be glad they made the pilgrimage to Kemah. (We’re not sure why there were apparently no Michelin Inspector Pilgrims before the inaugural Texas announcements, but perhaps they’ll visit next year.) Three Sisters — those sisters being the aforementioned beans, corn and squash — is one of the most impressive-looking dishes — and that’s not just because it’s presented in a cloud of dry ice fog. Squash purée — a blend of acorn, spaghetti and zucchini — is nestled in the bottom of the shell and serves as the platform for a plump, beautifully seared scallop. The tepary beans make a second appearance here as the artful dots across the squash purée, and corn — which goes oh-so-well with scallops, takes the form of corn butter. 

Both desserts are also showstoppers. (Yes, both. This indulgent dinner offers two, plus a pretty little palate cleanser. Ours was a perfect grapefruit supreme atop pineapple granita.) The Tomato and Berry Sorbet proved how nicely these unlikely companions play together and is crowned with a razor-thin slice of dehydrated tomato on top so thin as to be translucent. The concluding dessert of Tres Leches, Meringue and Mousse — all made with corn — is a striking, nearly austere composition of two tall, triangular planks of the meringue that touch at the top and are anchored in the mousse. 

I love when Skinner’s sense of humor comes out in the menu. Deer in the Woods is a hunk of venison cheek enshrouded in crisp potato spirals that is skewered and presented nestled in a pot of monkey grass. Similarly, the salad course, nan okcha̱ki kashuffi, is modeled after and presented with a smudge stick, a thick cylinder of bound herbs, most commonly but not exclusively white sage, that when lit is believed to purify spaces and people of negative energy. The “coral snake” (just a noodle-like creation that looks remarkably like the real thing — enough to make my dining companion a little squeamish) is hilarious, although I thought the “Grandma’s chicken soup” it was served in was just bland chicken stock. (Sorry, Grandma.) 

For wines, guests can choose from the Classic pairings for $69 or Elevated for $129. Each has four wine selections. I selected the Classic, which included Ruhlmann Harmonie de Rosé, 2022 Rouge Blue Dentelle, 2019 Fleur Haut Gaussens Bourdeaux Superior and 2018 Domaine Matignon Coteaux du Layon. There are à la carte cocktails in addition to the Sun & Earth, too. From Many Comes One is made with “possum grapes” — in this case, moscato and muscadine — macerated in Meticulous Vodka and combined with freshly pressed cranberry juice, elderflower liqueur, vermouth and black walnut bitters. Taste Test is made of black plum and papaya blended with Meticulous Barrel-Aged Rum, key lime juice, nutmeg, allspice and saline, and the Nouveau Old Fashioned is created with 20-month-barrel-aged Meticulous Rum, pressed tart cherry juice, turbinado simple syrup infused with Texas rosemary and mole bitters. All cocktails are $16 each. 

Non-alcoholic choices include a wine pairing for $39, as well as sassafras tea for $5 and Dancing Rabbit medium-roast coffee from Native American Coffee (This sent me down a rabbit hole when I found that it’s owned by coffee.com, but it turns out that longtime owner and entrepreneur Bill McClure is of Muskogee Creek heritage.) 

When I look back at eculent, a quote often miscredited to Dr. Seuss comes to mind: “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” I am grateful I had the opportunity to experience eculent, but I would not trade Ishtia to get it back. I’m not sure that I’m going to call Skinner the “Willy Wonka of food” anymore, either. With Ishtia, he’s evolved from a molecular gastronomy trickster into a culinary spirit guide.

Phaedra Cook

Phaedra Cook has written about Houston’s restaurant and bar scene since 2010. She was a regular contributor to My Table magazine (now closed) and was the lead restaurant critic for the Houston Press for two years, eventually being promoted to food editor. Cook founded Houston Food Finder in November 2016 and has been its editor and publisher ever since.