Top Chef, James Beard Winner To Establish Restaurant in Houston

The celeb chef influx continues in Houston. Sit down, because Paul Qui has decided the Bayou City is ready for his cuisine.

Qui, who operates Kuneho, East Side King, Thai Kun, Otoko, and Pao in Austin, says he'll focus on proteins and seafood at Aqui, which will set up shop at 520 Westheimer, next to Indika. The restaurant is scheduled to open in the spring or summer of this year.

“The focus is on wood and wok cooking with a heavy emphasis on meats and seafood,” Qui, who won "Top Chef" and is the recipient of a James Beard Award, told the Austin American-Statesman. “There will be a big raw bar and open kitchen with counter seating and full bar with cocktails. I’m super excited about the kitchen; it will be the first full kitchen suite that I designed from scratch.”

Qui was arrested in March of 2016 after being accused of assaulting his girlfriend. According to the Statesman, police arrived at Qui's apartment in Austin and found him with “blood all over his face, arms, legs and clothing.” His girlfriend told police officials that Qui and his friends had indulged in "cocaine, Xanax, alcohol and marijuana" on the night before the incident, and when the chef accused the friends of enticing his girlfriend into group sex, he grew irate and threw them out. He then, according to the woman, "became enraged and started knocking over furniture, shelves, tables and breaking glass."

Qui spent a month in a rehab facility, and seems to have put his troubles behind him, though Dan Solomon, writing in Texas Monthly, hoped at the time that the incident was treated with the seriousness it deserved.

“It’ll be unfortunate if the reporting on Qui and this incident treats his arrest on domestic violence charges as just another unfortunate thing that happens in the restaurant business,” Solomon wrote. “… There’ll be stories to write about the damage that these allegations do to the Qui brand, but any blowback will ultimately be weathered by people who choose not to associate with someone accused of violence. Keeping the real, human stakes around the issue in mind is important, because the way we talk about domestic violence allegations frequently underplays how pervasive it is in our culture.

— Image of rendering of Aqui courtesy Instagram