Sonoma

Places That Are Open -- Constantly Updated

Secrets of Sonoma

During the day, it's almost invisible. But at night...

Four-Star Fun

Tony Ruppe serves serious food and wine. So why are his patrons laughing?

Dish

Tony Ruppe serves serious food and wine. So why are his patrons laughing?

Letters

Tony Ruppe serves serious food and wine. So why are his patrons laughing?

La Bête Noire du Cepage Noir

Photo courtesy of Bob.Fornal Cepage Noir, the wine store begun in 1999 as Christopher's Wine Warehouse, closed its doors last week. The store's ten year run under the stewardship of owner Christopher Massie was a bumpy one that included name changes, price wars with Spec's and other large ... More >>

True Grits

Local Restaurant News

2008 HOUSTON PRESS NEW YEAR'S EVE GUIDE

Kiss 2008 goodbye in style

HOUSTON PRESS NEW YEAR'S EVE GUIDE

Kiss 2008 goodbye in style

Trails to Terror

2008 Halloween Guide

Trails to Terror

2008 Halloween Guide

In the Pink

Surgeons are sculpting labia, reconnecting hymens and inventing a new standard of beauty in female genitalia

Smiles to Go

Felicity Huffman is desperately engaging in an off-kilter road movie

Don't Go Changin'

1415 Bar & Grille

Pig in the City

A foodie saint is tainted by fast food's evil empire

Get All Dressed Up

There's plenty of places to go this Halloween.

Sangrias at Sonoma

​Sonoma on Richmond Avenue has an impressive wine selection and a wonderful menu of fruits, artisan cheeses, cured meats and gourmet entrees. It also offers a decent sangria. Two of Sonoma's three sangria options are average. The rose sparkling sangria, however, is worth reordering. The sweet ... More >>

Sonoma For the Holidays: Join Us At Our Holiday Wine Tasting

​Over at Eating Our Words, we're ringing in the holidays in style...by hosting our very first event for you, our readers. We'll be at Sonoma Wine Bar on December 19 from 6 to 11 p.m. for a holiday wine tasting with so much more than just wine -- and we hope you will be, too. For $45, yo ... More >>

Holiday Wine Tasting at Sonoma

​We hope you've marked your calendar for next weekend's event at Sonoma Wine Bar, because we can't wait to see you there. Eating Our Words is excited to be hosting its first ever event for our readers: a Holiday Tasting that will feature not only 40 different kinds of wine, but beer and champ ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

This Christmas, every little German child wants a Volkswagen stuffed with these.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where our special brand of Christmas party punch can double as deck sealant and paint stripper. Greenway Barista started off the week with some deep-di ... More >>

Win Tickets to Our Holiday Wine Tasting at Sonoma

​You only have a few days left to buy tickets for our first-ever event at Sonoma -- a holiday wine tasting featuring 40 different kinds of beer, wine and champagne -- but one lucky reader could win a pair of tickets for free! The first person to answer the three questions below correctly will ... More >>

Last Chance for Free Wine Tasting Tickets

​As promised, we're giving you one more chance to win a pair of tickets to this weekend's highly anticipated Holiday Wine Tasting bash at Sonoma, taking place on December 19 from 6 to 11 p.m. The tickets are a $90 value and include samples of 40 different beers, wines and champagnes, gourmet ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Superbanana slumbers innocently, unaware that he will soon face his fearsome arch-nemesis: Krypto-Monkey.​ Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've decided to keep all these sausage and cheese Christmas gift baskets for ourselves. Jane Catherine Collins certainl ... More >>

Buh-Bye 2009

Where to celebrate the dawn of a new year: Our guide to the best events in town.

Buh-Bye 2009

Where to celebrate the dawn of a new year: Our guide to the best events in town.

Duck Fat: the New Butter

Is the theme of the awesome Branch Water Tavern "fatty foods for lean times"?

The New American Whiskeys

​Branch Water Tavern, the subject of this week's Café review, has a collection of rare American whiskeys behind the bar that really widened my horizons. St. George single-malt tastes like it was made in Scotland. It starts out as dark-brown ale and is distilled in a tiny copper pot still. It' ... More >>

Fine Dining By The Sea(Brook)

Chocolate-peanut butter icebox pie.​"Don't get too caught up in it; it's just grape juice," laughed Mark McWilliams, seated to my right. Those are words you don't expect to hear from someone who runs a successful winery for a living, but it set the tone for a refreshing evening. Anyone expecti ... More >>

Going Overboard at Truluck's

Photos by Katharine ShilcuttFresh crab claws and oysters: a triumphant start to any meal.​The last time I ate at Truluck's (5350 Westheimer), the restaurant was still located in the charming silver diner car -- still abandoned, by the way -- up the road from its current location on Westheimer. ... More >>

Mother's Day Pancakes: Four Ways

​Mother's Day is this Sunday, and if you're like us, you're still trying to decide exactly how to honor the woman who was brave enough to deal with you during your formative years. You could always take her to brunch, but that trick is becoming a bit played out. Huge crowds, huge prices, and g ... More >>

Special Regional Anti-Mexican Slur Edition

​Mother's Day is this Sunday, and if you're like us, you're still trying to decide exactly how to honor the woman who was brave enough to deal with you during your formative years. You could always take her to brunch, but that trick is becoming a bit played out. Huge crowds, huge prices, and g ... More >>

Odd Pair: Fried Green Tomatoes and Cuvee

​Last Thursday, Katharine Shilcutt got us desperately scrambling to find some good fried green tomatoes before the summer ends (soft weeping). We found ourselves at the bar at Max's Wine Dive (4720 Washington Avenue) begging the chef to make us a plate of our favorite hot-weather food and then ... More >>

Vintage Cocktails: The Mary Pickford

1937 copy of La Florida recipe book​Last week I told you about the La Florida Bar in Havana, Cuba, "la catedral del Daiquiri." This week's drink comes from a brittle 1937 copy of that bar's recipe book, which was found at a flea market. The book is old enough that each recipe is in both Spani ... More >>

Odd Pair: Sweet Potatoes & Chardonnay

​If you're like me, then you've been "practicing" your Thanksgiving recipes a little early this year. At least that's the reason you give when people ask why you're making stuffing and sweet potatoes in the beginning of November. The upside (besides getting to eat decadent food all month) is ... More >>

What Are Houston Chefs Cooking This Thanksgiving?

