Consumer Products and Services

Sheriff's Office Makes Busts at Two Game Rooms

Harris County Sheriff's investigators seized cash, drugs, weapons, and gambling devices from two allegedly illegal game rooms in southwest Harris County Thursday, according to a press release. Acting on a tip, members of the HCSO's Game Room Task Force (a whole task force, yo!) seized the loot -- w ... More >>

Teach Your Kids That Cows Don't Make Artificially Sweetened Milk

Let's face it -- kids are not consuming enough milk today. Most children would rather drink sugary juice or a soda rather than a glass of milk. The reason for these choices can be attributed to the fact that kids like foods with lots of sugar -- one ingredient that plain milk does not have. Unfort ... More >>

Your 2013 Houston Record Store Day Rundown

Your financial situation be damned, Record Store Day 2013 is coming this Saturday, April 20, to drain your wallet of life and those little green pieces of paper. This Saturday your dance card should be full with all the major indie record stores in Houston and the surrounding areas offering up giv ... More >>

Exploring Sweet Spot Audio And Records In Webster

A few weeks back, our own Marc Brubaker detailed ten of the best record stores in the Houston area. This past weekend I finally visited another one to add to your list of must-visit shops in Houston, and it is worthy of the drive if you live inside the Inner Loop. Sweet Spot Audio and Records is l ... More >>

This Week in Craft Beer: Ash Bash Continues, Beer Legislation News and More

It's a busy week in beer. That said, it always seems to be a busy week in beer around here lately thanks to Houston's growth in the industry over the past two years. The Craft Brewer's Conference is wrapping up in Washington D.C. and we're creeping closer to National Craft Beer Week, but there's ple ... More >>

Craft Beer and Charity: More Details on Next Week's Ash Bash Events

The craft beer community is still dealing with the as-yet-unsolved murder of Duff Beer Distribution founder Ashley "Ash" Rowell. The murder came at the tail end of Duff's existence, as the brand was in the process of being integrated into Favorite Brands following Rowell's sale of Duff to the much l ... More >>

An Open Letter To The Texas Craft Beer Industry

A lot of news has been made of the recent legislation that exited committee earlier this week regarding the Texas beer industry. I addressed the basics of these bills earlier today. While generally positive, reactions in the craft beer community have been noticeably and understandably mixed. See a ... More >>

Promoter Sues Owners of Club Where Jay-Z, Beyonce, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade Celebrated All-Star Weekend

A group called All Pro Management is suing the owners of Rich's, where Jay-Z (aka Mr. Beyonce Knowles) hosted an NBA All-Star par-tay, accusing them of cheating All Pro out of proceeds from liquor sales. The promoters claimed to have paid $25,000 to host the event, according to the Courthouse News ... 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 >>

Spoiler Alert!

A handy infographic guide to the shelf life of fruit.

Rice University Offers a Beer Education Your Own College Probably Didn't

When you talk about getting educated on beer at college, I am going to assume that you mean learning about the finer points of keg tapping and Natty Light hauling. Because until recently, a real beer education was something that most universities didn't teach. Wine appreciation classes? Sure. Beer? ... More >>

White Linen Fight

As event grew, so did promises, expectations and disappointments.

Cover Story: White Linen Fight In The Heights

Let's get this straight right out of the gate: White Linen Night is fun, White Linen Night is great, White Linen Night is one of those rare times when the surprisingly stuffy Heights lets its hair down. And nobody wants the event to wither and die. This year's dialed-back affair was less raucous th ... More >>

Texas Grape Harvest Expected to Be Excellent but Not a Bumper Crop

As the rest of the world is still preparing for the 2012 harvest, Texas farmers began picking their fruit as early as two weeks ago (and some even earlier). Even in the warmest wine growing regions in the world (like Apulia, Italy, the heel of the boot), harvest won't begin for another ten days or s ... More >>

UH Hires Developers for New $105 Million Football Stadium

Look at the University of Houston, acting all grown up and everything. They are so cute at that age. UH, long suffering in grand old Robertson Stadium, particularly in recent years when the football team has been, you know, actually good, finally is moving forward on a much ballyhooed stadium plan ... More >>

Bottoms Up: 5 Beers From 5 Bands To Give You 5 Hangovers

Whether you're at a show with friends or just putting your feet up while listening to some tunes after a long day at work, for many alcohol is just another part of the rock and roll experience. And when hard liquor gets too expensive and wine seems too highfalutin, there is one drink that's always t ... More >>

Brave, A Rare Family Film

A movie about courage that actually has some.

