Consumer Products and Services

Young Woman Raped in Stall By Registered Sex Offender Enlists Rusty Hardin to Sue TGI Friday's for Negligence

Nearly two years after claiming she was raped in the stall of a TGI Friday's in Webster, Texas, by one of its employees, a young woman is suing the restaurant for negligence. The woman, who was 17 at the time of the rape and is referred to as Jane Doe within the lawsuit, the man who raped her regist ... More >>

World's Most Radical Natural Wine Now Available in Houston

Ever since the New York Times first reported on the radically Natural wines of Mt. Etna, Sicily producer Frank Cornelissen in 2009, the wines have captivated the attention of Natural wine writers, enthusiasts and detractors across the United States. To my knowledge, the wines have never been availa ... 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 >>

Louis Vuitton Obsession: Domain Seizure Reminds Us of Five Things You Shouldn't Buy Online from Random Websites

As part of the continued crackdown on counterfeit merchandise websites, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations announced in a release that it seized 89 Internet domain names last week. Of those 89, a whopping 78 were related to Louis Vuitton, the high-end handbag ... More >>

Your Stress-Free Holiday Dining Guide: Where to Eat on Christmas Day 2012

The presents are unwrapped, the place is destroyed and the pine needles from the Christmas tree have formed a fine carpet throughout the house. The last thing you want to do is dirty up a bunch of dishes cooking after all that. So why not let one of the many Houston restaurants open on Christmas Day ... More >>

Your Stress-Free Holiday Dining Guide: Where to Eat on Christmas Day 2012

The presents are unwrapped, the place is destroyed and the pine needles from the Christmas tree have formed a fine carpet throughout the house. The last thing you want to do is dirty up a bunch of dishes cooking after all that. So why not let one of the many Houston restaurants open on Christmas Day ... More >>

Robertson Stadium Goes Boom as UH Releases Renderings for New Football Stadium

After 70 years, this is what has come of fabled Robertson Stadium. The photo above was taken on Wednesday as crews demolished the University of Houston campus football venue to make way for a brand new stadium in its place that will look something like this: The new facility is scheduled to be read ... More >>

Bruce Kessler's Incredible Houston Concert Photo Archive

Two Door Cinema Club

Why Restaurants Matter (and Why You Should Tip Generously)

Last week's post Corkage: A Privilege, Not a Right generated a heated comment thread. "Are you f'n kidding me?" asked "Corkage Smorkage" rhetorically. "Offer your server a taste of your wine." ???? I'm already paying them a BS "fee" to open it. What's next, offering them a taste of my food so the ... More >>

UH Releases Schedule for Last Season in Robertson Stadium & Conference USA

The UH Cougars will be ending some relationships after this season -- they'll be leaving Conference USA for the Big East, and demolition crews will begin working on Robertson Stadium in December 2012. The school isn't sure yet where the 2013 football team will play while a new stadium is being buil ... More >>

Vinyl Gets Another Spin

Showing it has more lives than a cockroach, vinyl has been reborn, resulting in some beautiful music. But sometimes production values in records and turntables are lacking.

Texas MC Snow Tha Product Signs With Atlantic Records

"You mean to tell me that you think I don't know that I ain't black? Or that I don't know that usually Latin girls ain't really been all up in rap? I didn't know that my color or gender could be the preventer of getting on tracks See the last time that I checked they play hip-hop in the hood And ... More >>

Against the Grain

Pardon the pun, but month-old Montrose craft-beer pub The Hay Merchant is already hopping.

8 Things We Learned from the IFPI's 2012 Report

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) released its 2012 report this week, confirming that the music industry may finally have a reason to be cautiously optimistic about its future. The industry saw its first year-over-year growth since 2004, piracy notwithstanding. The IF ... More >>

12 Music Business Predictions for 2012

Photo by Robert Bejil​Where were we? Oh yeah, crystal ball and prophesies. You ready for this? OK. What follows is a list of events we expect to befall the music industry in 2012. Yes, these are etched in stone and should be regarded as gospel. Full prophetic titillation ahead.

Odd Pair: What Wine to Pair with Hospital Food?

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.When you're admitted to the hospital to have a baby, you're taken off solid foods. As soon as the baby is born, they bring you a meal to regain your strength. In our case, it was hospital cafeteria meatloaf.​Color me pink! Tracie P and I had a baby on Monday: Georgia P ... More >>

Why Texas Should Reopen Its Horse Slaughterhouses

It's been five years since the nation's last horse slaughterhouse was shut down. The Cavel horse slaughterhouse in DeKalb, Illinois, closed after Congress banned USDA inspections of horse meat -- effectively ceasing operations at the few abattoirs in the United States that dealt in horses. If the me ... More >>

Messina Hof Has the Best Wine in Texas, According to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

This year, more than 2,500 wines were entered into the annual Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's International Wine Competition. Of those entries, 736 were from Texas wineries. And of those Texas wineries, Messina Hof swept up 20 medals and the coveted title of Top Texas Wine for its 2004 Solara, whic ... More >>

Musicians Can Wait: Black Friday More About Flat Screens Than Instruments

Back in college -- yes, in the stone age -- I worked for a musical instrument store on the north side of Houston. Over the years, there were busy days where I just stood behind the counter while a line of people handed me guitars to buy without the hint of a sales push and there were days we sat in ... More >>

Do Hit Singles Still Help Sell An Album?

