Arby's Restaurant Group Inc.

The Pho-ndamentals

A beginner's guide to Vietnamese cuisine.

Openings & Closings: Renovated Restaurants and Born-Again Bars

It was a busy week for openings, so we'll kick things off this Friday with some happy news. Eleven XI, the new restaurant helmed by chef Kevin Bryant, opened this past Tuesday night...and it already has three Yelp reviews. The location at 607 West Gray had to be extensively renovated to turn the f ... More >>

Here, Eat This

A beginner's guide to Korean cuisine.

Openings & Closings: Pico's Mex-Mex and More Are Movin' On Up

If this week's roundup of openings and closings had a theme song, it would be "Movin' On Up" from The Jeffersons. Pico's Mex-Mex is doing just that, by vacating its old Bellaire location to move into the recently closed Maggie Rita's at Richmond and Kirby. The Houston Chronicle's Alison Cook broke ... More >>

Health Department Roundup: Haute Wheels Checked, and Mostly Good News In Montrose

This weekend, the city once again hit the Press-organized Haute Wheels food truck festival. Like last year, the trucks that inspectors visited did pretty well. Chilantro BBQ got hit with two violations: potentially hazardous food held at improper temperature (corrected on site), and no shatter-pro ... More >>

Battle Fast Food Fish Sandwich: Which One Should You Have During Lent?

With fish being a choice food throughout the 40 days of Lent, many fast food chain restaurants have added a fish sandwich to their menus, or at least brought them back. I decided to try five fish sandwiches and determine which ones are the best based on overall quality, taste and price. You might b ... More >>

Arby's French Dip n' Swiss: You Got That (Two-Thirds) Right!

I was driving down South Shepherd last week when a poster in the window of Arby's caught my eye, one advertising a French Dip n' Swiss sandwich. Though I rarely eat at Arby's these days (just a quick stop in Wasilla for a Beef n' Cheddar when I'm traveling in the AK) my interest was immediately piqu ... More >>

Fast Times: CDE (Christmas Dessert Edition)

We're packing our bags and checking 'em twice (once on United, then again on Alaska Airlines) which means we aren't doing an awful lot of Christmas cooking or baking at our house. I don't have much of a sweet tooth, myself, but this time of year I really start craving desserts -- something about the ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

The Health Department posted reports on only about 50 places in the past week, and not one of those places got stuck with a citation or closure. Reminds us of when Kelly Kapowski's dad got laid off from his job at a defense contractor because world peace broke out (it didn't make much sense at the t ... More >>

Y'all Musta Forgot: CQ and t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8's The Sunday Soapbox

​Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or not, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. (Self-released, 2011) CQ & t.h.e. MisFit Crazy-8 Note: Heretofore, whenever t.h.e. MisFit Cra ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Remember: BestFest is this weekend, so don't fritter it away! Get it, those are corn fritters! Shut up.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've been watching My Drunk Kitchen so much that our cooking skills have depleted drastically, while our drinking skills h ... More >>

Fast Times: Angus Cool Deli Sandwich at Arby's

​Lately, it seems like every other commercial that comes on is an Arby's ad for its new Angus Cool Deli sandwich. They can claim that their marketing dollars got at least one customer, as I found myself at the Arby's one afternoon. Arby's is not the first place that comes to mind when I get ... More >>

Wicked Poseur Is The Real Deal - Believe It

​Wicked Poseur has really got you by the balls. That's all there is to it. The indie-rock terrors manage to twist all sorts of distortion and confetti into a glorious bit of sounds. It's competitive, raunchy, brave music, thumping enough that you can't deny their talent, but far enough from ... More >>

Remember Lil Flip's #KissThePinkyRang?

Houston's history is dotted with albums that, fairly or un, have been swept aside. We'll examine them here. Have an album that you think nobody knows about but should? Email sheaserrano@gmail.com. ​Lil Flip #KissThePinkyRang (Self-released, 2011) Lil' Flip is, by even the most ardent applica ... More >>

Food Fight: Battle of the Fast Food Chicken Salads

Subway.​I love chicken salad, but it's almost always chock full of calories and fat, usually due to mayonnaise, which is about 80 percent fat on its own. Why? Why must chicken salad be so delicious but so awful for you? It's just not fair. Does a chicken salad sandwich have to be bad for yo ... More >>

Random Christmas Food Traditions: Junk Food, Arby's and Red Lobster

​Quickie-mart junk food, roast "beef" from Arby's and Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster were what we ate around the holidays when I was growing up back in Florida. Sure, Christmas Day had the usual suspects of turkey and cornbread dressing, but before Christmas and after, we bowed down to ... More >>

