Texas Hill Country

City Hall Farmers Market Starts Its 2013 Season Today

Arriving just in time for some seriously pleasant weather and National Strawberry Day, the 2013 season of the City Hall Farmers Market is kicking off today downtown. This marks the fourth year that the market has been operating in front of City Hall on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For openi ... More >>

Atheism Rising

Those folks across Texas who don't believe in God are getting organized and going public.

Farmers' Market Spotlight of the Week: Ruby Queen Corn

Cooler temperatures mean that the City Hall Farmers Market is open once again and that more Houstonians will be heading out to enjoy the many other excellent farmers' markets across the city. Each week, we'll be spotlighting a produce pick from the Urban Harvest network of farmers' markets by showin ... More >>

My Last Supper: Rudy's Bar-B-Q

Everyone has that one place, that one food haven that delivers every time. Tried, true and reliable. As I'm moving to Washington D.C., I had to visit Rudy's Bar-B-Q one last time. I will fondly miss it. The whole experience at Rudy's, from the bright red barn, to the neon signs, to the candy up fr ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Drawings & Air Conditioning," "Interstitial Spaces: Julia Barello & Beverly Penn," "Kyle Farley: Countenance," "Layover," "Perry House: Elegance/Violence," "Six Apart," "Sky, Trees and Earth"

Local Foods Stays True to Its Name

Sometimes restaurants have the kind of simple, straightforward names that let you know exactly what to expect there: That Pizza Place On Ella, for example, or the subject of this week's cafe review, Local Foods. True to its name, Local Foods -- the little sister deli to big sister benjy's, next doo ... More >>

''Margaret Miller: Sky, Trees and Earth''

Digging a German Red Quaffer from Pfalz

Generally, when wine nerds like me think of fine wines from Germany, we think white: Mosel Riesling, with its enormous capacity for longevity and nuance, its bright acidity and vibrant minerality, is considered by many to be one of Europe's greatest wines. (Celebrity sommelier and winner of this yea ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Eat My Words: This week Texas Monthly wine writer Jessica Dupuy gives a glowing review to new releases by the Duchman Family Winery, the Texas Hill Country winery owned by Houston's own celebrity cardiologist Stan Duchman. "I'll be honest," she writes, "I fell in love with all of these wines, which ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

After reading our blogging colleague Katharine Shilcutt's post about Robb Walsh's tasting and pairing of Texas Gulf oysters and wines last week at Oceanaire on Westheimer, we were geeked to see a post from a wine blogger's perspective by one of our favorite Houston wine educators, Sandra Crittenden. ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Natural Wine in Texas

As we noted in last week's post on a new era of Nastiness and a call for civility in the Natural wine debate, it's not easy to define exactly what Natural wine is. As Eric Asimov wrote in his weekly New York Times column, there is no official definition or doctrine for Natural wine or Natural winem ... More >>

The Natural Wine Debate Gets Ugly

"Natural wine is wine to which nothing has been added," said the leading advocate of Natural wine in the U.S., Alice Feiring, when she visited Texas in October 2011 to promote her new book Naked Wine: Letting Grapes Do What Comes Naturally (Da Capo 2011). She was speaking at an event in a wine bar, ... More >>

Upcoming Events: A Week Full of Beer

Read on for our picks of the best beer dinners next week.​In case you hadn't heard, it's Houston Beer Week, y'all. The week-long celebration of craft beer and local breweries kicks off tonight with a kick-off happy hour at Ziggy's Downtown, from 5 to 7 p.m. The restaurant will be offering $2 ... More >>

Wine of the Week: A "No Sulfites Added" Texas Wine

Photos by Jeremy Parzen.Houstonian winemaker Lewis Dickson produces wines with no added sulfites on his estate, La Cruz de Comal, in the Texas Hill Country.​There's good news and there's bad news. First, the bad news. In the wake of last Friday's "myth-debunking" post on sulfites in wine, I ... More >>

Houston Beer Week 2011: Bigger, Better, Beer-ier

Read on for a full -- and we do mean FULL -- schedule of HBW events.​The second annual Houston Beer Week kicks off this year on an auspicious date: 11/11/11. That's when the big craft beer festival will celebrate its sophomore year with a kick-off happy hour at Ziggy's Downtown, from 5 to 7 p. ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

​Vintage Texas: Ask any wine lover or wine professional and they'll tell you the very same thing: The greatest thing about wine is how it brings folks together. And that's exactly what happened when former All-American football player and NFL veteran Alphonse Daotson called up Russ Kane, the ... More >>

Upcoming Events: Foraging and Fires

Photo by GroovehouseYes, you can eat those beautyberries you've seen at the Arboretum. Merriwether will show you how.​If Nicholas Hall's post on foraging, "Indigenous Bounties," piqued your interest about scouring your own back yard (or front yard) for tasty treats, pay attention. Meriwether's ... More >>

Wine of the Week: A Rosé from the Texas Hill Country

​The more I read about Texas Hill Country winemaker and San Antonio endocrinologist Richard Becker, the more I am intrigued. Any doctor-cum-vintner who quotes readily from one of my favorite 20th-century American poets, Wallace Stevens, sounds like someone who puts more thought into the art an ... More >>

Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

Know a Houston-based blog we should be paying particular attention to? Leave the address in the comments section below. ​TweetChat #TXWine: If you've been following along here at Wine Time, you know that Texas wines have been on our minds. We found out about the TweetChat #TXWines thanks to t ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Texas Blanc du Bois

​Above: Blanc du Bois grapes from the 2010 harvest at the Cruz de Comal Winery in the Texas Hill Country. To tell the story of winemaking in Texas today, we need to start with what happened in California back in the 1970s and the way wine has been marketed historically in the U.S. When I was ... More >>

Tomato Stripper: Serrated OXO Swivel Peeler

​The OXO Swivel Peeler has always been an impressive instrument. I'm no Fruit Ninja, but I can remove the peel from an apple, sometimes as one long spiral, in less than 30 seconds. It's useless on tomatoes and peaches, so when I saw the serrated model--on sale--I snatched it off the display. ... More >>

"Blizzard of Pollen" Hitting Hill Country

Keep Austin pollen-free!!​If you have plans on visiting Austin or the Hill Country any time soon, you better hope you're not allergic to Mountain Cedar: The area is getting hit with massive amounts of the pollen, an expert says. "In all my life, I have never seen so much Mountain Cedar pollen ... More >>

Local Spotlight: Texas Hill Country Olive Company

​WHAT: Beautifully pure olive oil that will have you dreaming -- not of Italy -- but of the verdant Texas hills... When John Gambini moved back to Texas after ten years away, he just knew he wanted to build a vineyard. It would be a family-run business, just like the ones our country was bui ... More >>

Who Needs The Hill Country? Check Out Houston's Wildflowers

The Texas Hill Country has arrived in Houston -- at least in the form of bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. Patches of wildflowers can be spotted in green spaces along highways and in parks throughout the city.Volunteers of the City of Houston seeded 50 acres of land last September in the hopes of ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Oktoberfests

Photo by dave77459​The Texas Hill Country is full of place-names that make Texas Traveler yearn for her nth-generation German heritage. New Braunfels conjures up the scent of the bratwurst and sauerkraut my Moomaw used to make on weekend mornings (food which I loathed, by the way, until I turn ... More >>

Obscure Wine Grapes: Touriga

Photo by Robb Walsh​Touriga Nacional is an ancient Portuguese varietal that was probably introduced to the Iberian peninsula by the Phoenicians. It's a black grape that typically has high tannins and very concentrated fruit flavors. The grapes are most famously used in the highest quality port ... More >>

Texas Traveler: Lavenderfest

Photos by Brittanie SheyRows of lavender​Long after the bluebonnets have shed their petals, another lilac flower blooms in the Hill Country of Texas. Lavenderfest, August 8 in Chappell Hill, is devoted to the 2,500-year-old herb that is used in everything from cooking to aromatherapy to fragra ... More >>

MP3 of the Day: Sean Reefer & the Resin Valley Boys

As if Wednesday night's drunken, surly and bearded Clutch show wasn't enough for the House Of Blues staff, tonight they get to rassle with the musical stylings of one David Allan Coe, openers 1100 Springs and Sean Reefer & The Resin Valley Boys. Long a fixture on the Houston honky-tonk scene, Re ... More >>

The Texas Traveler: Stonehenge II

In a rural field on a little-traveled loop just west of Kerrville stands a sight right out of the set of Spinal Tap -- a miniature replica of the Stonehenge monolith. Stonehenge II stands just north of Hunt, in the middle of the Texas Hill Country. It's an oddity you might miss if you weren't ... More >>

Kinky Friedman

Houston gets Kinky for animals in need

Carolyn Haines, Dean James and Mary Saums

Three mystery writers present their latest releases

Bob Log III, Scott H. Biram, Possessed by Paul James

To Do: Jeannie Ralston Signing The Unlikely Lavender Queen: A Memoir of Unexpected Blossoming

A Review of a Preview of the Texas Hill Country Wine & Food Festival

The Cost of Doing Business

An oil-field services employee from Texas is shot down on the streets of Nigeria, martyr to someone's cause

The Orange Show

Spain Colored Orange takes home four Press Music Awards

Mommie Deadest

Murdered matriarchs and mystery set the scene for Jeff Abbott's Panic

Houston's Gone Gaaga for Haaga

A former king of the Texas metal world unites Houston's warring rock tribes and wins a passel of Music Awards

Rogue Bosoms, Bouncing Booties and Pac-Man Raps

Looking back on the '04

Beer Bond

Gourmet meets good ol' boy

Stone Country

Sean Reefer and the Resin Valley Boys spark up some primo Western swing and trad C&W

Ronald Reagan's Army

In your heart, you know the Yuppie Prick$ are right

Venison Recipes for Gourmet Environmentalists

Adiós, Los Tonyos

Tony Vallone sells his Tex-Mex concept to Serrano's

Racing for Slackers

Cyclists of all types hit the trail to raise money for MS research

History in the Unmaking

Drexler's has finally outgrown its 50-year-old barbecue pit

Rick Treviño

Mi Son (Vanguard)

Dish

Guest Chef: Aaron Guest at benjy's, ruppe's...

Preparing for the Millennium

Go to the Austin Hill Country and meet some folks who are taking Y2K very seriously

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