Jonathan Jones

Chefs Pitch In for Brennan’s Fire Victims

Center Stage

Conroe's Young Texas Artists competition puts youthful virtuosos on the fast track.

Busy Beaver's

Conroe's Young Texas Artists competition puts youthful virtuosos on the fast track.

Waking Ashland

The Well

Haute Dogs and Hotties

Don't worry about matching foods and wines at Max's — just make sure you don't have chili on your chin

Flight of Angels

How immigration law screwed up what looked like a good marriage

The Battle Rages On: Fried Chicken Throwdown at Beaver's

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttRonnie Killen's skillet fried chickenSome had come for the spectacle of it all: 17 different fried chicken dishes, 9 enormous casseroles filled with various macaroni and cheeses, salads and side dishes and desserts enough to feed Alexander's own army. Some had come to obs ... More >>

Follow Friday for Houston Food Hounds

Photo courtesy of @bakerella In the world of Twitter -- the love-it-or-hate-it microblogging service -- Fridays are known as "Follow Friday," a day devoted to suggesting new or interesting users for your friends to follow. Depending on who you follow, your Twitter stream will be inundated on Friday ... More >>

One Night Only! Pork Belly Madness at Catalan!

Photo by stu spivak​Monday, Monday, Monday! The battle to beat all battles will be held tonight at Catalan featuring contenders from across the city as they compete to claim the prize of Houston's best pork belly. The third in a series of popular "throwdown" events organized by Jenny Wang ... More >>

The Wine Conference: A Chat with Geri Druckman

​Next Saturday, Houston will be hosting a home-grown festival unlike any other the city has seen. The Wine Conference will bring together an assortment of food and wine personalities -- both national and local -- along with a high-tech twist that's due in large part to its founder, Geri Druckm ... More >>

Chef Chat: Jonathan Jones of Beaver's

Former chef for Max's Wine Dive and head honcho at Beaver's (2310 Decatur Street), Jonathan Jones is a gastropub's irreverent dream and tweet-a-holic who wants you to "get your tails to the Beaver." How do you feel about being associated with comfort food? I'm fine with being known for grass root ... More >>

A Vegan Dinner at a Meatatarium

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttAppetizers: sweet potato chips and truffled carrots, radishes and turnips​Vegans may take our cheese (and milk and meat and butter and even honey), but they may never take...our truffles. This seemed to be the rallying cry on Monday night at Beaver's Ice House as seven ... More >>

Bloody Good Times at Beaver's Ice House

Photos by Groovehouse Caleb Gutierrez's michelada, rimmed with cumin and salt​While we may not have a palate for wine, it's no secret that Eating Our Words loves beer. And hot sauce. And the two of those things magically mixed together in a pint glass. So in the interest of further promoti ... More >>

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree with Dr. Sketchy

Photos by Groovehouse​All we wanted for Christmas was on display this past Sunday afternoon at Dr. Sketchy, the popular life drawing art class / burlesque show that takes place at Avant Garden on the first Sunday of each month.To celebrate a successful year of Dr. Sketchy's Houston outpost, o ... 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. Owing to all the food blog activity over the last few weeks, this is an all-loc ... More >>

Houston's Growing Garden Party

Chef Ryan Pera tends the garden at the Grove.​If food is fashionable, local food is the flashiest piece on the Paris runways. These past few years have seen the locavore movement skyrocket like mad in Houston. The city now boasts dozens of farmers' markets, and people are beginning to explore ... More >>

Top Five Twitter Food Fights

​As Craig Hlavaty briefly discusses in this week's feature on the Twitterverse, the food community has become one of the largest on Twitter. At first, it may seem unusual for members of a a non-tech-oriented community to have become such early adopters of the technology and to have built such ... More >>

The Energy at OIMBY

Photo by Ruthie JohnsonFor more photos from the event, check out our slideshow.​Not even yesterday's exotic temperatures could stop more than 100 fine folks from celebrating at OIMBY, a backyard banquet celebrating some of Houston's finest local chefs and vendors. Like most of the vendors them ... 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. Fork and Cork: Greg Morago reports on the rumors swirling around Textile lately ... More >>

A Comprehensive Guide to Houston's Food Blogs

Cartoon does not reflect reality (most of the time).​In a city as large as Houston and with as many culinary options as we're blessed with, it's no surprise that the food blogging community here is large and diverse. Say what you want about food bloggers: that we're arrogant, obtrusive know-i ... More >>

