Subject: Jeff Balke

• Best New Act 2007

  July 4, 2007

• The Basics Aim to Cross the Border

  September 8, 1994

• Showdown at the IPA Corral

  Jeff Balke The Good, the Bad and the Curry at Saint Arnold's One Pot ShowdownHouston's favorite brewery, Saint Arnold, held their sold-out Second Annual One Pot Showdown yesterday afternoon on the kind of overcast, slightly chilly day that was perfect chili (and gumbo and stew and curry) eating weather.  The rules for the One Pot Showdown were simple yet challenging: teams could create any dish they wanted (desserts excluded) as long as it was cooked on site

  January 26, 2009

• Photos: One Pot Showdown at Saint Arnold Brewing Company

  We've just loaded up some photos from Jeff Balke of Sunday's Saint Arnold shindig. Click here for plenty of lip-smacking action.

  January 26, 2009

• Static

  May 2, 1996

• A Taste of the Tasting Room

  Photos by Jeff Balke Chef Steve Super, executive chef at The Tasting Room. Chef Steve Super has Gulf Coast cuisine honed to a fine art, surprising for someone who hails from Vermont and only recently made Texas his home. This time last year, Super was the executive chef at Steve and Erika's, the restaurant at Ten Acres Lodge in Stowe, VT, where he'd taken the restaurant from a sleepy little inn to a bustling showcase for his creative talents.  Steve and Erika's quickly became one

  March 4, 2009

• Rockets-Magic: Landry makes triumphant return

  Photo courtesy of Jeff BalkeIt was just over three weeks ago that Carl Landry was running for his life, attempting to dodge bullets from assailants who sideswiped his car, punctured his left calf and chased him until he hid between a house and a fence, waiting for emergency help while blood gushed out of his leg. On Tuesday night, Landry was finally back to running in his favorite setting - up and down the Toyota Center hardwood. The second-year Rockets forward returned to the floor and b

  April 8, 2009

• Rockets-Magic: Landry Makes Triumphant Return

  Photo courtesy of Jeff BalkeIt was just over three weeks ago that Carl Landry was running for his life, attempting to dodge bullets from assailants who sideswiped his car, punctured his left calf and chased him until he hid between a house and a fence, waiting for emergency help while blood gushed out of his leg. On Tuesday night, Landry was finally back to running in his favorite setting - up and down the Toyota Center hardwood. The second-year Rockets forward returned to the floor and b

  April 8, 2009

• Lupe Olivarez

  Sin Miedo (Go Records)

  May 10, 2001

• DISConnect

  Sales of CDs are falling faster than you can say iPod

  January 4, 2007

• A Crying Shame

  RIP, Cactus Music and Video

  February 9, 2006

• Walk Away, Walk Away

  And we will follow as local music figures recall tales of U2

  October 27, 2005

• Orange Is In, with Arthur Yoria and Pale

  Friday, May 6, at Rudyard's, 2010 Waugh Drive, 713-521-0521

  May 5, 2005

• Game 3 Preview: Rockets Need More From Wafer, On And Off Court

  Photo by Jeff BalkeThe Rowdies get rowdy for the playoffsVon Wafer was a hero in the first round, scoring 21 points in 27 minutes in Game 2 and sparking the Rockets with an emotional return in the series-clinching Game 6 just two days after suffering a bulging disc in his lower back. He was supposed to be a hero in the second round, too. It was the ultimate underdog story -- Wafer against the team that drafted him and gave up on him. That's how it played out in the regular season, when Wafer t

  May 8, 2009

• No Yao, No T-Mac, No Problem: Hayes Sets Tone As Rockets Tie Series

  Photo byJeff BalkeThe opening to the Rockets' player introductions sounded as unlikely and frightening as the task of defeating the vaunted Lakers without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Somehow, "a 6-foot-6 center out of Kentucky" didn't deliver the same punch and energy as the booming "7-foot-6 center from China" usually does at the intro's finish.But Chuck Hayes has never worried about outside expectations. He's always been told he's too short and too physically limited to be a regular NBA

  May 10, 2009

• No Matter Game 7 Outcome, These Rockets Have Heart Of Champions

  Photo: Jeff BalkeScrapper Chuck HayesThirty-seven million of the Rockets' approximately $70 million payroll sits on the bench in luxury suits instead of basketball uniforms. With Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady sidelined, the Rockets counter the Lakers' top scoring option -- only one of the best players ever, Kobe Bryant -- with the erratic Ron Artest and Aaron Brooks. When the Lakers walk supremely-talented seven-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum to mid-court, the Rockets match up with Chuck Hayes

