Matthew Wayne Fuller: Police Say He Forced Six-Year-Old Girl to Watch Sex Tape
If, as has been suggested, Lufkin is the weird-crime “Florida of Texas,” then the Lufkin-adjacent hamlets of Etoile, Huntington and, last but not least, Zavalla are the “Floridas of Lufkin.” Guys like 31-year-old Matthew Wayne Fuller seem all too thick on the pine-straw-littered ground there. Angelina County Sheriffs say Fuller…
Jamie Dukes (Basically) Asks Lindsay Soto to Fondle Him on NFL Network TV
I’m not sure what the statute of limitations is to make references to Seinfeld and not feel somewhat outdated. My guess is we’re past that point, but what the hell. Remember the episode where George is trying to get fired from the Yankees so that he can take a higher…
Jack Daniel’s If You Please: A Musical Sour Mash Salute
Q: What do musicians call a diminished fifth? A: An empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s. Someone at Dirt Bar thinks today may be Jack Daniel’s birthday. The Jack Daniel, inventor of the sour mash whiskey and favored rock and roll stage prop. Although they admit they can’t be sure -…
Comment of the Day: Mountain Dew Doritos
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
Houston Gets Another Minor-League Franchise Not Named the Astros
The Rockets’ immediate future may be up in the air, but the same doesn’t apply to the East Houston Heat, a professional basketball franchise that will debut in spring 2012. First-time general manager Hellion Knight, who played professionally in Europe for three seasons, is heading the minor-league club. He tells…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 3, Boudin Kolaches at Shipley’s
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
RIP Cliff Burton: Remembering Heaven’s Favorite Bassist 25 Years Later
Rocks Off just acquired a four-string electric bass guitar, in the hopes that we can find some time to learn to actually use it. Our younger brother had let it collect dust in his room at home while he did big-kid stuff like start a business and get a girlfriend…
BARC Reminds You to Stamp Out the Rabies
You know what blows? Rabies. You know what doesn’t blow? The new Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care Wellness Center’s prices: You can make sure your furry friend is rabies-free for just $20. Coinciding with World Rabies Day (which we at first mistakenly thought was a celebration of rabies, before…
Dick Moves: Houston’s Street Art Community Fires Back at Obnoxious Campaign Signs
If you’ve been living in Houston these last few months, unless you have a singular case of tunnel vision or are literally visually impaired, you are all too aware of the “Dick for Houston” campaign. The former Inbred Whiteboy bassist-turned-attorney Eric Dick is running for city council at large, and…
“Drank In My Cup” Producers Sound M.O.B.’s Top 5 Beats
The hip-hop world is a less than sensible place – lots of times, you’re even required to clarify when bad means bad and when bad means good – so once a week we’re going to get with a rapper and ask them to explain things. Something you always wanted to…
Expedition Egg Salad: Brown Bag Deli
In response to my last installment of Expedition Egg Salad, commenter Elizabeth Rhodes suggested I try Brown Bag Deli. Since I tend to eat out more for dinner than lunch, I had only visited Brown Bag Deli a few times. I very much enjoyed their cold-cut sandwiches (especially when heated…
Five Oddly Timed or Just Plain Odd Texas License Plate Offerings from MyPlates.com
The folks over at MyPlates.com, who bring us just about every custom license plate our Texas hearts could desire, just released a batch of new offerings we didn’t even know we needed. The mostly-sports-themed releases provide citizens of our great state the opportunity to show pride in their school, whether…
Today’s DVDs: The Phantom Carriage and Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore
The Phantom Carriage stars Hilda Borgström and Victor Sjöström, who also directs. The 1921 Swedish silent film The Phantom Carriage is a jewel and the perfect kickoff to the Halloween season of witches, goblins and ghouls on screen. (For those of you who don’t recognize the name Victor Sjöström, Ingmar…
G N’ R, The Cure & Chili Peppers Could Be Hall Of Famers Next Year
This morning, The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland announced the list of nominees for its Class of 2012: The Small Faces & The Faces, Freddie King, The Cure, Guns ‘N Roses, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Spinners, War, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Rufus with Chaka…
Tuesday September 27, 2011 Deals of the Day
