Greater Houston Convention

Eatsie Boys Go Brick-and-Mortar

Eatsie Boys still runs catering out of its food truck, but with a restaurant homebase now it can do so much more.

Wonders Never Cease

Houston promotes its present-day music scene to the national media.

Reaching Critical Mass

Suddenly fashionable Houston shows off its contemporary arts scene along Main Street in and around the Isabella Court building.

Houston Makes Great Strides In Selling Its Own Music Scene

A few months ago, Rocks Off wrote an article expressing our surprise and disappointment at the paucity of musical content on the City of Houston's tourism site, visithoustontexas.com, the Texas-friendly smiling face it offically presents to the Web and thus the world. There wasn't much at all, just ... More >>

Do the Curry Crawl

The top 10 restaurants in Little India.

Where the Chefs Eat: Chris Shepherd, Ryan Pera, Antoine Ware

Since 2010, the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GHCVB) has been conducting "Where the Chefs Eat" Houston Culinary Tours, in which chefs take a group of people to visit secret gems centered around a theme. Past tours have included world barbecue, Korean/Japanese food, Mediterranean food ... More >>

Where the Chefs Eat: Hildebrand, Pellegrino and Edwards

I am always asking people where they like to eat. I'll go anywhere. A $1 fried chicken place in a gas station, a hole-in-the-wall strip mall affair on the west side, a hot dog stand on the sidewalk underneath a freeway -- if it's good, I'm totally game. And generally speaking, if a chef recommends a ... More >>

Jordy Tollett, Former "Mister Downtown," Charged With DWI, Again

Former Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau honcho Gerard Jay "Jordy" Tollett, currently the Pasadena Convention Center general manager, has had yet another alcohol-related setback. This time, it's a DWI bust, courtesy of the police in the sharp-dressed political wheeler-dealer's hometow ... More >>

Restaurant and Bar Owners Crowd City Council Chambers In Advance of Proposed Parking Ordinance

Photo by Troy FieldsThe 82 stops right in front of El Real. Do you ever take it?​"I don't see anyone riding the bus to El Real," remarked James Jard, one of the 26 members of the City of Houston's Planning Commission that was gathered in City Council chambers yesterday afternoon for a public h ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Foraging and Fires

Photo by GroovehouseYes, you can eat those beautyberries you've seen at the Arboretum. Merriwether will show you how.​If Nicholas Hall's post on foraging, "Indigenous Bounties," piqued your interest about scouring your own back yard (or front yard) for tasty treats, pay attention. Meriwether's ... More >>

Sampler Plate: This Week in Food Blogs

Each week, we put together a sampler plate of the most interesting links from both local and national food blogs. Know a blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. New York Times: No less than the New York Times visited El Real recently, and f ... More >>

Lyle Lovett, Billy Gibbons Named Official Texas State Musicians

ZZ Top's Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were rumored to be appointed Texas' Offiical 2012 Alternate State Musicians.​With apologies to Townes Van Zandt, there's good news from Austin today. Good news for Houston. The Texas Commission on the Arts has chosen arguably the Houston area's two most rec ... More >>

Houston Culinary Tours Gain National Recognition

Chris Shepherd and Bryan Caswell on the inaugural Houston Culinary Tour.​You have to admit, the Houston Culinary Tours are a clever idea to promote Houston: pairing high-profile chefs with a handful of passionate food lovers, and allowing those chefs to take those food lovers to some of the ci ... More >>

Houston Bids on 2014 NBA All-Star Game (and 4th Annual Dwight Howard Booty Fest)

The soundtrack for the party of the year​It took four years, but it appears that NBA All-Star weekends are finally starting to feel safe again. No longer fearful that the volatile combination of Pac Man Jones, strip clubs and firearms is a threat, the city of Houston and the Rockets submitt ... More >>

Top 10 Honorary Texas Musicians

West Vita​Right here, right now, and in print all damn week, you can read the Houston Press' interview with perhaps the hottest new band on the South 40, San Antonio's Hacienda (above). Whether or not they go on to become a South Texas Kings of Leon - Hacienda is also three brothers and a cous ... More >>

Texas Monthly: Houston is Chow Town

​Here at Eating Our Words, we tend to agree. Houston is the best culinary city in Texas, and I'm not just saying that out of a sense of loyalty or native bias. Although from reading the Twitter account that Texas Monthly has set up specifically for the food section of the magazine (@TMFood), y ... More >>

Should Houston Increase Its SXSW Footprint?

www.visithoustontexas.com​ What can the City of Houston do to promote H-town as a musical, cultural and artsy-fartsy tourist destination to the thousands of people who attend SXSW in Austin each year? That's the question posed by Jim Moran, a multi-decade veteran of the music/film/interactive fest ... More >>

