Compared to "an inside-the-park home run" by a discerning Houston restaurant critic, Mockingbird Bistro Wine Bar on the edge of Houston’s tony River Oaks is operating at bases-loaded capacity every night.

Owner/Executive Chef John Sheely, a 30-year veteran in the restaurant business, gives his diners comfort food at a sophisticated level typically found at world-class restaurants. A casual and comfortable neighborhood eatery, Mockingbird is Sheely’s Texas take on that French institution, the bistro.

Typical of Sheely’s straightforward and gregarious manner, the food at Mockingbird, which opened in January 2002, is simply prepared and presented, but with a deft touch that only a talented chef can accomplish. Soon after opening, Gourmet magazine named Mockingbird "a neighborhood gem." And by November 2002, Esquire named the bistro "One of America’s Best New Restaurants."

Sheely, a native Houstonian, came to cooking not by choice, but by default. During high school in the Memorial area of Houston, Sheely worked part-time in fast-food restaurants to earn spending money. On a spring break ski trip to Colorado, the chef-to-be set his sights on returning to the area to be what he terms, "a ski bum."

After graduation, Sheely moved to Colorado to indulge his passion for skiing. He fell in love with Vail where, to support himself, he turned again to restaurants. Too young to work up-front in restaurants that served alcohol, he fortuitously ended up in the kitchens of several of Vail’s best dining establishments.

Sheely stayed in the upscale ski resort 18 years. He eventually purchased his own restaurant, L’Ostello, which he operated for two years.

By the mid-’90s, Sheely decided that he had skied to his heart’s content and was ready to return to Houston to open a restaurant. In August of 1995, he found a spot on Houston’s westside where he debuted the Riviera Grill in a small center on Westheimer at Gessner.

Based on the elegant and irresistible food at Riviera, Sheely was honored as a "Modern Master," by noted restaurant critic John Mariani and named one of Houston’s "Top Ten" chefs by Houston’s city magazine. Sheely eventually moved Riviera Grill to a Memorial-area hotel where he operated it until spring of 2002.

Kudos continue to roll in for both Sheely and his new Mockingbird. Already a neighborhood hangout for the well-heeled inside-the-Loop diners, the bistro adds yet another star to Sheely’s now-lengthy culinary résumé.

When he is not cooking in the kitchen, Sheely enjoys traveling and discovering great food and wine.