On any given Thursday morning, Houston pitmaster and chef Greg Gatlin is standing over a pot of boiling water. To his side are plates of piping hot chargrilled oysters blanketed with garlic butter imbued with Asian herbs like lemongrass and basil. As a waiter grabs the plates to serve to guests, Gatlin returns to the pot, adding in diced onions, garlic, celery, bell pepper, and gizzards. The chef waits patiently as the innards are pressure cooked for optimal tenderization, absorbing the essence of the aromatics. The result is a familiar flavor profile that’ll pair well with a subsequent buttermilk brine, breading, and side of house-made ranch dressing.
“Those are nostalgic kinds of things—the kinds of things we ate growing up,” Gatlin says.
The food of his youth is the foundation of Gatlin’s most recent endeavor, Gatlin’s Fins & Feathers. Opened in 2022, the restaurant extends the Gatlin family imprint across their neighborhood of Independence Heights, providing comfort and familiarity, albeit with the influences of a rapidly expanding Southeast Texas metropolis.
Those hybrid dishes come in the form of a hefty chicken sandwich slathered with Viet-Cajun hot sauce and crispy chicken wings saturated in a sticky honey glaze enhanced with miso. The F-O-F sandwich, an elevated reconstruction of the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, and the buttermilk-brined livers and gizzards illustrate the chef’s affection for regional fare often found in Black American homes across the South.
Enjoying this article?But that’s only one part of what makes the multiethnic tapestry of Gatlin’s Houston-centric vision so special. The New Orleans barbecued shrimp and Mexican-style shrimp and crab campechana pull inspiration from the surrounding regions, and ingredients such as aji amarillo, fresh lemongrass, and Creole mayonnaise enliven a robust menu rooted in chicken and seafood.
“In creating the menu, I’m always thinking about doing things that are familiar, but that also pay homage to the city that we’re in,” he says. “Houston being a multicultural epicenter in the state of Texas, we get to experience a lot of different flavors, and I wanted to show that.”
The focus on comfort goes beyond the plate and into an interior resembling the vintage southern charm of New Orleans combined with the sprawl of Houston’s Gulf Coast culture. Dark wooden panels and forest green accents overlook the dining room of sea green booths and tables sheathed with discarded antique newspapers. The new and old converge in the décor and customer demographics—
millennials, elders, and a diverse array of families are regular guests at the Heights restaurant.
“I grew up fishing, crabbing, and eating in the homes of aunts, uncles, and grandparents,” Gatlin says. “I wanted that type of country living to show up in the food and in the experience.”
That country living, derived from the family’s generational history in both Louisiana and Texas, has informed the pitmaster’s perspective at Gatlin’s Fins & Feathers, as well as his barbecue joint, Gatlin’s BBQ. Both restaurants have cemented the family’s legacy in Independence Heights, Texas’ first African American municipality. Established in 1915, the area welcomed formerly enslaved Black Americans from places like Fort Bend County, Brazoria County, and Northeast Louisiana—the spot Gatlin’s paternal grandparents migrated from in the early 1940s.
The chef was raised in the area’s Shepherd Park Terrace neighborhood near Herrera’s Mexicatessen, a family-owned Tex-Mex restaurant Gatlin fondly recalls dining at after little league practice. Today, that space houses Fins & Feathers and caters to a similar clientele of neighborhood families and public servants. But that commitment to tradition can be traced back much further—specifically the 2010 opening of Gatlin’s BBQ, which helped fill a void of old-school African American-owned smokehouses in the state.
“You couldn’t talk about craft barbecue without them,” says James Beard Award-winning chef and Southern Smoke Foundation founder Chris Shepherd. “They’re doing things that are regionally specific to where we’re at—but the best part is that it’s not trying to be something it’s not. The restaurant is about being who you are and enjoying what you’ve eaten growing up.”
The pure love of comfort food stretches across the menu and into the pitmaster’s staff. Top Chef contestant and B’tween Sandwich Co. owner Michelle Wallace worked as an executive chef in both restaurants for more than three years. She took that experience under Gatlin and applied it to her own professional ambitions, where culinary creations like smoked ham and blue corn biscuits with XO sauce draw long lines at the Rice Village Farmers Market. Her success, as well as that of Gatlin’s growing hospitality group, represents a legacy that extends far beyond the Heights and into the neighborhoods and communities that continue to inspire the chefs.
“We go for touching those points in your mind, in your memory, and in your tastebuds,” Gatlin says. “If we get you to remember that feeling while also surprising you, we’ve done what we’re supposed to do.”