Top 10 Worst Food Comas Ever

Jesus VDangerous: Mexican pastries.​Postprandial somnolence is the scientific term for a food coma. How do I know this? Because I looked it up on my phone on Thanksgiving Day while I was slowly getting under the covers at my parents house that afternoon, swearing to myself that I was just "res ... More >>

How To Become A Pop Star In Seven Easy Steps

Marco TorresRocks Off is assuming you know who this is by now; if not, see here and here. Or here, if you just like to look at pictures.​When you become a pop star, you have to worry about things like keeping up with all your many different bank accounts (most of them will only let you store a ... More >>

Last Night: Trae Day At Northwest Mall

Photos by Marco TorresBrandi Garcia and Trae​Trae Day Northwest Mall July 22, 2010 3:36 p.m.: Some dark, menacing clouds are off in the horizon. After everything that's happened this past year - the ban, the last-minute venue cancellation, etc - is there any way that it won't rain today? It s ... More >>

Free Roast Beef Sandwich from Arby's

​As a kid, summertime was synonymous with Arby's. For each book I read that was more than 100 pages, my parents would reward me with trips to the neon cowboy hat. So I would go to the library to find 100-pagers with the largest print possible, blaze through them, and then load up on roast beef ... More >>

Top 5 "Healthy" Fast Food Items Worse Than The KFC Double Down

We've got your back, Double Down.​The poor, unfairly maligned Double Down. Yes, that's right -- we're here to take up the dubious mantle of Double Down Defenders. What did it ever do to deserve the kind of scorn that's been heaped upon it by the media? So it's a sandwich that doesn't have any ... More >>

Gimme (A Tax) Shelter

​Even if Uncle Sam took a great big bite out of your wallet this year, there are still ways to enjoy a good meal today -- several, in fact -- thanks to local restaurants taking advantage of your newfound poverty to offer free or reduced-price goodies today. It's like a crack dealer giving you ... More >>

Worst Rapper Alive

Unraveling veteran rhymesmith K-Rino's brilliance in an über-sketchy Third Ward park.

Not So Happily Ever After

Shundrekia Edwards desperately wants a little help to get her out of where she is now.

Five Spot: We Would Very Much Like Someone to Send Us an Advance of Swishahouse's New The Usual Suspects Comp

Welcome back to Five Spot. Every Friday, we'll examine a recent bit of music news and, sometimes awkwardly, tie it to a bit of Houston rap. It's five videos and occasional cussing. Send tips to introducingliston@gmail.com.​First, a bit of housekeeping: In this space last week, we wrote about the r ... More >>

Another Texas Arrest In That A-Hole Prankster Ring

The Smoking GunNewly arrested prankster​The Smoking Gun continues to stay on top of the effort to out and punish the juvenile a-holes (some of them sex offenders, some of them merely Mom's-basement types) who go around ruining property and people's days with "pranks."The hilarity involves calling ... More >>

Arrest Made In That Infamous Baytown Arby's Prank

​Baytown police have filed charges against one of the "men" who pull idiotic phone pranks such as making people drink urine or having them break windows in hotels. They do this by convincing the listeners they are talking to officials of some sort, and some kind of emergency action must be taken.O ... More >>

The Smoking Gun Targets Two Houston-Area Internet "Pranksters"

​The Smoking Gun website has an extensive, entertaining investigative expose on a group of webheads who pull off expensive pranks nationwide.Posing as authority figures, they have phoned hotel rooms and fast-food restaurants and talked innocent people into doing such things as breaking windows (be ... More >>

Immigration... and What's In A Name

Capsule Art Reviews: Bryan Wheeler: The Souls of Texans Are In Jeopardy In Ways Not Common To Other Men, "Casual Encounters", Round 30: Home. Space. Place.

Capsule Art Reviews: "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul," "Bryan Wheeler: The Souls of Texans Are In Jeopardy In Ways Not Common To Other Men," "Helen Lessick: Other Arrangements," "Javier de Villota," "Round 30: Home. Space"

What Mainstream Publishers Don't Want You to Know About Door-to-Door Magazine Sales

That kid at your door with a magazine order form will tell you a story -- part sad, part hopeful. The truth will be infinitely worse than you can imagine.

The Shepherd Stroll, Part II

Blame Canada

A new pub on Westheimer that's lots of firkin fun for the whole firkin family!

Best Nightlife Idea that Should Come Back

Beauty Bar Houston

Run to Ground

Inmate Terry Banks broke out of jail in Missouri, prison guard Lynette Barnett by his side. They disappeared for seven weeks - until the law caught up with them in a Victoria County, Texas, trailer park.

South of Houston