Garden Oaks

Fratelli's Authentic Italian Cuisine Restaurant Closing After 13 Years

Fratelli's Authentic Italian Cuisine Restaurant is closing after 13 years spent in a quiet strip mall on Highway 290, just outside of Garden Oaks. The restaurant is owned and run by husband-and-wife team Bob Wittman and Teresa Tadeo Wittman. Teresa, who was born in Xoxocapa, Veracruz and trained as ... More >>

Here He Comes to Save the Day: Garden Oaks Burger Stand Mytiburger Is Back and Better Than Ever

For this week's cafe review, I visited seminal Garden Oaks burger stand Mytiburger, which nearly shuttered last year after 46 years in business. It did, in fact, close its doors...for two weeks. During that time, local Baskin-Robbins franchise owner Shawn Salyers stepped in to purchase the business ... More >>

Eat, Play, Love

Houston's 10 most romantic restaurants.

Top 10 Restaurants in Garden Oaks/Oak Forest

It wasn't too long ago that the Houston Chronicle called Oak Forest "the new West University." The neighborhood just north of Loop 610 and to the east of Highway 290 has been attracting young families in spades -- families who are helping to reinvigorate the subdivisions that make up Garden Oaks and ... More >>

Upcoming Events: John Mueller Brings His Barbecue to Houston

Don't have the time or gas money to burn driving out to legendary barbecue spots like Smitty's, Kreuz, Franklin, Snow's or Louie Mueller, but have a hankering for classic Central Texas-style 'cue? You're in luck, then, because highly-regarded pitmaster John Mueller is headed to Houston for a one-day ... More >>

Stark Raving Wines, Joel Stein, Food Trucks and a Crazy Good Time at Cottonwood

When I saw H-Town StrEATS post about the Stark Raving Wines book signing with free wine and street truck food, I didn't hesitate. Seriously. Street food and wine, plus the opportunity to meet regularly featured Time magazine columnist and book author Joel Stein -- how could I resist? It didn't ma ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Downtown Derring-Do

Restaurants and bars are betting on downtown in increasing numbers, as more business owners perform daring feats like -- gasp! -- moving into vacant spaces on Main Street or taking over failed locations with zest and zeal. Now that I've gotten all of the Errol Flynn language out of my system for th ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Lunfast, Roznovsky's and Pop-Up Opium Dens

Weapons Grade: Justin Vann, sommelier at Oxheart, continues to write some of the most interesting and enlightening prose-poetry about what it means to work in the service industry. "Tell me what I'm tasting in this pourover." "Can you believe who they hired for their sous?" "Why don't you do another ... More >>

This Week In Food Blogs: Subterranean Sushi and Pizzitola's Pits

Swamplot: Craft beer lovers are about to have a whole lot more to love in Houston, reports real estate blog Swamplot. Premium Draught will be moving into the old Kaboom Books space next to Antidote Coffee in the Heights, while Cottonwood Bar will be moving in down the block from Shepherd Park Draugh ... More >>

Carbs and Karbach at That Pizza Place on Ella

Excellent speciality pizzas and 90 different craft beers.

This Week In Food Blogs: Parcel Pies and Zoos Without Tigers

Weapons Grade: Whether or not this story of a zoo with no tigers is a metaphor for sommelier Justin Vann's work at Oxheart is beside the point; zoos do need to have fewer tigers, and we need to learn to appreciate the zoos that showcase something other than tigers. Don't know what I'm talking about? ... More >>

Q for a Cause

Dear Star Pizza...Is Wax Paper Really Too Much to Ask?

Dear Star Pizza, I want you to know that I am a longtime fan and admirer of your work. Hell, before I was peer-pressured into trying your food I didn't even like pizza at all, an unheard-of thing in a man of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles generation. The fact that picking up a pizza made you invi ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Asparagus, Honey and Dreams of Sushi

If last week's cafe review of Shepherd Park Draught House piqued your interest, then head over to Garden Oaks tomorrow for its Spring Fest Parking Lot Party. The party runs from noon to 9 p.m. and will feature beers from Karbach Brewing as well as music from outfits like '80s cover band DeLorean Ris ... More >>

Draught House of Rock

This Garden Oaks pub serves above-average grub and local brews — for grownups.

Shepherd Park Draught House: A Little Bit Country, a Little Bit Rock 'n' Roll

What's country about Shepherd Park Draught House? The goat cheese-infused grits and the Shipley's glazed donut-topped waffles served during Sunday brunch. The Texas brews like Karbach and Southern Star on draft, along with a $2 Texas happy hour on Tuesdays. The so-called "Texas reds" chili made with ... More >>

Bartender Chat: Mimi of Shepherd Park Draught House

This week we hopped on over to Garden Oaks to check out Shepherd Park Draught House. We had heard good things so we went in with high expectations and weren't let down. It's a pretty cool little spot with a rock & roll vibe, one long wall lined with red leather booths and retro chandeliers hanging f ... More >>

Health Department Roundup

This week people across the country will remember just how much cooking can suck. Imagine being a chef or restaurateur, trying to cook for many more diners than the average Thanksgiving party. And keeping things clean for the Health Department while you do it. And not making a whole lot of money, wi ... More >>

One Year Later: Plonk Doesn't Need No Stinking Sign

​When I reviewed Plonk a year ago, I mentioned that the wine bar didn't have any signage to speak of -- not even above their endcap space in a Garden Oaks strip center. I got lost heading there for the first time, and all of my dining companions did too. Last night, and one year later, my fri ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Shepherd on Draft

