Marco Wiles

Jon Paul Lands at Landry's

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 >>

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 >>

Flounder Fanmail for Jimmy Wilson's Seafood & Chop House

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 >>

On Top of Spaghetti

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

Best Overall Restaurant

Da Marco

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

Love at First Bite

Da Marco woos one over drinks, seduces with menu

Vinoteca Poscol

Da Marco woos one over drinks, seduces with menu

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 >>

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 >>

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.

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Designer Meats

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>