Applebee's International Inc.

Healthy Fast Food Menu Items Can Lure and Deceive Consumers

If you're on a diet, or are at least trying to eat healthier, you probably don't frequent fast food restaurants throughout the day. A typical fast food menu isn't full of healthy and nutritious items. However, a few fast food chains recently began to add lighter options to menus, due in part to a re ... More >>

And We Still Got the Shaft: Self-Righteous Tipper Gets Waitress Fired After Being Outed on the Internet

Any healthy adult will tell you that the proper response to being called out on a self-admitted mistake is to have the dignity and wherewithal to own the mistake and work toward improvement in the future. That sounds like a lot of work, though, and apparently Pastor Alois Bell thought so too. Pasto ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes 2012

No. 1, Korean Braised Goat and Dumplings at Underbelly.

5 Chain Food Trucks We Wish Existed

A few weeks ago, I was riding my bike past an otherwise quiet hotel parking lot on the edge of EaDo when I spotted it: a Taco Bell-branded food truck. The truck was dormant, its driver perhaps holed up in the cheap hotel, and I've yet to see the truck since. I wonder if it was just passing through H ... More >>

Edible War Games and Live Fire: DEFCON Dining at Foreign & Domestic

Dining out with children is an exercise in situational awareness. Each experience is unique, with different variables leading to different possible outcomes, DEFCON-like in their escalating threat levels. Keen observation, forward planning and prior experience are critical in determining the proper ... More >>

How to Speak Republican

Leaked document reveals the secrets of the GOP's coded language.

BlackFinn's Average American

Midtown "grille" offers something for everyone.

Jim Rome Smack-Off 2012: The Party's Over

In entertainment, everything has a logical arc. Whether we're talking about a television series, a radio show or a particular personality, they all have a shelf life as to how long they can remain compelling, a shelf life with a beginning, a middle and an end. The end is rarely pretty, and perhap ... More >>

Five Ways to Protect Yourself from Being Victimized Using Social Media During the Holidays

You don't need booby traps to keep criminals out of your house.​Lots of people go out of town for the holidays to visit relatives or to get as far away from relatives as possible. Both are understandable, but in this era of modern social networking, it's important to be careful about how you i ... More >>

Happy 31st Birthday, Turducken: 8 Foods Born in 1980

Thirty-one is officially too old to try to learn how to use Photoshop.​Tomorrow, on 11-11-11, I will turn 31 years old. Last year, for my 30th birthday, my uncle sent me a Facebook message that contained only the following Pink Floyd quote and a "Happy Birthday" at the end: So you run and you ... More >>

30 Seconds With Astronautalis

Rocks Off hitched a ride on a space whale in order to hook up with Andy Bothwell, also known as Astronautalis to see what we could learn about our biggest hope for rap in 30 seconds. paperocean​Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Astronautalis: "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith. ... More >>

The Best and Worst Celebrity Endorsements

What is she... Is she literally pouring herself a glass of wine?​A few weeks back, I saw a Tweet from my friend Melissa, who found herself alternately captivated and horrified by what she'd come across in her local Kroger. It was a sign advertising a line of Pinot Grigio from Ramona Singer (ab ... More >>

Restaurant Lawyer David Jordan on Tip Pools and Illegal Immigration

​David Jordan is a partner in the Houston office of Littler Mendelson, an international law firm specializing in labor and employment law. Before he was a lawyer, Jordan worked in the restaurant industry for several years: flipping burgers at Burger King when he was in high school; working in ... More >>

Hall Pass

The Farrellys fulfill their raunch and goo quotients.