Photo by Carbon NYC​Thanksgiving: A day to gather with your loved ones and give thanks? Or a day to display your culinary prowess to friends and family? Increasingly, the emphasis has been on the latter in the past few years, as people try to dress up the traditional Thanksgiving spread and im ... More >>

Gourmet Guys

The milkshakes may come with bacon and the burgers with foie gras, but there's no pretension here.

Vintners Own Winery: Wine (in a Freaking Keg!) in the Heights

Happiness is eight different wines on tap.​I called my most wine-savvy friend upon receiving the invitation to the event. "Did you know there's a freaking winery in the Heights, just a few blocks from your house?" This was followed by a string of expletives (apparently she was not aware). I co ... More >>

Notes from the Burger Underground: Tasting the Elite 8

Illustration by Doug Mac​Yesterday, our commenters demanded to see expressed a polite interest in seeing our judging teams' tasting notes for the 2011 Burger Bracket. Only one team sent in tasting notes, one of which we ran (for Lucky's Pub), while the other burger judges remained stoically si ... More >>

Eating Our Words Burger Bracket: The Final Four

Illustration by Doug Mac​Yesterday, a scrappy underdog team from Virginia Commonwealth University upset the top-seeded Kansas Jayhawks to advance to the NCAA Final Four here in Houston, blowing many people's college basketball brackets entirely to hell. Well, burger fans, prepare to have your ... More >>

Odd Pair: Chicken Spaghetti and Zinfandel

​There is pleasure in life... and then there is guilty pleasure. You know the kind. The type of indulgence that you are embarrassed to admit to your friends and colleagues... certain forms of gratification best enjoyed -- ahem, how shall I put this? -- whilst alone. For me one such delight ... More >>

The Sonoma Burger and Salted Caramel Duck Fat Fries at The Burger Guys

Mai PhamThe Sonoma Burger at The Burger Guys. Applewood smoked bacon, cheddar, avocado, arugula, aoili​I am happily burger-obsessed. I crave them, I find them, I eat them, and I enjoy them. I repeat this process regularly, and last week, the process led me to what has got to be one of Houston' ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Photo illustration by Monica FuentesBWAHAHAHAHA! Hell yes.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we've been trying to get Opie and Anthony to re-tweet scandalous pictures of our manscaped junk all day, but so far, no dice. Come on, guys. Help a loyal listener with ... More >>

Highlights from the Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting & Chef Showcase

Mai PhamMini causitas by Chef Roberto Castre at Latin Bites Cafe​For me, this past Saturday was the culmination of a week's worth of anticipation and a day's worth of appetite-saving, a chance to taste more than 500 wines and sample 50 chef's tastings at HEB Wine & Food Week's Wine Rendezvous ... More >>

Openings & Closings: Familiar Faces Edition

Hubcap Grill's new fence outside its soon-to-be-open restaurant on 19th Street.​Some familiar faces will soon be popping up around town, from the Heights to Montrose and back again, starting with the news that Olivier Ciesielski -- the former executive chef at Tony's -- will be opening his ver ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Domenica Catelli of Catelli's

Photo by Matthew DresdenDomenica Catelli, outside her family's eponymous restaurant in Geyserville, CA​This week on a very special Chef Chat: the California wine country edition! Domenica Catelli might be the most prolific chef you've never heard of, with a hand in nearly every aspect of the ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: Grant Gordon of Tony's

Mai PhamExecutive Chef Grant Gordon of Tony's​There's been a lot of buzz lately about young Executive Chef Grant Gordon of Tony's. Last month, he collaborated on a hugely successful Les Sauvages pop-up dinner with Chefs Justin Basye and Peter Jahnke. Gordon was also among the youngest of the ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 3: Grant Gordon of Tony's - Chef's Tasting Menu

Photos by Mai PhamCappelletti alla vodka, Tito's vodka sauce, toasted pistachio, caviar​The last two days, we've been chatting with 25-year-old Executive Chef Grant Gordon of Tony's. See our chats here and here. Today, we'll sample some of the selections from his chef's tasting menu and night ... More >>

Chef Chat, Part 1: David Cordua of Americas, On His First Love and Le Cordon Bleu

Photo by Mai PhamDavid Cordua, Executive Chef of the Cordua Restaurant Group ​David Cordua, at 29, is currently Executive Chef at Americas River Oaks, and all of the restaurants in the Cordua Restaurant Group. Contrary to what some might assume, despite growing up as the son of a restaurante ... More >>

Top 5 Gifts for Wine Lovers

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Decanters by Riedel take wine service to a higher level of aesthetic pleasure. ​If you're ever invited to dine in someone's home in France, please don't bring a bottle of wine. Nothing will spur a French host to recoil in abject dishonor and displeasure than the gift of ... More >>

The Burger Guys Open Downtown Tomorrow: Here's the Menu (and More!)

Kitchen Incubator and The Burger Guys: A bright idea. Pictured: The high-ceilinged dining space inside Cafe Luz.​It was an idea "sparked by a few Tweets," says Lucrece Borrego, owner of Kitchen Incubator and its storefront bistro, Cafe Luz. Tomorrow at lunch, her commercial kitchen space locat ... More >>