Feast of Saint Arnold

30th Annual Houston Auto Show

Long-Time Car Salesman Rocky McCullough: Dealership Fired Me Because I Have Cancer

You might recognize Rocky McCullough from his Goodson Honda TV spots, where he guaranteed low prices while standing next to a buxom model or two. But now McCullough is playing a different role: the plaintiff in an employment discrimination lawsuit against Southern Ford in Pearland. McCullough claim ... More >>

Record Store Day: 8 Ways To Annoy A Record-Store Worker

Tomorrow is Record Store Day, which is a little bit like the Super Bowl of music shopping: People who have no interest in the sport the rest of the year will be front and center. Rocks Off would never, ever tell anyone not to go to a record store, but people not already planning to make a beeline fo ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Vintage Texas: Top Texas wine authority Russ Kane chronicles the bankruptcy filing and botched sale of one of the state's leading wineries, CapRock, in Lubbock. According to his report, New Mexico winery Gruet has been ordered to pay $4 million for a breach of contract after bidding in a bankruptcy ... More >>

Friday Night: Bomb The Music Industry! At Walter's

Bomb the Music Industry!, Laura Stevenson and The Cans, LIMB, Lisa's Sons Walter's March 30, 2012 New York natives Bomb the Music Industry! is a project spawned from Jeff Rosenstock of Arrogant Sons of Bitches after they broke up. Bomb the Music Industry! provides anthems for taking life with a gra ... More >>

Bill & Ted's Alex Winter Examines Napster's Fall In SXSW Doc Downloaded

Alex Winter (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Idiot Box) has spent the last decade trying to make a movie about Napster, the revolutionary peer-to-peer filesharing site that changed the music industry forever. Winter met Napster founder Shawn Fanning in 2002 and was instantly energized by the p ... More >>

Must Like Texas Wine: The Wine Slinger Chronicles, a New Guide to Texas Wines

Photo by Jeremy ParzenLeading Texas wine authority Russ Kane (left) and his wife Delia love meatballs. That's Russ with Coppa executive chef Brandi Key. Russ has called Brandi's meatballs "the best in town."​It seems inevitable that the authors of the two guides to the wines of Texas have name ... More >>

Meat Market

You'll probably be paying more for your rib eyes and Whoppers thanks to the great Texas drought of 2011.

Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Shuttered Megaupload...Wait, What?

We've all failed as music journalists. Swizz Beatz is the CEO of Megaupload.com and no one seemed to notice? No one, except Wikipedia (yes, that bastion of factual information on the web), which lists Swizzy's government handle, Kaseem Dean, as the head honcho of Megaupload. Megaupload's "About Us" ... More >>

Me and the TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission)

Image via the Texas Restaurant Association.TABC To Go is an excellent online TABC certification program for Texas restaurant and bar workers. Although not required by the state, many Texas employers require certification to ensure proper service of alcohol.​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commiss ... More >>

Odd Pair: Wine and Legs (or Tears That Rhyme with Ears)

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.The legs of 2005 Langhe Nebbiolo Sperss by Gaja (Piedmont, Italy), tasted this week in Houston.​How many times have you been at a dinner party and heard some blowhard say something like the following (uttered with a fake British accent): Observe carefully: After swirli ... More >>

Wine of the Week: An Under-$25 Fresh, Clean Sparkler

​Whenever it comes to sparkling wine, the comparison to Champagne is inevitable. Together with Bordeaux and Burgundy, wine regions that the British embraced as benchmarks for fine wine in the 19th century, the Champagne "brand" is so powerful that it pervades nearly every discussion of spar ... More >>

Beer & Brass

Wine of the Week: A Rosé from the Texas Hill Country

​The more I read about Texas Hill Country winemaker and San Antonio endocrinologist Richard Becker, the more I am intrigued. Any doctor-cum-vintner who quotes readily from one of my favorite 20th-century American poets, Wallace Stevens, sounds like someone who puts more thought into the art an ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. ​TweetChat #TXWine: If you've been following along here at Wine Time, you know that Texas wines have been on our minds. We found out about the TweetChat #TXWines thanks to t ... More >>

Invasion of Piracy

Illegal downloading costs the film industry billions of dollars per year. But does the legal strategy designed to recoup this lost bounty amount to extortion?

