{"id":71655,"date":"2025-12-01T17:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/71655\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T17:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:28:10","slug":"chopnblok-is-one-of-esquires-best-new-restaurants-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/71655\/","title":{"rendered":"Chopnblok is one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a Ch\u00f2pnBl\u1ecdk<\/a> world, and we\u2019re all living in it. The Houston restaurant is the only Texas representative to make Esquire\u2019s list of The Best New Restaurants in America, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Published Monday, December 1, the list includes 33 restaurants from across the country. New York City leads the list with seven representatives, followed by greater Los Angeles, which earns six spots, including Restaurant of the Year for RVR, an izakaya in Venice, California. <\/p>\n

The quality of the restaurants they\u2019ve discovered has put the magazine in a celebratory mood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year at Esquire we\u2019ve seen dozens of new restaurants like this, places where spectacular food is coupled with a damn good time \u2014 where ambition and abandon meet,\u201d Joshua David Stein writes. \u201cThese are the places you hate to leave, but when you do, you leave full. Full of some of the most deeply personal food you can remember eating, full of joy and ideas and hope. You stumble out, way past your bedtime, practically dancing in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to Ch\u00f2pnBl\u1ecdk, Stein notes that founder Ope Amosu<\/a> has already partnered with Houston hip-hop legend Bun B and the Rockets \u2014 and hints that more locations may be on the way. Still, it\u2019s West African restaurant\u2019s creative fare hat sets it apart. <\/p>\n

\u201cRecent years are littered with the carcasses of failed fast-casual concepts. But Ope Amosu\u2019s Ch\u00f2pnBlok seems destined for success, borne on the tide of seven tremendous rice bowls,\u201d he writes. \u201cThe rices range from the Ghanaian fried rice known as waakye \u2014 pronounced \u2018watchee\u2019 \u2014 to diaspora-bridging jollof jambalaya. Along with the rices come ikoyi shrimp or yaji vegetables finished with yassa curry or red stew and plantains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reached for comment, Amosu sent the following text to celebrate his restaurant\u2019s success. <\/p>\n

When we say \u201cAfrica to the world,\u201d these are amongst the reflections we envision. <\/p>\n

Being named one of Esquire\u2019s Best New Restaurants is bigger than us. It\u2019s a win for our community, our culture, the diaspora. We\u2019re grateful to see our West African cuisine and narrative taking up space and shifting the conversation around what American dining at its best can be. And to do this while reppin\u2019 \u2018the H\u2019\u2026 Man!!! Hol\u2019 up!!!<\/p>\n

We move with the flavors, stories, and traditions that shaped us. It\u2019s what we know and how we will continue to show up.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m humbled in the best way and still locked in\u2026 ten toes down! Our community and the city of Houston just caught another win and it feels right! What an honor!<\/p>\n

In 2024, Esquire named Afro-Mexican restaurant Late August<\/a> as its only Houston best new restaurant. In 2023, it named Montrose restaurant Nonno\u2019s Family Pizza Tavern<\/a> as its Pizza Joint of the Year. <\/p>\n

First opened as a stand at the Post Market food hall downtown, Amosu opened Ch\u00f2pnBlok\u2019s first standalone location<\/a> in Montrose on October 1, 2024 (Nigerian Independence Day). It features a West African-inspired design<\/a> by Zainob Amao of AMAO Creative in collaboration with Gin Braverman of Gin Design Group.<\/p>\n

Being included in Esquire is only the latest national recognition for Ch\u00f2pnBlok. In September, the New York Times named it one of America\u2019s 50 best restaurants<\/a>. Last month, the Michelin Guide<\/a> named it one of five new Houston restaurants to receive a Bib Gourmand designation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a Ch\u00f2pnBl\u1ecdk world, and we\u2019re all living in it. The Houston restaurant is the only Texas representative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7082,26920,56,58,57,3291,1526,2809],"class_list":["post-71655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-awards","tag-chopnblok","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-lists","tag-media","tag-news-you-can-eat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}