Downtown Houston gets two new places to eat and drink at 806 Main St. The Foundry has replaced Main Kitchen & 806 Lounge and is open now. The Perch, on the hotel’s new pool deck, opens on Tuesday, December 1.
Both venues mark the end of a multi-year expansion and redesign at the JW Marriott Houston Downtown. The project joins two downtown landmarks: the Samuel F. Carter Building, home to the hotel, and the adjacent Battelstein’s Building. Executive Chef Rafael Gonzales designed the menus for both.
The Foundry: all-day dining in the lobby
The Foundry has grown to 115 seats. Its design takes cues from the Carter Building’s original riveted Carnegie steel I-beams, mixing industrial touches with warm wood, marble tabletops, communal seating and leafy plantings. A marble-backed bar and an open kitchen anchor the high-ceilinged room.
The menu is modern American with multicultural and Latin influences, and it covers three meals:
Breakfast: breakfast tacos, churro waffles and cage-free egg dishes.
Lunch: composed salads, stacked sandwiches and burgers, tacos, and shrimp and grits.
Dinner: steak frites, teriyaki soba, blackened redfish, steak fajitas, Gulf snapper and potato gnocchi with wild mushroom ragout.
Latin dishes include pozole verde, queso with chorizo, brisket empanadas and red snapper aguachile. The bar offers premium whiskey, craft cocktails and a snack menu with deviled eggs, yucca cheese fritters, a Foundry Burger made with Texas-raised beef, and a Texas artisan board of local cheeses, cured meats, house-made jam and candied pecans.
The Perch: rooftop dining above downtown
The Perch sits on top of the 10-story Battelstein’s Building and has 45 seats across indoor dining, a bar, poolside tables and loungers. Houston-based Rottet Studio designed the space around Battelstein’s past as a luxury retailer, with tailoring and textile motifs throughout.
The menu leans casual: Gulf shrimp and octopus campechana, burrata and tomato caprese with pesto and Calabrian chili, Michoacán carnitas tacos, a smash burger, salsa macha chicken sliders, grilled mahi mahi tacos and a wagyu hot dog.
The cocktail list includes the Apiary (tequila, sotol, lemon, honey and honeycomb), Golden Hour (rum, lime, orange and bitters), Flora (gin, Cointreau, Luxardo cherry liqueur and edible flowers) and Stars at Night (coffee liqueur, Licor 43, espresso and mandarin syrup).
Honey, herbs and zero-proof drinks
The hotel will grow herbs and microgreens for dishes and garnishes in an aeroponic garden, part of its JW Garden project. It has also adopted a bee colony through Beewise, a California company that uses non-invasive AI to monitor hives. That honey will go into food and cocktails and will be sold in the lobby gift shop. For guests who skip alcohol, the bar pours Feragaia, a Scottish alcohol-free spirit distilled with land and sea botanicals.
Hours and reservations
The Foundry is open Monday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Perch will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Reserve for either restaurant by calling 713-237-1111 or through OpenTable. More details are on the JW Marriott Houston Downtown website, and both venues are on Instagram at @thefoundryhtx and @perchhtx.