  May 15, 2009

• Talk About a Fundraiser

  Photos by Jeff BalkeChef Albert Roux at the restaurant's grand opening in MarchChez Roux, the very fancy, very upscale top restaurant at La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa on Lake Conroe, is putting on a six-course wine dinner Saturday, June 6. It will cost $500 per couple, or $600 , if you want to sit at one of the chef's-table seats (hurry, those are limited). That's a lot of dimes, but then, it's not often you get a meal from not one but two Michelin-starred chefs. Besides raising money f

  May 20, 2009

• A Café Bites Nibble

  Photo by Jeff BalkeTruffle macaroni & cheese from Hollister Grill, at the recent Menu of Menus"Stupidity," that's was the first word out of the mouth of Chuck Pritchett, the owner of Hollister Grill (1741 Hollister, 713-973-1741), when asked why he opened a restaurant. Pritchett has been in the retail business all his life - selling men's clothing, to be precise - and this restaurant is his first venture into the realm of hospitality. But he went on to say, "We're putting out a product that I'm

  May 27, 2009

• Saint Arnold's Celebrates Their 15th Anniversary With the First Annual Beer Olympics

  Photos by Jeff BalkeSunday's bracing heat and thick humidity didn't stop the hundreds of beer lovers who turned out to help local microbrewery Saint Arnold celebrate its 15th anniversary while feasting on barbecue and watching the spectacle that was the first annual Beer Olympics. Emcee Lennie AmbroseTemperatures inside the brewery itself were near-stifling, all the better to increase anticipation and excitement about the upcoming move to a restored building in the Warehouse District just outsi

  June 9, 2009

• Texas Traveler: Dr Pepper Museum

  Photo by Jeff BalkeWaco isn't the first place that comes to mind when people think "road trip." Instead, visions of an ultraconservative town that was once the site of an epic, fiery battle between a cult and the United States government spring to mind. Fortunately for Waco, the town actually has much more to offer than the distant memories of a standoff gone bad and a now-vacant field. Photo by Groovehouse The entrance to the museum is around the side...One of the things on t

  June 22, 2009

• Your One-Stop HPMA Showcase Link

  GroovehouseLos Skarnales just wouldn't quit at House of Blues Sunday.​ Rocks Off is just about recovered from Sunday's HPMA showcase mayhem, or as recovered as we're going to get. Despite some bitching on Hands Up Houston - what else is new? - everybody we've talked to had as much of a blast as we did. But in case you missed something, just follow these links to Rocks Off's various reports from the field and pictures, pictures, pictures. By the way, the winners will be announced Thursday eveni

  July 28, 2009

• Yes, It's Hot. So Women Are Wearing Tiny Bathing Suits, And We Are There To Photograph Them

  Photo by Daniel Kramer​They were washing bikes and cars out at the Harley-Davidson dealership in Stafford, so naturally we sent a photographer. Imagine our surprise when we discovered it was a bikini car wash. We decided to shoot pictures anyway, and here's the slideshow.Then, to compound our bad luck, there was a beauty contest at the Renaissance Hotel, which is a much more enlightening place than the Middle Ages Hotel.

  August 24, 2009

• Walter's on Washington Closing In October; Club May Relocate

  Bill OliveSilver Jews at Walter's on Washington, September 2008​Rocks Off learned this morning that Walter's on Washington, one of Houston's primary venues for local bands, indie-rock, hardcore and touring acts not yet on the radar of Warehouse Live and House of Blues, will close at the end of October. The building has reportedly been sold and, we hear, Walter's owner Pam Robinson is looking to relocate. Walter's opened in 2000 and became one of Houston's main indie venues when Mary Jane's (no

  August 27, 2009

• Ghosts of Washington Avenue

  September 10, 2009

• The Final Fantasy: An Inside Look at Anime and Cosplay Conventions

  Photos by Jeff BalkeWe don't know who this character is supposed to be, but she was killing some Japanese opera.​The costumes are expected. The fanciful, the extraordinary, the bizarre, the obscurely referenced, the painstakingly planned and the larger than life weren't surprising -- after all, this was a cosplay (short for "costume roleplay) convention. What was unexpected, however, was the gender-bending everywhere that we looked. The most gorgeous men were dressed as exotic women, whil

  November 3, 2009

• In Make-Or-Break Year, Rockets' Landry Looks To Fill Low-Post Void

  Photo by Jeff Balke​There's a popular belief in NBA circles that the third year is when a player makes the transition to stardom, if he's going to make it. Among point guards, that worked for Chris Paul and Deron Williams, and much has been said about Aaron Brooks making a similar - though smaller - leap. Through five games, Brooks seems on the right track, averaging 20 points and eight assists while directing the Rockets to a surprising 3-2 record. But slightly under the radar is Carl La

  November 5, 2009

• 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. H-Town Chow Down: Albert runs not only one of our favorite local food blogs, but also one of our very favorite local Twitter feeds at @HTownChowDown. This week, he steps into the fray of the eternal Inner Loop vs. Outer Loop battle and weighs in on the best OTL (that's Outside

  November 11, 2009