Santa Barbara

An MF Perfect Nigiri: Trust the Chef at MF Sushi

Sushi Chef Chris Kinjo offers exotic fish, delicious sashimi and some of the best nigiri sushi in town.

Best Shows In Houston This Weekend: Rebelution, Graveyard, Every Time I Die, Walker Lukens, Etc.

Rebelution With J Boog, Hot Rain House Of Blues, Friday, 8 p.m., February 22 For a clue on just how much Rebelution must love ganja, beyond even the exquisitely explicit "So High" on its 2012 release Peace of Mind, consider that the Santa Barbara reggae-pop crew also issued acoustic and dub version ... More >>

Perfection and Value in a Bottle: Syrah Rosé from California for $16

I'm just going to go ahead and blurt it out: The 2011 rosé from Syrah by Santa Barbara, California winery Ampelos is my favorite discovery for 2012 and it's my number one wine for the 2012 holiday season. It's one of those rare wines that fire on all cylinders. It's fresh and it's clean. It's got ... More >>

What's Behind Gary Douglas's Scientology Knockoff?

Access Consciousness promises to help you reach a higher plane. For a price.

How to Send Back a Bottle of Wine You Don't Like

Yesterday we addressed the delicate subject of how to send back a bottle of flawed wine in a restaurant. If you are served a "corked" or otherwise defective bottle (perhaps "cooked" due to heat exposure or "oxidized" due to a clean but nonetheless faulty cork, for example), you have every right to s ... More >>

How to Ship Wine Legally to Texas

In the wake of my post Wednesday, "Texas Wine Shipping Prohibition Is Morally Indefensible (and Bad for Business)," I wanted to follow up with some tips on how to ship wine legally to Texas. Although it hasn't been updated for more than two years, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission does have a ... More >>

Houston Recipe House: Do Good and Have Fun

Katsuya Chefs David and Kenji were recently at Houston's Recipe House for a June Chef Surprise. Guests were treated to a sushi and sashimi demonstration and tasting from Chef Kenji and a dinner served family-style from Chef David. Recipe House is part of Recipe for Success, a foundation dedicated t ... More >>

Rebelution

Oyster Po' Boy with Remoulade: Only One Wine Will Do

At our house, we're already cranking up the A/C and bracing for the Texas summer. But with the arrival of the heat also comes my favorite time of our yearly gastronomic cycle, when fried and grilled foods are guiltlessly consumed in mass quantities. Summertime holidays -- from Memorial Day to the ... More >>

SXSW: Why Are We Here?

That headline is not any kind of existential plaint; Rocks Off was legitimately curious. We know why we're at SXSW - it's our job. But it's a broad, broad spectrum between those of us doing some kind of business here this week and the hordes of people in Austin purely to party. So, because we are s ... More >>

Openings & Closings: November 2011

Photo by Amber AmbroseEl Rey closed this week -- but which one?​Remember how busy of a month October was for openings and closings? November was a little slower, but not by much. In upcoming restaurants, one of our favorite bloggers reports that Calliope's is opening a second location of its ... More >>

The X Factor: Rain Delay and Judges' Houses

Photo by FOXJust wait until the "Judges' moms' houses" round!​First, this recap was delayed because the Wednesday night baseball playoff game was rain delayed, canceling that night's X Factor episode--yet another reason for me to hate baseball. Second, naming the latest round of competition "t ... More >>

Chef Chat Part 2, Cunninghame West of Valentino Restaurant

Chef Cunninghame West in the kitchen​Yesterday, Chef Cunninghame West told us about some of his adventures in Maui and Santa Barbara after he graduated high school. You can read about it here. Today, we talk about how he came to be at Valentino. EOW: After Santa Barbara, I understand you sp ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Cunninghame West of Valentino Restaurant Remembers When He Was Homeless, But Had a Porsche

Photo Courtesy of Michelle LeBlancCunninghame West, Executive Chef at Valentino Restaurant​Earlier this year at the Italian Expo, Cunninghame West, Executive Chef at Valentino Restaurant in the Hotel Derek, won the fan vote for most entertaining. Alongside Owner and Executive Chef Luciano Pel ... More >>

Longhorns Still Reeling In Party-School Rankings

UT disappoints again​First they get dropped from the top spot by Playboy. Now the Princeton Review barely keeps them in the top 10. How is the University of Texas going to keep being known as a top Party School if it can't get no respect? The Princeton Review's various surveys of colleges ca ... More >>

The Generous Pour Event at Capital Grille

Our server, Susan, kept us happy with "generous pours" during the Generous Pour Event​To truly understand wine, its complexity, what distinguishes a good wine from bad one, and how it should pair with food, takes years of study. That's why there are only 171 Master Sommeliers in the world, and ... More >>

Why Shouldn't Mexicans Speak Proper Spanish?

