Texas Comfort Food Restaurant TLC Opens on South Lamar

TLC, the Texas comfort food restaurant with an emphasis on seafood, is opening within Lamar Union on Tuesday, December 19. The counter-service restaurant dish out seafood boils, sandwiches, and other regional dishes from chef Jeff Parks, who previously ran the kitchen of downtown restaurant Gumbo's and Hugo's Restaurant y Tequila Bar, both of which have shuttered.

For the South Lamar restaurant’s seafood boils, people can choose their contents, from shrimp, various crabs, mussels, clams, lobster or andouille sausage. Then they get to pick their spice mixture/level (Texas heat to pan-Asian to smoked garlic) and finish it up with sauces (butter to smoked chipotle guava barbecue to habanero honey). Boils come with corn and red potatoes.

Then there are the sandwiches, which include a few seafood-filled ones like the fried oysters, barbecue shrimp, and blackened Gulf redfish. Other options include shredded brisket, cured/smoked pork, and the fanciful duck leg confit.

The raw bar includes Gulf and East Coast oysters, as well as its spicy shrimp cocktail. Other comfort food dishes are on the menu as well, like chicken fried steak, hush puppies, true Texas chili.

Desserts include push-up pops, pecan pie, and a seasonal fruit cobbler. For drinks, 30 beers will be on tap, and cocktails will be mixed. Scope out the full menu below.

TLC’s space takes its design inspiration from beer halls, which includes communal tables, jukebox, a game room with arcade games, a giant projection screen television, and other various television screens. There’s an outdoor backyard area and the restaurant is meant to be kid-friendly.

Happy hour consists of $5 specials, from half-dozen Gulf oysters and half-pound of mussels to margaritas. It runs from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and lasts all night on Monday.

Initial hours are from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday, December 19 through Thursday, December 21, with extended hours to be announced later.

TLC is run by the Manera Restaurant Group, which consists of J Black’s Feel Good Kitchen and Lounge owner Sean Fric, Geoff Freeman, and Parks.

Lamar Union still hasn’t found replacements for now-shuttered restaurants Delicious, which closed in August, and El Burro, which shuttered in July.

• TLC [Official]
• TLC [Facebook]
• TLC [Instagram]
• TLC [Twitter]
• New Texas Restaurant TLC Brings Seafood Boils to South Lamar [EATX]
• All Coverage of TLC [EATX]