J: Cole: Zero hit singles, 218K first-week sales.​​The music industry has been reeling from a host of ailments, none more severe than crippling record sales. Fortunately, 2011 has been a strong year so far, with CD sales on the rise. Spearheaded by the likes of Adele, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayn ... More >>

Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Doritos?

​When asked what factors had shaped his palate and his wine collection when he first began collecting fine wine, rockstar (literally, not just figuratively) and winemaker Maynard James Keenan answered: "Mountain Dew and Doritos. Like most American kids, that's what I grew up on." This was a fe ... More >>

Greatest Grub: Best Non-Blue Bell Ice Cream Flavors

Carrie Applegate Jaeger​As promised, here's the follow up to the last Greatest Grub featuring favorite flavors of Blue Bell ice cream. I can only imagine how many gallons of that stuff are bought in the state during these unbearably hot summer months. I know that Blue Bell is the hometown fa ... More >>

Comment of the Day

​Joanna O'Leary had a delicious Italian meal at Fratelli's and decided that the restaurant was worth driving outside the loop for. Which gave commenter Laurie pause: Heaven forbid! Outside the Loop! Joanna get over it. It is all of 5 min outside the Loop. A majority of Houston lives outside ... More >>

Tuscapalooza: As if You Needed an Excuse to Drink Beer

groovehouseAll-You-Can-Eat crawfish for a cause.​The string of tornados that tore across the Southern states on April 27, 2011 inflicted damage comparable to a category-five hurricane. It killed more 300 people and left thousands more homeless. The impact was especially severe in Tuscaloosa, a ... More >>

Andy Surface: Alvin's Conde Nast Scammer Graciously Agrees Not to Keep the $8 Million He Got

Andy Surface no longer wants Conde Nast's money.​Andy Surface, the Alvin man who scammed the powerful Condé Nast publishing company of $8 million simply by sending a single bogus e-mail invoice, has formally renounced any claim to his ill-gotten gains. Forbes, which first broke the story, re ... More >>

SXSW Last Night: (UPDATED) Screeching Weasel's Ben Weasel Hits A Woman At The Scoot Inn

The incident is still just hours old, but the Internet is steaming over Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel hitting a woman and another unidentified person during his band's set at the Scoot Inn on Saturday night. There's no "alleged" to be found in this situation. It was all caught on camera.

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 >>

Made in Texas: Bourbon Ain't Just from Kentucky Any More

We got whiskey in Texas, pahd'nah!​In this week's cover story, Dallas Observer food critic Hanna Raskin goes inside the world of Texas distilleries to discover that good bourbon can be found in the Lone Star State too. Once reserved for only a handful of bottlers, there has been an explosion ... More >>

Get Your Passport Stamped Along the Texas Wine Trails

​While the trail riders rode into town last Friday, you could be riding out one weekend soon to hit one of Texas's 11 wine trails just as the bluebonnets are beginning to bloom this spring. The fifth most productive wine-producing state in the nation, Texas features more than 200 vineyards wi ... More >>

The Pomplamoose Revolution

How a band with no CDs or record deal is changing the music industry

Wine(s) of the Week: Duel Napa Valley Chardonnay

​I had a couple bottles of Chardonnay sent to me from different wineries, and noticed they were both within a year's vintage of one another, in the same price range, and both from the Napa Valley. So, why not do a Wine of the Week, "Food Fight" style? It was on like Donkey Kong, only a little ... More >>

Comments of the Day

​Lauren Marmaduke reported on the blue stuff in some "blueberry" food products not being actual blueberries, and some of our commenters expressed their displeasure with the industry. Said Gaspar Ramsey: Horsehockey. Food manufacturers use fake ingredients because they are trying to scam the p ... More >>

Comment of the Day

​Today, Katharine Shilcutt told EOW readers about the new beer bar from the guys at Anvil, which left many salivating for more info...and probably beer. Said commenter Dacano: I think 2010 was just the beginning for the craft beer movement here in Houston and Texas as a whole with the emergen ... More >>

Tequila Coleman: Loves Fancy SUVs, Hates Paying For Them

Land Rover: Get one by any means necessary​Apparently, Tequila Antwannette Coleman really, really, really digs luxury SUVs. They are the salt and lime in her life; without them, she is just not complete. The trouble is, she seems to have trouble paying for them, and now the 31-year-old Houst ... More >>

Bye-Bye, Books-A-Million

BAM!! It's gone!!​We always thought a major bookstore downtown was a bit of a longshot, but Books-A-Million thought otherwise. Until now, that is. Swamplot reports that the store in the new-ish Houston Pavilions will soon be shuttered. Books-A-Million is kind of a southeastern Borders, with ... More >>

Now Dat's Classy

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.

Five Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

The Vintage Mirrors the Year

Midnight in the Garden of PS3

Camping out at Best Buy with gamers -- and entrepreneurs

Next Big Things

The five biggest attention-getters at E3

Generation Next

Microsoft's Xbox 360 fires the first shot in the next-gen console war

Dining by Demographic

Fleming's Prime Steakhouse serves up excellent renditions of the nation's most average food and wine preferences

Best Watch Repair

The Little Watch Shop

Coping with Coppélia

Stevenson's ham-handed treatment of the ballet doesn't seem like the only melodrama on stage

Stirred and Shaken

Champps Americana's Manhattan

Stirred and Shaken

P.F. Chang's mai tai

Attack of the Killer Developers

Restaurants pop up in Midtown

Letters

Capital Idea

Is one more palace of red meat one too many? If it's the Capital Grille, the answer is no.