Upcoming Events

​Taking place on Monday will be the long-awaited Chefs Under Fire competition, in which five area chefs compete for a spot in the state-wide Chefs Under Fire Finals to be held in Austin on October 25. So far, the chefs from Dallas-Ft. Worth and the Austin-San Antonio region have already been c ... More >>

A Heated Competition at Chefs Under Fire

Chef David Grossman judges one of the competitor's dishes.​Last night's Chefs Under Fire event proved that some of the city's most talented chefs aren't cooking in the hottest restaurants in town...or even in a restaurant at all. Five area chefs competed in the Houston regionals of the annual ... More >>

Five Questions for Geri Druckman and This Year's Wine Conference

Photos by Jeff BalkeSamples were drained during last year's Wine Conference sessions.​Last September marked the inaugural year for The Wine Conference, an annual event pairing more than just food and wine. The Wine Conference seeks to pair people with knowledge, whether those people are wine e ... More >>

Houston Culinary Tours Ramping Up Again

The inaugural barbecue tour with Robb Walsh; see if you can spot the man himself.​There's now one more way to get your Robb Walsh fix besides rereading that copy of Sex, Death and Oysters for the fifth time: The Houston Press's former food critic is teaming up with Catalan executive chef Chris ... More >>

Chefs Taste Test Edible "Marital Aids" for Valentine's Day

We were terrified of the ball gag, too.​A chef, a pastry chef and a food critic walk into Erotic Cabaret. It's not the beginning of a joke; it's how I spent my Saturday afternoon. I took chef Jonathan Jones of Beaver's and pastry chef Jody Stevens of Jodycakes to the "marital aid" store this ... More >>

Sneak Peak at Xuco Xicana

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttThe Peruvian-style ceviche is garnished with radishes, corn and avocado.​Even though we were already full of queso and ceviche when the entrees came out last night at El Patio, my dining companion and I couldn't help but dig in. "Oh, this tastes just like something ... More >>

Breakfast with Botero

You'll want to linger at intimate Macondo Latin Bistro.

Openings & Closings: Fisch, Fish and More Fish

Which sushi place has opened its second Houston location?​Unfortunately, we're ending the week on a sad note: Sweet 'n' Namkin, which I just spotlighted on Wednesday as having my favorite dahi puri in town, has closed. Anyone want to try and direct me to a new place for dahi puri, preferably a ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 2: David Cordua of Americas, On His Role as Executive Chef and Favorite Eats Around Town

Photo by Mai PhamExecutive Chef David Cordua, in the kitchen at Americas River Oaks​Yesterday, we talked to Executive Chef David Cordua, of The Cordua Group, about growing up in the kitchen and culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. You can read about it here. Today we'll talk to him about what he ... More >>

Party Fowl Wins Wingtoberfest 2011

Photo by Rachel BohananSee more photos from Wingtoberfest in our slideshow.​"Those are good," laughed Jonathan Jones, chef at Xuco Xicana, as he pointed at Party Fowl's wings last night. "But you couldn't eat a dozen of them." Indeed, the breakfast-for-dinner wings that Party Fowl brought to ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Wings

Spicy interior Mexican-style wings at our No. 1 pick.Photo by Rachel Bohanan​For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which ... More >>

Money Cat Brunch Raises Money for OKRA

Photos by Mai PhamSkirt steak with fish sauce aoili, fried garlic, chili-shrimp sauce, and peppers, lots of peppers​It's Sunday morning, just 15 minutes shy of 10 a.m., and already, a small line had formed as I entered Paulie's on Westheimer for an encore of Chef Justin Yu's popular Money Cat ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Roberto Castre of Latin Bites Cafe

Photo by Mai PhamExecutive Chef Roberto Castre of Latin Bites Cafe​Today, Latin Bites Cafe, the tiny seven-table Peruvian restaurant that received critical acclaim during its one year, five month reign in the Houston's warehouse district, is having its grand re-opening to the public in its bra ... More >>

Chef Jonathan Jones Departs Xuco Xicana, Soon to Be El Patio Once Again

A mock Texas Monthly cover made by Jones's fans several years ago.​Chef Jonathan Jones was let go from Xuco Xicana late last week, and cooked his last meal at the restaurant last night as a pre-planned pajama party on Xuco's upstairs patio became his farewell party. Jones, who was the executi ... More >>