Oxheart pincipals (l to r) Karen Man, Justin Yu and Justin Vann in front of their future space on Nance.

This past year has seen an unusual number of talented Houston chefs at loose ends, in a frustrating limbo between restaurants. That's about to change for Justin Yu, whose pop-up tasting dinners and well-received Moneycat brunches in a Chinatown venue have delivered some of 2011's most exciting food.

Yu and his wife, the gifted baker and pastry chef Karen Man, will launch a 26-seat restaurant called Oxheart in the Warehouse District space that is soon to be vacated by Latin Bites Peruvian cafe. Justin Vann, currently Central Market's beverage director, will act as sommelier and run the front of the house. (He's been responsible for the consistently interesting pairings at Yu's pop-up dinners and brunches.)

It's a fortuitous changing of the guard at 1302 Nance Street, on a dreamy old industrial block just northeast of downtown. Latin Bites made a huge success out of its run in the high-ceilinged former ironworks space, making the small room chic and welcoming without spending a bundle. Now, pressed by the demand for tables, chef Roberto Castre and his team are moving to the former Rockwood Room on Chimney Rock and Woodway, where they'll have lots of room for a ceviche bar, a Pisco bar and outdoor dining.

Yu, Man and Vann inherit an intimate space that they can modify to suit the modernist Gulf Coast style and casual vibe for which Yu is known.

Justin Yu's crudo of triggerfish, unripe pear, lily bulb, duck consomme and Delfina cilantro. Photo by Alison Cook

The trio plan to open in March, serving three different tasting menus nightly. Of the two 4-course menus, priced at $49, one will offer a combo of meat, fish and vegetables; the other will be a strictly vegetarian, as befits a chef who has a radish tattooed on his arm. A 7-course tasting menu will offer a range of dishes for $75. Vann's wine and beer pairings will add roughly $35 or $50 to $60 to the tab, respectively.

So what's with the name? Oxheart is named for a carrot variety. And a tomato variety, and a cabbage variety, and the heart of a large animal. But anyone who has been fortunate enough to attend Yu's pop-up dinners over the course of the past year can guess that it's the carrot that is closest to Yu's own heart. Unusually for a Houston chef, he gives vegetables their own importance and refinement, weaving them seamlessly into meat and fish dishes, and thinking about them in really interesting ways.

Justin Yu at work at an all-vegetable tasting dinner. Photo by Alison Cook

Yu and Man had something of a carrot epiphany when they dined at Relae in Copenhagen last year and tasted what chef Christian Puglisi, formerly of Noma, could do with the humble root vegetable. Yu was fresh from a post at Ubuntu, the celebrated all-vegetarian restaurant in Napa, with its serious gardening program.

After Ubuntu, Yu returned to Houston to join Seth Siegel-Gardner and Terrance Gallivan for a sold-out run at the month-longJust August pop-up. Then Yu and Man embarked on a months-long expedition apprenticing at various modernist culinary shrines in Europe, from Belgium's In de Wulf to Copenhagen's AOC and Geranium. When they dined at Relae, a pared-back basement space in the scruffy meatpacking district of Copenhagen, they found their inspiration for Oxheart.

Justin Yu's salad of pickled jujube, muscadine grapes and oregano.. Photo by Alison Cook

It wasn't just that soul-stirring carrot dish that impressed them. It was the thoughtful all-around experience and its casual comfort. Everything from the space and the service to the wine list seemed right to them, and just as important, the very ambitious restaurant managed to be fun.

"They basically stripped away everything that wasn't necessary," recalls Man. "The flashy waiters, the resetting of silverware." More than anything, she and Yu say, they want Oxheart to be "a place where we'd feel comfortable going on a regular basis."

That will make it a new kind of tasting-menu restaurant in Houston, where the model so far has been defined by the very formal and costly Textile, now closed.

Karen Man's monkey bread with oyster butter. Photo by Alison Cook

Yu says he'll be using local products wherever it makes sense and he can find ingredients of the highest quality. "We want to showcase things that are special to the region," he says. "But," he adds, "we're not going to confine ourselves."

David Cater, the brilliant grower behind Utility Research Garden in Brazoria County, will be growing some custom vegetables for Oxheart. Yu also will be working with P.J. Stoops of Louisiana Foods to procure the unusual Gulf bycatch species that have been inspiring him of late.

Justin Yu's Relae-inspired dish of roasted carrots hazelnuts, raisins, dried shiitake powder and a puree of mustard greens and carrot tops. Photo by Alison Cook

As to the beverage program, Vann intends to mix beers and more into the wine-focused lineup. He says he'll concentrate on small producers and good value, with most bottles priced "well under $75." In a small space with limited storage capacity, Vann sees an opportunity to shift the list with the seasons, another local rarity.

Man, whose monkey bread with oyster butter was one of the best things I tasted this year, will manage the baking and dessert programs without a full-blown bread oven at first. Man has a classic background baking at such places as Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakeryin Napa and New York, and she has brought a deft touch to Yu's pop-up dinners over the past year. She's great at improvising under less than ideal conditions, so she'll be fun to watch as Oxheart finds its way.

Starting out, Oxheart plans to be open for dinner 5 nights a week, from Thursday through Monday. Yes, Monday. "I think there's a need for good restaurants open on Monday," says Yu. (And of course, that's a traditional night for people in the industry to dine out.) The trio is toying with the idea of offering an a la carte menu on the slower nights (Thursday, Sunday and Monday, for instance), or offering an all-vegetable 7-course tasting by prior arrangement.

Karen Man's beet vacherin dessert with sunchoke mousse and malt cake. Photo by Alison Cook

They're going to figure it out as they go, but one thing Yu insists is that he won't skimp on is initial training for the cooks and servers he hires. "We're not going to experiment on our guests," he says. "We don't want the customer to suffer on the first day. If we're asking them to pay full price, we want to give them the full service and quality."

He's not going to play it safe, either. "No point in that," he says. "The menu is going to be aggressive right from the start." Man notes wryly that "if you want a salmon entree, this won't be your restaurant."

Most of all, say Yu and Man and Vann, they look forward to learning to work as a cohesive unit, playing off each others' ideas and strengths. Houston has already had a sampling of what happens when these three work together, which will make Oxheart one of the most eagerly anticipated openings in what is shaping up to be a very interesting 2012 on the restaurant scene.