Breathe Easy, Houston: We're Not Getting The GOP Convention

​Yesterday we noted that respected national publication Hotline had reported that Houston was one of four finalists for the 2012 GOP convention. Naturally, this caused much panic among  those people who aren't the kind to listen to Glenn Beck and nod their head saying "Damn, that man makes se ... More >>

News You Can Use From Ye Olde House of Blues

Back around Labor Day, you may remember that the Tontons played a free show in House of Blues' Bronze Peacock Room that the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau filmed for a promotional video. Bless their hearts, the GHCVB is trying to "change the world's perception of Houston"... good ... More >>

MP3 of the Day: Last Chance to See the Tontons Until God Knows When - And It's Free

Mark C. Austin​Just a quick reminder that tonight is your last chance to see everybody's favorite Houston indie-rock/psych/jazz/blues/surf/spaghetti-Western quartet, the Tontons, who are going on hiatus until January. Unless you want to talk singer Asli Omar out of going to school in New York, tha ... More >>

Bayou Beat: A 15-Foot Sculpture of George Jones' Head, $10 House of Blues Tickets, Free Tontons Show, etc.

​Heavy metal comedy troupe Steel Panther has cancelled tonight's Warehouse Live show. What's on VH-1 Classic? Tennessee-born artist Wayne White is crafting a 15-foot puppet head in the likeness of Saratoga-born honky-tonk legend George Jones. Entitled "Big Lectric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep ... More >>

Hotel Occupancy Dips, And Groups Who Depend On Those Tax Monies Keep A Wary Eye

Photo courtesy GHCVB​If yesterday's Chron story on projected drops in hotel tax revenues  gave you the frightening impression that Minute Maid Park might shutter its doors, or at least make the entire Astros roster sweep the bleachers and maintain the field, you may exhale -- at le ... More >>

Rocks Off's Brother Once Stepped in Human Shit at a U2 Show... Got a Better Astrodome Story?

Smash Mouth had just finished playing, and not coincidentally, Rocks Off's brother John had just returned from a trip to the bathroom. It was November 1997, and we were watching the stagehands putting the finishing touches on U2's ginormous set in the Astrodome. The Irish rockers were touring behin ... More >>

Esquire Magazine Food Critic Revisits Houston, Questions Raised Again (Updated)

If you're a baseball fan you love or hate the Yankees; if you're a football fan you love or hate the Cowboys; if you're a restaurant fan you love or hate John Mariani of Esquire magazine.Mariani is a widely popular writer who regularly provides lists of "20 Best New Restaurants" or stuff like that f ... More >>

Esquire Magazine Food Critic Revisits Houston, Questions Raised Again (Updated)

If you're a baseball fan you love or hate the Yankees; if you're a football fan you love or hate the Cowboys; if you're a restaurant fan you love or hate John Mariani of Esquire magazine.Mariani is a widely popular writer who regularly provides lists of "20 Best New Restaurants" or stuff like that ... More >>

Every Girl's Crazy `Bout A Real Old Song

Say It Ain’t So, Dr. Frank

Mike Spear, Jordy Tollett, Texas Monthly and Metro

He's in prison but his name lives on

School Discipline, Lisa Nowak, Terry Abbott, GHCVB Gay Ads

Some people still favor Texas's zero-tolerance rules

Kinda Gay

He Wouldn't Want to Be Part of Any Club That Would Accept Him

Not-So-Breaking: Residents of Hell Told to Protect Pipes, Plants and Pets

Punk'd!

Graffiti artists get their moment to shine on camera

Maybe It's Just a 60-day Lunch?

Toy Story

An HPD sex-toy crackdown goes limp

On Their Backs

Sugar Land spreads its legs

Muchos Luchadores

Mexican wrestlers take the ring in Angel Rodriguez-Diaz's new exhibit

Not Rocket Science

NASA can get political -- for Tom DeLay

Oral Argument

The duel of the tongue vibrators

Visitors' Guide

Get Bowled over by the best of the real Bayou City

Texas Monthly's Bullshit

The magazine offers yet another favor to a Bush

Kickoff --or Punt?

Don't remember the epic downtown Super Bowl event? You aren't alone

Not So Suite?

City officials to the Rockets: Don't mess with our freebies

Image Scrimmage

Lanier bolted the booster group after an ill friend negotiated a buyout

All I Want for Christmas Is...

Some pols count blessings; others keep on running

On the Rocks

For a winter skating rink in Houston, just add ice. And that's the problem.

Greenspoint Ho!

Press Picks

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

To the convention bureau, no nudes is good nudes

HPD's Barren Lot

The Houston Police Department sideswipes the city's landscape ordinance