And is Spanglish something to Celebrate?

Five Musicians More Embarrasing For Your Mother To Have An Affair With Than Bret Michaels

​Every thorn has its prick: The reason Miley Cyrus' parents are splitting after 17 years of marriage: Mom Tish had an affair with rocker Bret Michaels, reports the new Us Weekly. When Billy Ray learned of it - as well as at least one other fling - he filed for divorce Oct. 27, sources tell U ... More >>

The Ballad Of Randy Quaid

Hopefully he learned a few tricks in Midnight Express.​Americans, as a people, are fascinated by stories of outlaws. English bandit Robin Hood has been dead for 500 years (give or take) and they're still making crappy movies about him. And the Old West remains a fertile ground for tales of rom ... More >>

Honduras in Houston

A too-small dining scene gets a welcome addition.

Lemonade Stand

Hope Stone's Jane Weiner says, "When life gives you lemons, make art"

Toad The Wet Sprocket: Not Bikers' First Choice

'90s alt-rockers Toad the Wet Sprocket, playing House of Blues tomorrow night, may be an established act now, but back on the heels of their second album, 1990's Pale, the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based quartet had to take their lumps just like everyone else who has ever left the practice sp ... More >>

Special Regional Anti-Mexican Slur Edition

Mexican Women and Spanish Influence

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Songwriting Scholar Steve Young Blasts Nashville's "Yuppa-billys"

For Lonesome, Onry and Mean, they don't come much taller or wiser than Steve Young. Young has been in a love/hate relationship with Nashville and the major labels since he came to town in the early Seventies. Along with Billy Joe Shaver, Young wrote the major anthems of the Outlaw movement that tip ... More >>

Something's Gotta Give

Nancy Meyers can't keep making the same movie over and over again.

More Trouble For Bellaire's Randy Quaid

​Who ever though that Dennis Quaid -- the guy who got in a custody battle with Meg Ryan over their guru -- would turn out to seem the sane one in the Quaid family? Dennis' older brother Randy has stepped in it again, missing a court appearance in California and thus engendering an arrest w ... More >>

Sounds of the Universe

Synth-pop icons Depeche Mode do read their reviews.

All the Katy Perry You're Going to Get, Because She Just Canceled Her Show

Update: Tonight's Katy Perry show at House of Blues has been CANCELED due to Perry's illness, says promoter Live Nation. Perry is expected to announce a make-up date soon, and all tickets for tonight's show, which was itself postponed from March, will be honored. She'll be here eventually, we guess, ... More >>

Kelly Hansen Joins "Hot Blooded" Rockers Foreigner

Head games

The Pizza and Ranch Dressing Rebellion

Katy Perry: One of the Boys

Longhorns Party On, Burying Their Sorrows

Solidarity, Baby

Alt-Weeklies Provide Web Links to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Home Address

Action Taken in Solidarity with Phoenix New Times

5 Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

Friends sponsor movie fund-raiser for injured Gulf Coast surfer

Aliens to the Rescue

Bob's Steak & Chop House

If steak is a sin, then Bob is the devil

Jokes? What Jokes?

The Hitchhiker's Guide is harmless -- well, mostly harmless

Highway Stars

After 15 years of ups and downs, Swell is on the rise again

Too Cute Kate

Hudson and Watts cheese it up in France for Le Divorce

Poetic License

In Blue Car a troubled young girl finds her way through verse

White Nights

Pale wines grow up, and Houstonians take notice

Year of the Woman

The big-screen dames of cinema 2003 will keep you watching

Pitfall Punks

Swinging over the crocodile ponds with the Ataris

Rocky Landing

Residents of this seaside neighborhood are about to be joined by a 1,000-acre port facility

Sample Melody

Revenge of the Nerds

A Nerf Herder lesson in how to sell yourself as who you are

Buff Boys

Alternative Notion Lollapalooza doesn't say much about its generation, but the music's fine

y Brad Tyer