Mack Allen’s Opens With Cadillac-and-Caviar Swagger
Samantha Huang and Justin Henderson (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
By Jeff Gremillion
Mack Allen’s arrived the way a supper club should: with a vintage Cadillac at the curb, a Sinatra soundalike at the door and more than 500 of Houston’s social and business set dressed for the occasion.
Restaurateur Mack McDonald opened the sprawling first-floor space at 5POP last week, planting old-Hollywood glamour at the seam of River Oaks and Uptown. Before guests even stepped inside, DriverSource Fine Motorcars had a 1941 Cadillac Series 62 staged at the entrance, and tribute artist Rickey Davis was already working through the Ol’ Blue Eyes catalog.
The theatrics continued indoors. Cheeky Vintage dressed the staff in throwback looks, while lampshade ladies and feather-fan dancers moved through the rooms and gave the night a wink of supper-club camp. Champagne and martinis circulated as the crowd worked its way through Mack Allen’s New American spread — sushi, seafood, Domus caviar, steak, pork belly and short rib — then drifted from dining room to dining room and out onto the patio.
The Champagne Room stayed in Veuve Clicquot. The Board Room went darker and clubbier, with old fashioneds built on Eagle Rare 10-year bourbon from McDonald’s own Buffalo Trace barrel. Dessert arrived as the evening’s last bit of excess: cans of “caviar” tiramisu, served with pearl spoons.The point was hard to miss. Mack Allen’s wants Houston back in a jacket, a proper drink in hand, with somewhere worth dressing up for.
Guests included George Lancaster, Sarah and Reza Ebrahimi, Cookie and Lee Centracco, Courtney Hopson, Joyce Echols, Samira Salman, Preet Paul Singh, Sanford Steinberg, Rob Rutherford, Josh Espinedo, James Sivco, Lauren and Kyle Courville, Debbie Elias, Washington Ho, Marcy de Luna, Jennifer Howard, Annie Amante, Amy Blumrosen, Shelley Ludwick, Coco Dominguez, Russ Morgan, Jack Massing, and mom-and-daughter duos Brittany and Sherri Zucker, Beth and Cynthia Wolff, and Meredith, Madyson and Rita Chavez.
Amy Becker, Holly Gage and Chloe Di Leo (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
Caviar ‘tiramisu’
Fringe and fun and Mack Allen’s (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
Taylor DeMartino and George Lancaster (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
Rocky Stevens and Amy Becker (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
Cynthia and Beth Wolff (photo by Daniel Ortiz)
Feather dancers at Mack Allen’s (photo by Daniel Ortiz)