Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission

Close Up The Still, Clem, They're Comin' After Our Moonshine

Political Communion

Did Annunciation use its connections to knock the head off Little Woodrow's beer permit?

The Anti-Clapton

Rocky Hill hopes to find a smooth patch on his rocky road

On Their Backs

Sugar Land spreads its legs

Mr. S.O.B.

Rick's CEO Robert Watters wants to make sexually oriented businesses respectable. So why, in his adopted hometown, does he get no respect?

City Says Smoking Ban Has Had No Impact On Bars

Photo by porcelaingirlTwo years ago, Houston City Council approved a smoking ban for local bars. This week, it was announced that the city had spent $12,000 to measure the impact of the ban.Their conclusion? It had no impact on bar sales whatsoever. "It's reassuring that we did the right thing ... More >>

Clubland

Photo by porcelaingirlTwo years ago, Houston City Council approved a smoking ban for local bars. This week, it was announced that the city had spent $12,000 to measure the impact of the ban.Their conclusion? It had no impact on bar sales whatsoever. "It's reassuring that we did the right thing ... More >>

Partners for Pay

Young women taxi-dance for dollars, at the price of innocence lost

Out in the Street

Westheimer Street Festival and the TABC

On the edge in Edge City

Brad Tyer finds fun, more fun and big fun on the Richmond Strip

Beer and Porn

Once again, the TABC tries to ruin bachelor life

Don't Mess with Pittsburgh

The Nightfly's token PA-to-Houston transplant whoops it up on Super Bowl Sunday

Take My Wife, Please

TABC nabs a sheriff's spouse in a sting

Poured Out

With archaic and self-serving laws, reforms don't come easy for the Texas booze industry

Houston Hold 'Em

There are plenty of opportunities for poker here, legal and otherwise

Letters

There are plenty of opportunities for poker here, legal and otherwise

Onion Tears

The gentrifying Heights can pit residents and businesses against each other

Zipping Up Mary's

A local landmark for gay sex and social activism closes after 32 years

Getting Stomped

Texas boasts the soil, the climate and the grapes for a strong wine industry. So what stands in its way? Bad taste and politicians.

Murphy's Law

Gentrification threatens to turn out the lights at popular upper Shepherd nightspots

Wong's War on a Reggae Club

Are the problems traffic and parking, or just the color of the customers?

Seeing The Astros Without Getting Drunk? Umpossible! But Now, Possible

Photo by Michael (mx5tx)Hey Astros fans. Are you tired of the exorbitant prices you have to pay for booze at Astros games? Well, I've got good news. And I've got bad news.The good news is that the prices might be getting a lot damn cheaper real soon. The bad news is that the reason is that alc ... More >>

How To Celebrate Gay Pride Day In Fort Worth: Bust Some Heads

How did cops in Fort Worth celebrate the 40th anniversary of Stonewall, that epic day when gays fought back against cops harassing them in a bar? By harassing gays in a bar. Allegedly.Protests have sprung up in Cowtown over events at the Rainbow Lounge Sunday night.The Dallas Voice reports: Sources ... More >>

Gay Panic in Cowtown

The police raid on the Rainbow Lounge rocked the calm world of Fort Worth gays.

Club Dead

The Mansion has been shut down, but not before an 18-year-old stripper got drunk there and died in a highway wreck.

The Tug of War

Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a pitched battle over the soul of the GOP. They are also running for governor.

Houston Dance Club Rich's Shut Down for Apparent Nonpayment of Taxes; Liquor License Suspended; May Reopen Tomorrow

Update: According to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's Web site, Rich's - listed as owned by MZM Nightlife, Inc. - has had its liquor license suspended. The license was scheduled to expire on November 29. Son LamDancers enjoying Halloween at Rich's​Rocks Off received an email this morning ... More >>

Rich's Closed Over Tax Dispute, Possibly Only For A Short While

Son LamDancers enjoying Halloween at Rich's​Hair Balls received an email this morning that longstanding Houston dance club Rich's had been shut down. So far all the information we have been able to gather has come from social-networking sites. The incident appears to have happened Saturday night ... More >>

Dr. Strangelove

Tool and A Perfect Circle wouldn't work, so Maynard James Keenan channels his love of Hee Haw through Puscifer.

This Year in Deliciousness

Photo by This Is Freaking RidiculousAn AK-47 made entirely out of bacon? Yup, that's pretty much 2009 summed up.​ So this is the time of year when we normally say things like "Wow, another year gone by already!" and "Can ya believe it's almost 2010?" and "Say there, how come you just broke my ... More >>

Free Booze At Former Meridian Tonight

​ This just keeps getting messier and messier, but one happy byproduct of the unpleasant change of hands the Old Chinatown venue is currently undergoing is that tonight, everyone of legal drinking age will be allowed two free drinks at the show by Japanese DJ Satoshe Tomiie. A donation for the Dis ... More >>

More Messy Details On The "Toxic Environment" At The Former Meridian

Chris Gray​Friday evening, Rocks Off met with Jeff Barry, the attorney who represents both SG Properties, owner of the now-nameless music venue at 1503 Chartres, and SG owner Gary Katz, about the events that transpired earlier this week that you can read about here and here. The tired-looking lawy ... More >>

Joe Chavez: Former TABC Agent Accused Of Sexually Assaulting His Decoy In Underage Drinking Sting

"I thought she was 18!" won't work​Last May, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission decided that some minors in Bastrop County might have been having a little too much fun. They apparently decided it was high time to conduct a sting operation.One of the TABC's tried-and-true methods is to s ... More >>

Bomb That Mosque!