Wine of the Week, Part 2: Orange Wine by Nicolas Joly, on a Mission from Nature

​Yesterday, after we posted our Orange Wines 101 primer, Elgreco54 noted that "Joly does knockout stuff." As it just so happens, I tasted the new vintage, 2008, of Joly's entry-level wine, Les Clos Sacrés (the holy cloisters), over the weekend. (In France the wine is called "Les Vieux Clos," ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Righting the Wrong of Rosé

​Remember the "pink" and "blush" wines from the 1970s, like the one pictured right? They were mass-produced and mass-marketed blends of white and red grapes with high alcohol content (and often with added sugar) intended for the swinging cocktail set of the era. And while we all had a grand t ... More >>

Bayport Cruise Terminal: Still Empty and Unused, Except for Wayne Dolcefino

We noted last month the interesting sidelight to the big Disney announcement that they'd be sailing a cruise ship out of Galveston -- that sidelight being that Disney was flipping the bird to the Port of Houston's boondoggle of a cruise terminal. KTRK's ever-intrepid Wayne Dolcefino has now taken a ... More >>

Upcoming Events

Italian winemaker Ezio Trinchero​Starting this Saturday, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to get your gourmet on in Houston this week, and it all kicks off at Block 7 Wine Company. Fresh off last night's wine dinner featuring acclaimed Italian winemaker Ezio Trinchero, Block 7 Wine Compan ... More >>

Eminem's Victory Over Label Could Have Far-Reaching Effects

Now a Recovery in more ways than one.​Eminem quietly scored a major victory in a case involving download royalties this week. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out an appeal filed by Universal Music Group, the world's largest music empire, against Eminem's former production company F.B.T. Productio ... More >>

An Afternoon of Free Wine at Archway

Photo by CrosslersAn example of home winemaking supplies.​Take a late lunch tomorrow, if you can. And maybe bring along a designated driver. Archway Gallery (2305 Dunlavy, 713-522-2409) is hosting an afternoon of free wine in its Montrose space, and this isn't your typical gallery showing. Fr ... More >>

Music Sales Down 2.5 Percent In 2010

​Nielsen SoundScan released its annual report on music sales Monday, and the results were less than surprising. Physical sales continued to decline, digital sales continued to rise, and crap pop continues to reign supreme both at the cash register and on the airwaves. During the period of Jan ... More >>

H-Town Is Now Hamburger Town

Robb Walsh​Houston is Bayou City, Clutch City, Space City, and now....Hamburger City. Travel and Leisure magazine recently released its 2010 Best Of list, naming Houston the no. 1 metropolis in America for hamburgers. The poll was administered to visitors and residents alike, and in both categ ... More >>

Gene Green: He's Got Everyone Wondering What He'll Do About Latest Clean-Air Bill

Gene Green: Which way will he go?​Health and safety advocates will be watching U.S. Congressman Gene Green closely tomorrow, when his colleagues on the House Energy & Commerce committee are expected to introduce a bill intended to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in consumer products, such as ... More >>

Houston Lawsuit Calls Foul On Those "Low-Tar" Cigarettes

Vincent Salazar, a Houston man, is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against Philip Morris and its parent company, Altria Group, in Texas, making the state one of four where similar lawsuits were filed in the last two days. The suits are seeking damages allegedly caused by years of advertising w ... More >>

5 Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

Thea Gilmore

Avalanche (Compass Records)

Steak House Shuffle

Vallone's takes a break just in time to give Fleming's a shot

Play Ball!

Sports bars and gay bars cater to a similar crowd: Guys who watch buff men

Letters

Letters