Best Local Boy Made Good

Tilman Fertitta already had a sizable restaurant empire, including his highly successful Kemah Waterfront complex. Now he has snagged a prime pied-à-terre in the burgeoning downtown entertainment district as well. Fertitta recently won the competition to lease from the city the old Fire Station No. 1 and original municipal water plant along Buffalo Bayou, and will be building an aquarium-entertainment-eatery complex on the site, complete with a miniature train and fountains. We're assured the aquarium will not be featuring the less-than-comely alligator gar, catfish and mossbacked turtles that frequent the sluggish waters of the bordering bayou, though perhaps Fertitta could throw in a dummy or two to mimic the corpses that still occasionally pop up there. "It's on a much more mammoth level than Kemah," Fertitta promises of his new fishy deal. "We feel like it will be the No. 1 draw in downtown Houston."

@choice: Lyle Lovett