Houston was smoking hot this past weekend and it wasn’t because of the weather. The annual Southern Smoke Festival held at Discovery Green was bigger than ever with dozens of local restaurants showcasing their culinary prowess alongside visiting chefs from all across the country. From Bludorn’s Senegalese lamb to pulpo anticuchero from Carlos Delgado of Causa in Washington, D.C., there were all kinds of cuisines represented with spectacular results.

Martin Stayer’s crew at Nobie’s was serving up more than just dilly doughnuts. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

But delicious food aside, the event’s mission was even more successful. The festival is the main fundraiser for Southern Smoke Foundation, the non-profit founded in 2015 by James Beard Award-winning Houston chef Chris Shepherd and wife, and executive director, Lindsey Brown. Originally a fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of friend and local sommelier, Antonio Gianola,  the foundation extended its reach in 2017 to help food and beverage workers after Hurricane Harvey destroyed many homes and businesses. 

Mason Hereford of Turkey and the Wolf gives this year’s festival a hearty thumbs up. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

Since then, Southern Smoke has brought in more partners to create initiatives like Behind You, which offers no-cost mental health counseling for not only hospitality workers, but their children as well. Collaborating with organizations such as The Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, Southern Smoke has expanded to more than 15 states with its crisis toolkit, helping hospitality employees with housing, groceries and health care in times of need. With unprecedented floods, the COVID pandemic and the rising cost of living, it has provided much needed assistance in Texas and across the nation. 

Zachary Welton of Welton’s Tiny Bakeshop created a mouthwatering honey pie. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

Of course, the festival is more than just a fundraiser. It’s also a celebration of America’s best chefs and restaurants and those that keep the fires burning every day. Houston’s culinary scene is a diverse one but the city got even more interesting as restaurants from New York, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, etc. sent chefs and staff to showcase their skills. 

Chris Shepherd and Lindsey Brown welcome Elijah Craig into SSF’s Hall of Flame. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

One of the highlights of the festival is the Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs spotlight. This year’s line-up included Houston’s own Lucas McKinney of Josephine’s who brought his citrusy shrimp roll to the table. Along with McKinney were other 2026 notables including Masako Morishita of Perry’s in Washington D.C. and Tom Rogers of John’s Food and Wine out of Chicago. 

The scallop aguachile had a spike of serrano and pops of roe. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

The Food & Wine section was where my husband, Classic Rock Bob, and I began our adventure. We started with McKinney’s Gulf shrimp roll, slurped up the spicy tom yum scallop aguachile from Chicago chefs Zubair Mohajir and Rishi Kumar of Mirra/ Mariela, then bit into chicktay from Honeysuckle chefs Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate. We followed up the seafood feast with an amazing slice of honey pie from Welton’s Tiny Bakeshop. The buttermilk whipped cream was lickable and that’s exactly how we ate it. 

The Stolen Faces channeled the Dead. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

The festival also has plenty of bars with wine, beer and cocktails. This year saw more mocktails and non-alcoholic spirits, too. CRB and I started with the Shakedown Street, named for a Grateful Dead album. And the Grateful Dead was alive at Southern Smoke, with Nashville tribute band The Stolen Faces providing the music for the evening. Like the original band, the tribute group also has its own Deadheads who were spotted throughout the crowd. 

Attendees could get ‘married’ by Saint Arnold himself. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

Lamb and seafood seemed to be the big proteins on offer, but we actually never got around to eating much meat. While the skies favored us with only a very brief drizzle of rain, the stickiness of the humidity left us searching for lighter fare. 

Graham Painter and Chef Benchawan Jabthong Painter bring the heat as usual. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

That doesn’t mean we didn’t experience some serious heat. A stop at Street to Kitchen’s booth for Chef G’s grilled shrimp saeng wa had us sweating but it was one of the best bites of the day. Classic Rock Bob liked it so much, he ate it all, head to tail. He also loved the tom yum goong, another spicy shrimp dish, from Jeff Chancelaine of Ma Der Lao Kitchen in Oklahoma City. It’s never too late to teach a classic rock music writer that he likes Thai food. 

The squid from Mister Jiu’s was a flavor bomb. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

We love seafood and there were so many options but we were starting to get near our limit. However, we lucked out and found a comfy seating area, where we could send each other off to scout for bites. This year’s festival had more seating and tables, which was much appreciated. CRB came back with Bryan Caswell’s raw crab and oyster gumbo from Latuli and smoked blue fish ‘hushguppies’ from Brittany Anderson of Bar Buoy, both very tasty. We also dove into a dish of Monterey Bay squid, topped with smashed cucumber and braised peanuts. This marvel was from Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco. I am still drooling thinking about it. 

Little’s Oyster Bar had a stunning display of bivalves. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

We tried to sample what best we could, from a couple of different gazpachos to Fluff Bake Bar’s take on Frosty & Fries. Still, there were many missed dishes. We didn’t get to try the cochinita pibil tamales from Ana Castro of Casimiro because they ran out fairly early on. La Lucha was frying its famous chicken but we forgot to go back after the ten minute wait. Despite our FOMO our stomachs were surrendering to the quantity of treats we had already consumed. 

Chef Chris Bianco is a familiar face each year at Southern Smoke Festival. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

I did manage to snag a prosciutto and fontina spiedini from legendary pizza maestro Chris Bianco toward the end. The crispy prosciutto and melty cheese was divine, but I had to send up the white flag after finishing half of it. It was time to end the orgy of food.

We wish we could have taken the spiedini home with us. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

Making our way to the stage for the check presentation, San Pellegrino in one hand, an EZ margarita in the other, we waited for the big reveal. The chefs and their support teams gathered on the stage to watch Shepherd unveil the amount. He showed it to the Southern Smoke team first. When they began to jump up and down with joy, the attendees knew it had to be good. As he turned it toward the audience, we saw the $2 million dollar figure. 

All the cool kids were having fun. Credit: Lorretta Ruggiero

Not only did the 2026 festival raise more money than ever before, it also created a community of chefs, mixologists, food purveyors, hospitality workers, Deadheads and foodies for an evening. Walking through the hordes of happy people, one could believe that we are truly a unified nation. 

Maybe we just need to break bread together more often. 

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