Chef Michele Free lights up Guava Lamp on Tuesdays.
Guava Lamp has long been a favorite watering hole for Houston’s LGBTQ community. Now, thanks to resident chef Michele Free, the bar has become a veritable dining destination. As the culinary force behind Guava Lamp’s Tuesday Steak Nights, Free has transformed what can often be a pedestrian pub-menu staple into a consumption experience verging on the gourmet.
Born and raised in Houston, Free says she always enjoyed cooking, but didn’t immediately gravitate toward it as a profession. She did, however, always have a penchant for grilling— thanks to her father, a skilled barbecue chef. After amassing sufficient resources, Free entered culinary school in 2013 and was soon helping area bars develop their own steak nights.
Shortly after Labor Day in 2016, Free began focusing her attention on elevating the steak nights at Guava Lamp. “My philosophy,” explains Free, “is to make the customer happy by offering the cleanest and best steak night in the city.”
Admitting that her pet peeve is “disarray,” Free made both major alterations and smaller tweaks such as offering patrons personal servings of condiments so they don’t have to share. Steak nights at Guava Lamp are now about much more than steak, for Free has expanded the menu to include pork chops, salmon, and occasionally lamb chops, as well as three cuts of beef (ribeyes, strips, and filets).
Using her own homemade rubs, she carefully primes her proteins before cooking them to order. And, unlike at many other venues, Free’s ability to work within a 10-degree heat range enables her to offer customers precise variations of “doneness,” such as “rare plus.”
All cuts are finished with a healthy garnish of clarified or infused butters, such as black truffle and pink peppercorn (for filets) or goat cheese and rosemary (for lamb chops). Accompanying your choice of meat is Free’s special potato amalgam, which she describes as a “baked potato in mashed potato form,” which almost everyone agrees is a most delicious invention.
Loaded with plenty of butter and sour cream (“a near-perfect food,” according to Free) and crowned with melted cheddar cheese, the massive spuds easily hold their own against the steak with regards to flavor factor. Those looking to up the ante even further can elect to add shrimp or grilled asparagus to the already monstrous platters.
Although it’s obvious that Free (who is also the founder and owner of Free Grillin catering company) loves fired meat, she readily admits that on her nights off, she often steps away from the flames to indulge in Middle Eastern or Asian food. She ardently strives to eat local and support Houston businesses whenever possible, and counts Thai Gourmet and Ibiza as favorite haunts.
The icing on the cake (or, rather, the truffle butter on the ribeye) is that Free’s sophisticated Guava Lamp fare can be had in a friendly environment that is anything but stiff. That combination has attracted weekly business from regulars as well as new devotees, expanding and diversifying Guava Lamp’s community. —Joanna O’Leary
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