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

The Night I Snuck Around Jones Hall and...Oh, Yeah...Talked to Anthony Bourdain

Katharine ShilcuttCan you spot our mustachioed interloper? ​Fellow chef Mike Nutt, the Chef de Cuisine at Laurenzo's Grill on Washington, invited me to tag along with him and the other chefs catering the book signing following Anthony Bourdain's sold-out talk at Jones Hall, called Up Close and ... More >>

Houston Texans -- F the Cowboys (or #FDACOWBOYS on Twitter)

cutline​Not long ago, I got into a brief discussion on Twitter with another radio personality whom I am forbidden to name whose name I don't exactly recall. I don't remember the crux of the tweet-versation (something having to do with blogs and the inherent evil that blogs possess to anyone over ... More >>

The 5 Scariest Things About Denny's

boost ventilatorBasically an entire goddamn Grand Slam Breakfast between two slices of bread.​In the recent kerfluffle regarding Denny's new sandwich, the Fried Cheese Melt, we seem to have forgotten that it's far from the only reason to be afraid of the 24-hour restaurant chain. Allow us to r ... More >>

A Field Guide To The Fans In Town For The NCAA Regional

​Wow, having a NCAA Tournament regional is almost like having a Super Bowl!! Hordes of fans come to town, pack the bars and strip joints, throw money around like drunken sailors and appall the locals while keeping bartenders and cheap hotels happy.Except in Houston. Which has somehow managed to ge ... More >>

Casa Mariachi in Pasadena

​For a lazy Saturday night dinner, our family ended up in Pasadena. After some deliberation of where to go -- "Applebees?" "Ew! No!" -- someone suggested that we go to Casa Mariachi (5824 Spencer Highway, 281-998-2272). None of us had been, but it was near our gathering point, so we decided on ... More >>

The Chronicle's Columnist Does BARC Again, And Again The Result Is WTF?

​If you heard what sounded like a sonic boom this morning, it was the thunderclap of Hair Balls's head exploding. And why would that be? Because one of the nation's biggest newspapers -- the daily for the fourth-largest city in the country -- allowed a columnist to print the bizarre evangelic ... More >>

Late Night Scene: House of Pies

Photo by Katharine ShilcuttBayou Goo at the House of PiesIt's an existential dilemma: What is House of Pies without a sense of irony? What if you woke up one afternoon and discovered a late-night guilty pleasure of negligible culinary quality but spectacular crowd-watching was... respectable? Since ... More >>

Ask a Rapper: Yung Redd of Swishahouse

The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place - lots of times, you're even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good - so once a week we're going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Have something you always wanted to ask a rapper? Email introducingliston@gmai ... More >>

Is Mooyah Burger a Mooby's Knockoff?

Mooyah Burger on Bay Area Boulevard is another contestant in Houston's gourmet burger beauty pageant. The chain touts "100% fresh lean American beef (never frozen, no additive, fillers or preservatives)." But if you ask me, the meat at Mooyah burger is too lean. Though cooked to medium, my burger wa ... More >>

Top Ten WTF Sports Moments of 2008

It's end of year time, which means it's time for stupid lists. And if there's anything you guys have learned about me, it's that I like stupid lists. So I present this year's Top Ten WTF Moments in Sports for 2008. 10. The Cleveland Browns suspended tight end Kellen Winslow, Jr. for conduct det ... More >>

Tuesday Morning Quarterbacking: Were You Ready for Some Boring Football?

I can't believe I wasted over three hours of my life watching the Houston Texans last night. Sure, they won the game 30-17, but damn, that was an awful game to watch. I found the document review I was working on to be more interesting than most of that game - and you attorneys out there know that ... More >>

Sysco Slapped for Bait and Switch with Florida Fish

Sysco Slapped for Bait and Switch with Florida Fish

RocBar: Too Pretty To Rock?

Cookie-Cutter Attitude

Cinco de Mayo Mexican Menu: Baby Goat on a Stick or Ballpark Nachos?

Tornado Burgers, New Year's Play, Anthony Bourdain

Robb Walsh Visits the First Taco Bell in Monterrey

Houston Is One Naughty City...

RIP, Kerwin James (and New Orleans and Houston too)

Eat That, New York!

Eat That, New York!

¡Viva la Margarita!

The drink that changed the way we eat

Brave New World

A Heights family is targeted in the name of progress

Redneck Renaissance

Gretchen Wilson’s return to town makes us wonder, What’s really behind all these songs about Wal-Mart, cheap beer and NASCAR?

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Got It, Flaunt It

Those campaign donations aren't buying yard signs and pamphlets

Tresspassers Will Be Prosecuted

Ranch Rescue's Jack Foote swears he just wants to mend fences. Is pseudomilitary secrecy, right-wing rhetoric and an armed vigilante militia the best way?