Ash Wednesday

UPDATED: RIP Scott Daniels: Horseshoe, Carolyn Wonderland Guitarist Dies Suddenly

UPDATED (Monday, 10 a.m.): Corrects Daniels' moving to Austin, and adds information on the burial service and memorial. UPDATE 2: Comments from Daniels' girlfriend, Candyce Prince have been added. Scott Daniels, longtime Houstonian and guitarist for Carolyn Wonderland and Horseshoe, has passed. Li ... More >>

Fetch Me a Shrubbery: Build-A-Bar Goes N/A

I'm a terrible Catholic. Every year, I try to make up for that fact during Lent, vowing to give up television or meat or stringent usury. Depriving myself of creature comforts for 11 percent of my life seems like a fair trade-off for sleeping in on Sundays, and I never take the easy way out, giving ... More >>

Recipe: Flourless Cloud Bread

I gave up bread for Lent, which has been a huge pain in the ass because bread is a major component of pretty much everything I think is delicious. I'm the girl who snags a loaf of warm, fresh-baked french bread from the bakery at the beginning of a shopping trip and ends up throwing a practically em ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

There are no inspection reports available from February 23 to 29, but there are dozens of reports from February 22, Ash Wednesday. We're not sure about the significance of that. But it is important for restaurants to remember that they art dust, and to dust they shalt return, just keep that shit off ... More >>

The Venetian Origins of Mardi Gras

Few will surprised by the pagan origins of Mardi Gras. The indulgence in food and wine and the relaxed sexual mores that accompany the festival are akin to the bacchanalia of the pre-Christian era, when the Romans would celebrate the spring equinox with gusto and abandon. And it makes perfect sense ... More >>

Tops Drop: A Larger-Than-Life Fat Tuesday Playlist

​Happy Fat Tuesday, y'all! Rocks Off mentioned in a previous post, about rappers and Houston restaurants, that some of the best artists are "Big" and "Fat": Big Pokey, Fat Pat, Big Moe, etc. Every day is Fat Tuesday for these rappers. They're all about overindulgence and that's why we love th ... More >>

Ash Wednesday

Happy Hour Hurricanes and Crawfish Bites at Ragin Cajun

​Going to Ragin Cajun on Ash Wednesday was simultaneously the best and worst decision I made this week. Although I expected the restaurant to be busy, I didn't anticipate standing in line for almost 35 minutes to get a tasty but overpriced plate of fried seafood. But I also didn't expect th ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

W.B. Yeats perusing the city's health inspection records​We're starting this week real classy-like with an appropriately apocalyptic Yeats poem, because we're excellent at copying and pasting stuff that makes us look smart. Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the ... More >>

Five Things Charlie Sheen Should Give Up for Lent

​Charlie Sheen was brought up in a very Catholic family -- his Dad's about as Catholic as you can get -- so it's safe to assume he's familiar with the idea of giving things up for Lent. What should he give up this year? Some suggestions, a few of which he's already agreed to: 5. Washing his ... More >>