​Anyone who may have mourned the passing of Octane -- the coffee shop-cum-cafe in Garden Oaks -- will be pleased as punch to hear what's taking its place: Shepherd Park Draft House, a "pub/restaurant" which fills as much of a niche as Octane attempted to do. The bar will be located at 3402 N. ... More >>

Songs About Houses, Castles, Mansions, Shacks, And Apartments (And Yurts)

​In Rocks Off's seemingly never-ending quest to live alone, we have been looking at Craigslist listings (so, that's where you got the idea for that blog!), getting help from a realtor friend, and driving aimlessly around the neighborhoods surrounding our office. We have even thought of buying ... More >>

Tunnel Explorer: Miller's Cafe

​My last trip into the fabulous world below the world yielded little but confusion and disappointment. I'm beginning to believe that the tunnels are just one large, subterranean cavern of "meh." I descended again last week in search of something delicious to eat, and found Miller's Café. I w ... More >>

Top It Off

Petrol Station gives Garden Oaks full-service charm.

The Most Disappointing Restaurant Openings of 2010

Gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes accompanied news that we'd no longer be able to enjoy Sabetta's homemade sausage and peppers.​This week, we start our countdown of 2010 restaurant openings and closings, counting down the restaurants that opened in 2010 after great advance buzz only to ... More >>

Pegging Plonk

A neighborhood wine bar that's hard to categorize

The Five Most Underrated Neighborhoods In Houston

This convent is a landmark in Idylwood​Everyone knows THE places to be in Houston. It's just a question of which one fits your taste (and wallet).River Oaks, the Heights, Montrose, Bellaire -- everyone knows those places. But Houston is so vast, so unpredictable, that little bubbles of terrific ne ... More >>

Sole Of Houston: And We Are Back, This Time On Two Wheels

Biking and no beer​David Beebe was back in town for a short time, so we put the band back together for an epic adventure in the streets of H-Town. We will have a full account here later in the week after Beebe uploads his pics to Flickr, but for now we'll tease with a few details... We didn't wa ... More >>

Long, Loud And Raw Houston School Board Meeting Leaves Few Happy

It wasn't quite like this at last night's HISD board meeting, but it was close​In a lengthy and tumultuous school board meeting Thursday night, trustees voted 8-1 to fire Principal Mable Caleb and five other administrators and teachers from the Key/Kashmere mess, approved another 170 employe ... More >>

HISD's Very Own Blackboard Jungle

​Fondren Middle School is "a blackboard jungle. The efforts that are required there are Herculean...The kids at Fondren have to learn how to come to school and where the school is located."Trustee Larry Marshall, not known for mincing words when he considers something unacceptable (famous Larr ... More >>

Garden Oaks Comments Live On in Cyberspace (Updated)

The question as to whether Garden Oaks Elementary, now a neighborhood school split between traditional and Montessori classes, should be turned into an all-Montessori school lit up the comment line on the HISDConnect magnet department website a few days ago. And what's happened to all the comments ... More >>

HISD Employs Shazam-You're-a-Magnet Strategy In Effort To Save Schools

Photo by Margaret Downing​Under a proposal unveiled today by Superintendent Terry Grier and his staff, Jones High School, for years now one of the most academically troubled schools in the Houston school district, will be turned into a science, technology, engineering and math magnet with a specia ... More >>

Debutantes Run Wild Gala

Track suits and tuxes, garter belts and gowns, it's all okay at this DiverseWorks fundraiser

Year of the Meatball: Doyle's "Spaghetti Works"

​If there is an iconic meatball in Houston, it must be one served on top of he spaghetti at Doyle's on 34th Street in Garden Oaks between Ella and T.C. Jester. Opened in 1954, Doyle's was one of the first restaurants in the city to offer pizza. But what really brought generations of Houstonian ... More >>

Caffeine Deficiency? Call the Coffee Ambulance

​Katz Coffee Company just bought a new "Transit" van and outfitted it with flashing safety lights and a wacky paint job. They call this high-profile delivery vehicle "the coffee ambulance." Katz custom-roasts proprietary blends for some of Houston's top restaurants, including t'afia, benjy's ... More >>

Aftermath (Literally): Area Musicians Remember the Days Following Hurricane Ike - "You Could Smell Rotten Stuff About 13 Miles Away from the Causeway"

Bill OliveSilver Jews (and some very grateful fans) at Walter's on Washington, September 18, 2008​Rocks Off originally meant to post this on Friday, but one thing led to another and if memory serves, on September 14, 2008, we were still without power, living out of an ice chest and wondering what ... More >>

National Pie Day: Do Your Part and Have a Slice

You may not know it, but today is National Pie Day (at least according to the folks at the American Pie Council, which, by the way...sweet gig!).  It's the 23rd anniversary of the venerated holiday, which was created -- appropriately, if rather disgustingly, enough -- to commem ... More >>

Aftermath: Jana Hunter and Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez at the Petrol Station

Music to Cover Your Eyes To

Houstonian Nick DiFonzo has one of the world's finest collections of bad album covers

Landmark Fajitas

What you order at Herrera's Mexicatessen depends on how you feel about bacon

Best Skate and Bike Park

Dirtwood Ramp Park

Best Pie

Flying Saucer Pie Company

SMOM-my Dearest

Sound Exchange's David Wilcox hopes to plant a Montrosian colony in the Second Ward

Kick Out the Jammies

Not even a baby boom can sidetrack Sugar Shack's garage-punk express

Best Bus Stop

Outside Sears

Draught Dodger

Megascreen Cinemas March In

Big complexes threaten end to neighborhood era

The Last Photo Show

Dish