March

Study before the pass

A menu at March in Montrose, Houston begins with study before it reaches the pass; chef Felipe Riccio leads the culinary program there. His position at March sits inside Goodnight Hospitality, where he works as chef and partner across rooms with different demands, from restaurants to wine retail. At this address, the discipline narrows to a research-driven approach to regional Mediterranean cooking, refreshed seasonally and informed by firsthand exploration.

Riccio’s vocabulary did not arrive as a single inheritance. Coastal Veracruz came first, then Houston as a teenager, then the pace of REEF and the opening work at The Pass & Provisions. He added formal structure at Elkins High School and The Court of Master Sommeliers, and later worked in the kitchens of Osteria Francescana, Azurmendi, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Those stops matter here because March asks for a chef who can read a region, a dining room, and a wine program at the same time. The plate is only one part of the station.

Regions held to a season

March works as a tasting-menu restaurant, but its more specific act is choosing a Mediterranean region and letting that choice govern the work for a season. The kitchen’s method is modern, not in the sense of noise or novelty, but in the way research, restraint, and presentation meet at the bench. Riccio’s named dishes elsewhere in his practice, Snack Tile, Laguna di Venezia Crudo, Risi e Bisi, and Lesso e Pearà, give the shape of his hand: small formats, clear references, and technique held close enough that memory can still be read.

The wine program matters to that architecture. Riccio’s training through The Court of Master Sommeliers gives him a working grammar beyond the stove, and March’s curated cellar sits with the menu rather than beside it. The restaurant holds 1 MICHELIN star, a James Beard win for the house, and a Wine Spectator tier 2 recognition, but the more useful reading is at the table: a formal service style, a sequence of courses, and a room built for attention rather than turnover.

The room keeps its voice low

The room at March is elegant and art-filled, with sleek wood interiors and an intimate dining room that keeps the sound conversational. That matters for this kind of cooking. A tasting menu built around study needs a room where the guest can follow the sequence without feeling instructed, and a pass where the kitchen can hold tempo without making the work performative.

In Montrose, that restraint gives the restaurant its register. The plates can carry creative, carefully composed arrangements, but the room does not ask them to shout. Service stays formal, the noise stays moderate, and the craft remains close to the table. Riccio’s next movement is still tied to Goodnight Hospitality’s Houston rooms, but March is where the regional Mediterranean inquiry keeps returning to the pass, course by course, at March.