Marco Wiles

First Look at Pistolero's, Mexican Pop Cuisine Restaurant and Newest Addition to an Empire

Shawn Bermudez has slowly and steadily amassed a small real estate empire along Lower Westheimer to rival that of longtime restaurateur Marco Wiles and recent upstart Bobby Heugel. Wiles owns three spots, Heugel four. But Bermudez -- he now owns five. In addition to Pistolero's, a tacos and tequila ... More >>

Hot to Trot

Houston's 10 best spots for a first date.

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 First Date Spots

There was a period of time in my life when I couldn't get enough of that first date feeling. It's akin to the adrenaline rush of skydiving or rock climbing -- except often with the promise of food or drinks in lieu of potentially plummeting to your death. (Sure, there's the danger of emotional pain ... More >>

Have a Friend Who Hates Broccoli and Anchovies? Take Them to Vinoteca Poscol

Maybe it's the contrarian in me -- the endless debater who loves a good, healthy, productive argument -- but there are few things that bring me more pleasure in this world than finding a food someone claims to hate and then finding or making an amazing dish with that food, turning that hate into lov ... More >>

Eat, Play, Love

Houston's 10 most romantic restaurants.

Houston's 10 Most Romantic Restaurants: Start Planning Your Valentine's Day Dinner Now

In case you hadn't heard, Valentine's Day falls on a Thursday this year. And in next week's print edition, our own Christina Uticone will have a round-up of all the Valentine's Day dinner deals and special menus you can shake a dozen roses at. This is not that round-up. There are 10 types of people ... More >>

The Rest of the Best

Houston's top 10 pizzas.

Top 10 Restaurants in Montrose

It's been a while since we tackled neighborhood lists on Eating Our Words, yet posts such as "Top 10 Restaurants in the Heights" continue to be perennial favorites with our readers each month. The last time we compiled a Top 10 Restaurants in Montrose list was well over two years ago, at which time ... More >>

100 Favorite Dishes 2012: No. 19, Truffled Egg Toast at Dolce Vita

This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston® issue, we're counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston's cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least o ... More >>

The Best Beer Labels

The most iconic and creative on Texas shelves.

Openings & Closings: Cuchara Slices Up a Soft Opening and the Gift Horse Lounge Opens Its Mouth

It's been a busy week, so straight to the dish: Cuchara, the Montrose restaurant at the corner of Taft and Fairview that's been under construction since February, is set to have its soft opening this coming Sunday. I peeked in one afternoon this week and saw an open, semi-industrial dining room with ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Making the Most of Main Street

It was a week full of news items, both big and small, starting with the big news that Ronnie Killen of Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland has leased the old Stella Sola space in the Heights. He plans to open a second location of his steakhouse in the spot after it's remodeled, after which he'll serve a ... More >>

The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 10 Happy Hour Menus

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 the winner had hefty competition from other Houston bars and restaurants. I look f ... More >>

Sammy's Wild Game Grill: Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Photos by Troy FieldsAt Sammy's, you can eat your dogs inside or on the patio -- or even grab them from a drive-thru to-go.​In this week's cafe review of Sammy's Wild Game Grill, the new wild game hot dog-and-hamburger spot off Washington, we examine the idea that all artists borrow -- and the ... 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 >>

Favorite Three: Pizza Places

Photo by Kevin ShalinSimone on Sunset's Smoked Duck Pizza​Picking a favorite pizza place is a hot-button topic. Let's see which places showed up on our lists. John Kiely 1. Dolce Vita Pizzeria & Enoteca 2. Russo's Coal-Fired New York Pizzeria 3. Pizza Hut John's Take: The worst pizza I've ... More >>

Openings & Closings

​The closure of Dolce Vita in the Woodlands after only a matter of months prompted some serious discussion on the food blog earlier this week. Does Marco Wiles hate the suburbs? That's unlikely, and taking it a bit far. But the idea that not every concept is a fit for every market is a well-es ... More >>

Comment of the Day

​Marco Wiles abruptly closed his new location of Dolce Vita in the Woodlands, and Katharine Shilcutt wrote about it, opening a floodgate of emotion on pizza, foodies, the suburbs and artichokes. (Have we mentioned we love you guys?) Albert Nurick, who often writes about Woodlands restaurants o ... More >>

Marco Wiles Divorces the Woodlands: Dolce Vita Closed

Photo by Tam Vo​Last month, Marco Wiles told me over lunch how frustrated he had become with clientele at his satellite Dolce Vita location in the Woodlands at 1701 Lake Robbins Drive. Customers were coming in and leaving as soon as they saw that Wiles didn't have Bud Light on draft. They were ... More >>

Houston's Top 10 Wine Bars

Photo by Troy FieldsYou can even get a helluva guanciale cheeseburger at Plonk.​Today's Houston Press Deal of the Day (oh, you don't know what those are? sign up; they're seriously fantastic) is for 50 percent off at Boheme, a little wine bar in Montrose that also serves up cappuccinos and bee ... More >>

Social Media Folks, Caffe Bello and Fun Times

​Organized by frequent EOW commenter, foodie, tweeter extraordinaire and website developer who counts the Vallone enterprise as one of his clients, Albert Nurick (aka @htownchowdown) gathered lots of tweet-happy, food-loving Houstonians for a meal at Caffe Bello last night. The conversation fl ... More >>