KTRH host hopes for violence.

Brew Blog: Deschutes Brewery

​Many excellent West Coast and Pacific Northwest brewers have long shown the good sense to ship their wares to Texas, and Deschutes Brewery has now joined the party in a real way, too. The Bend, Oregon brewery has inked a deal with Ben E. Keith Beverages to expand its local reach. Of course ... More >>

UPDATED: Epic Fail: We Miss Out on Stone Vertical Epic

Houston almost scored a batch of this year's Vertical Epic from Stone. Almost.​Looks like Stone Brewing Co.'s coveted Vertical Epic won't be sold in Houston this year thanks to a little mix up on the label.Stone created a buzz for the stuff in 2002 by announcing it would release a different ... More >>

Vertical Epic: Thanks, TABC, For Keeping A Coveted Beer Out Of Texas

Houston almost scored one of the most coveted beers of the year. Then the TABC stepped in. ​In the latest episode of the Fun Police, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has kept one of the most coveted beers of the year from being sold in Texas. Stone Brewing Company's Vertical Epic, which has ... More >>

Cougar on Prowl in Katy

Mom sexts her teen son's friend

Four Loko: Approved In Texas Again!! (Um, Without The Caffeine)

Four Loko: Farewell, point of drinking it​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission today approved sales of a reconstituted Four Loko -- one that comes without caffeine. Which is kind of like cigarettes without nicotine -- it's a safer option, but what's the point? The TABC had asked retailers ... More >>

Very, Very Determined Mountain Lion Denied Chance to Eat President Obama in El Paso

Dedicated mountain lion says Yes We Can, learns otherwise.​We know not the name of the mountain lion who was chased through the downtown streets of El Paso this morning, continuing to escape pursuers even with two tranquilizer darts in him. We only know the cat must have really wanted to see ... More >>

The Mayor of Montrose

Charles Armstrong, owner of four gay clubs and benefactor to feral cats, is the most powerful man in his neighborhood.

Five GREAT Things About This Weekend's Rapture

Music to be playing about 6 a.m. Saturday.​In case you hadn't heard, the Rapture will happen at 5:58 a.m. Saturday. All the good, Christian people will ascend to heaven and everyone else will be left here to suffer through unprecedented natural disasters before the End of Time comes in the fal ... More >>

Eirin Hicks: Misdemeanor Charges Filed In Death of Texas State Woman Who Fell to Death

TABCEirin Hicks: Dead from a fall out a window​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Texas State University police announced a handful of charges stemming from the death of Eirin Ann Hicks, a student who fell to her death from an elevated first-story dorm room last month. The charges ar ... More >>

Goodtime Moonshine: 8 Brands Of Musician-Backed Booze

warmingglow.uproxx.comShirtless hillbillies, backyard stills, and Cletus from the Simpson = things we normally associate with moonshine.​Tuesday, representatives for Colt Ford announced the Georgia-born singer best known for 2010's Chicken and Biscuits would be the first country music star wit ... More >>

Austin's Jester King Craft Brewery Sues the TABC, But Is the TABC Really the Bad Guy?

Shit just got real.​Jester King, based in Austin, is one of the state's most popular craft breweries. The TABC (or Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission), also based in Austin, is one of the state's most powerful agencies. And with news that Jester King has just filed a lawsuit against the TABC, ... More >>

Absurdity of Texas Wine Shipping Law Reaches New Heights

Photo by Jeremy Parzen.Castell'in Villa Chianti Classico is one of the greatest values in Italian wine today, but out-of-state retailers can't ship it to me in Texas... at least not legally.​On Friday, one of the most bizarre press releases I've ever read found its way to my inbox. "The Texas ... More >>

Me and the TABC (Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission)

Image via the Texas Restaurant Association.TABC To Go is an excellent online TABC certification program for Texas restaurant and bar workers. Although not required by the state, many Texas employers require certification to ensure proper service of alcohol.​The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commiss ... More >>

Why We Love to Hate the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission

Image via Westerville Public Libary (Westerville, Ohio).To understand our state's peculiar relationship with alcohol, we need to look back to the early post-Prohibition era when the TABC was founded (1935).​In the wake of a recent post on the absurdity of wine shipping regulation in Texas, a c ... More >>

Like the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission on Facebook?

This morning, I captured the above screenshot of the new TABC Facebook.​Remember the Jonathan Franzen New York Times essay from last year, "Liking Is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts"? In it, he considers the "transformation, courtesy of Facebook, of the verb 'to like' from a state of mind to an ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness

Photo by Andrew ShrewsburyI love the smell of late night pizza in the morning. Smells like... mediocrity.​Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where the rules are all made up and the points don't matter. We started the week off right by fantasizing about who we'd most l ... More >>