Katz brothers bring draft beers and Indian-influenced cuisine

The Katz brothers, Seth and Chase Katz,  owners of local favorites Zelicks, Dos Gatos and Pie Society, are bringing a new set of flavors to San Marcans' palates with their newest venture North Street.

North Street, located at 216 North St., opened May 31 and is serving up a menu with Indian-inspired food as well as 28 draft beer taps, wine, coffee and espresso. 

In an interview with Chase Katz, he said the thought process for North Street was to create a neighborhood joint that served up great draft brews and Indian-inspired cuisine. The menu was crafted to feature the bold and rich flavors of Indian food. They worked with a consultant chef to assemble a pared-down menu that features items that mix familiar foods with Indian flavors like Texas-style queso with a blend of curry spices and chicken wings tossed in a chili sauce and served with a housemade lemon and cucumber yogurt sauce.

“We’re basically bringing some Indian flavors to San Marcos, it’s not 100 percent traditional, but there are some traditional flavors in what we do,” Katz said. “The chicken curry is a traditional-style chicken curry and we have a plate with it, but we also have it in a taco.”

The menu also has quite a few vegetarian options with items like vegetable samosas stuffed with spiced potatoes and peas and served with housemade mango chutney and green chutney or the paneer tikka masala with coconut rice, queso fresco, date chutney and jalapeño crema. 

The Chana and Spinach plate at North Street features a traditional chickpea curry on coconut rice with crispy papadums on top and a side of green chutney. 

The focal point for the Katz brothers was really making the Indian flavors shine in their dishes, and that meant starting with making products in house.

“We have a tiny kitchen, but we make a lot of the products in house,” he said. “Our chutneys are made in house. Our curries are made in house. All of our sauces are made in house.”

The beer menu has also been carefully curated by the Katz brothers to include a mix of national craft brews like Dogfish Head, Rogue and Lagunitas as well as some regional craft breweries like Middleton, Real Ale and Austin Beerworks. 

“The other thing that I think is pretty cool that we are doing is we’re selling beers by the half pint and whole pint,” Katz said. “So instead of getting a flight with just a 5-ounce drink of beer — I mean, yes, you got to taste it, but did you actually enjoy it because it was so small? You can try any of our beers in a half pint or a whole pint. People have been calling them ‘lunch beers.’”

Katz said the other thing that was important in developing North Street was keeping the character of the building intact. The house isn’t exactly historical, being built in approximately the 40s, but Katz said they really enjoyed the vibe it had and wanted to keep that intact, even while adding some extra square footage.

A group of lunch-goers enjoys their food at North Street last Friday.

“These buildings have character and so I think highlighting that character is better than knocking it down and building something new,” Katz said. “I feel that it just has a good vibe. Zelicks also had a good vibe when we bought the property, it just needed a little love. That is important to us, preserving.”

They also incorporated some of the building’s history into North Street with a mural for Gene’s Machines, the business that occupied the building in years prior.

North Street, is closed on Mondays; open Tuesday - Thursday and Sunday from 4:30 - 11 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. - midnight. For more information, go to North Street's website.