Openings and Closings

Poetry, Phoenicia-style.​Of the two hotly anticipated projects from the Tcholakian family that have been in the works, the smaller of the two has finally opened in west Houston: Phoenicia Coffee House and Deli (12151 Westheimer), in the same center as the giant Phoenicia market. The downtown i ... More >>

First Look at Caffe Bello

Papparedelle and mixed seafood linguine at Caffe Bello.​Tony Vallone has officially invaded Lower Westheimer. The Montrose dining scene has long been a bastion of quirky restaurants -- whether upscale or ultra-casual -- and seeing an old-school, old guard River Oaks restaurateur like Tony Val ... More >>

Upcoming Events

​When you're done voting in this year's Houston Press Music Awards, head over to the new and improved 2010 Houston Culinary Awards from My Table Magazine. You'll find a whole host of new categories in which to cast your vote in a section called Houston Foodie Star awards. The usual suspects li ... More >>

Top 10 Restaurants in Montrose

It's a little bit insane to try and narrow down all of the food options in the Montrose area to a "top 10." This list, as with all others, is personal and also imperfect. Such an exercise will surely lead to impassioned protests of "How could you be so stupid as to have missed _____?" and insults of ... More >>

Robb Walsh's 100 Favorite Houston Dishes: #24 Pasta with White Truffles at Da Marco

​Over the course of the next few months, I'm counting down 100 of my favorite Houston dishes. I chose some because they are such quintessential Houston creations, others for their cultural or historical significance, and others because they are just so damn tasty. Share your own nominations in ... More >>

Designer Meats

In Houston, more and more chefs are curing their own pig products

Dolce Vita Open For Lunch

Dolce Vita's fantastic roasted beets with horseradish and walnuts​After four years, Dolce Vita (500 Westheimer) has finally expanded its hours. This casual wine bar and pizzeria has been feeding the hip Montrose crowd since January 2006 -- but never for weekday lunch. "We had a lot of requests ... More >>

Plat de Charcuterie, Chez Moi

​Chris Shepherd does his own charcuterie at Catalan. I love his salami. David Grossman does his own charcuterie at Branch Water Tavern too. Don't miss his chicken liver mousse. Marco Wiles calls it salumi at his salumeria, Poscol. I have sampled products from each and been quite impressed. Bu ... More >>

Pasta with Truffles, a Bargain at $110 a Bowl

​I split a bowl of pasta topped with huge slices of a white Alba truffles with a lunchmate at Da Marco over the holidays. A bowl of tagliatelle and truffles goes for $125 at dinner. It's only $110 at lunch, so we paid a mere $55 each for the ethereal experience. The flavor is like nothing else ... More >>

Top 11 Houston Restaurant Openings of the Decade

Since I started my job as restaurant critic of the Houston Press in May of 2000, I've had a chance to observe the Houston restaurant scene for just about the entire decade. Our fine dining scene has evolved in the last ten years, and so have our ethnic cuisines. Houston became the birthplace of some ... More >>

Lingering Over the Linguine

Lynette Hawkins's new wine bar Giacomo's Cibo e Vino captures the Italian spirit of drinking, eating and hanging around.

Moules Marinieres et Frites: Memories of Cafe Montrose

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttCatherine Duwez rushed through the doors of Sophia nearly an hour late. She carried boxes and bags of food with her, and although she looked eminently stressed, she still glowed with the passion of a restaurant proprietress who has entered her domain. A round of ap ... More >>

Big Flavors, Little Tables

Marco Wiles expands his Westheimer restaurant empire with another great Italian joint.

Cafe: What's a Salumeria?

Photo by Luiz CastroPoscol, Marco Wiles's fabulous new Italian joint on Westheimer, is the subject of this week's Cafe review. While I raved about the food I ate there, I also whined about the cured meats. Wiles calls the place an enoteca (wine bar) and salumeria (cured meat shop). But if you have e ... More >>

Vinoteca Poscol

Montrose Makes Way for Vinoteca Poscol

Vinoteca Poscol moves in.The rumors flew when beloved Belgian restaurant Cafe Montrose closed late last year after Hurricane Ike.  Patrons hungry for their fix of moules, frites and Chimay were baffled when they pulled into the parking lot one day to find it "temporarily closed ... More >>

Squeeze Play: Texas Valley Lemons

I always buy a sack of Valley lemons along with my red grapefruit on the way home from the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the citrus season. The not very tart lemons are wonderful to cook with. But I was never quite clear on the botanical details. "Valley lemons are a cross between a lemon and an ... More >>

Flounder Fanmail for Jimmy Wilson's Seafood & Chop House

Jon Paul Lands at Landry's

On Top of Spaghetti

At Antonio's Flying Pizza, we ponder what cheese pizzas and cheese enchiladas have in common

How Sweet It Is

Marco Wiles is knocking them dead with his new casual pizzeria in Montrose

Best Italian Restaurant

Da Marco

Blooming Onions

One ring to fool them all, or at least the Chron

No Satisfaction

Sorry, Mick, we're already having a big night

Best Overall Restaurant

Da Marco

Love at First Bite

Da Marco woos one over drinks, seduces with menu