Today’s VOICE Daily Deal from the Houston Press is good for 51 percent off ($7 for $15) inspired, thin-crust pizza and Indian food at Bombay Pizza Co.. Since opening in 2009 Bombay Pizza Co. has won two Houston Press Best of Houston Awards for “Best Pizza” and “Best Pizzeria.” Enjoy…
Texas A&M Students Rally in Support of Wildfire Relief with Towels
Say what you want about the Aggies, they are a dedicated bunch of fans. How many people do you know willing to stand for every football game for an entire season? Now, A&M students have directed some of that passion at raising money to aid victims and firefighters impacted by…
Last Night: Joe Jonas At House Of Blues
Joe Jonas, Jay Sean House of Blues September 26, 2011 The best part of Monday night’s Joe Jonas show at House of Blues was looking down at our phone and seeing one of Nancy Grace’s nipples. Nah, homegirl wasn’t sexting Aftermath, she had a wardrobe malfunction/ratings booster during Dancing With…
Counting Down to Sundance: Our Interview With Sundance Cinemas’ General Manager Rob Arcos
When it comes to film, the man in Houston who knows it all is Rob Arcos. We’ve known him since he was a young chief of staff at the Landmark River Oaks Theatre and we were just the guy who made them stay late every Saturday night so we could…
She-Male Porn Pics Come to Fore in Valley Cop Election
A South Texas county constable election turned smutty last week when one candidate texted his opponent several graphic images of “she-male porn.” Cameron County Precinct 4 Constable Robert Lopez was on the receiving end of the chicks with dicks images sent by electoral foe Joe Rodriguez, police chief of the…
Peter, Bjorn & John Giving Away Free Food At 4 p.m.
If there’s anything Houston is known for more than live music, it’s food trucks. So leave it to Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn & John to combine the two. What else would you expect from a band named after a popular sandwich? Seriously, it’s hard to find decent food on tour…
10 Fish You’re Eating That Are Endangered Species
Yesterday, we touched briefly on the plight of the idiot fish, a small red fish with giant, round marbles for eyes. It’s delicious, despite its odd appearance. And it’s also endangered. Yet it’s still sold and served across the world. The idiot fish is only “endangered,” however, not “critically endangered.”…
Last Night: Blink-182 At The Woodlands
blink-182, My Chemical Romance, Matt & Kim Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 26, 2011 Surely, there have been murmurs about blink-182’s reformation. Surely, many people have thought, “Oh, they’re only getting back together because Angels & Airwaves and +44 aren’t garnering nearly as much attention as blink did.” Surely there…
Free Food Today Courtesy of PB&J
That’s Peter, Bjorn and John, by the way — not peanut butter and jelly. As we mentioned back in August, the Swedish pop rock trio is rolling through Houston today during the band’s All You Can Eat Tour, and they want to feed their fans more than just music. Peter,…
5 Tacky Michaels Items You Probably Paid Full Price For
Last week, knitters, scrapbookers and otherwise crafters received a shock when they found out that Michaels, the Texas-based leader in all things craft supplies, agreed to a $1.8 million settlement with the State of New York for deceptive advertising. The New York attorney general’s office said that the retailer misled…
When Gravity Attacks: 13 Memorable Onstage Stumbles
Concert performances and award shows can sometimes really put the pressure on artists, who often get so nervous or excited that they may just faceplant the stage. We’ve complied you tube clips of some of the best mid-performance stumbles. Some are a little shocking, but they are all amusing in…
Legislation Being Introduced to Preserve UT and A&M Rivalry Game
Texas has a long-standing tradition of creating odd laws to fit nearly every circumstance. Hell, we have an official song for our state flower. But one has to wonder if State Senator Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) may be taking things a bit too far with his proposal to draft legislation…
Sourdough Bread: A Starter (Part Two)
Recently, I told you about my first foray into the wild world of sourdough bread (pun intended). Since then, I’ve been diligently feeding my starter, waiting for the day I can actually pull bread from the oven, slather it with good butter and perhaps a sprinkling of fleur de sel,…
There Is Unrest in the Forest: Dying Trees to Cost City $4.5 Million
Houston always seems to surprise people who come here from other parts of the country and think our landscape is populated with tumbleweeds and Dry Gulch-style sandy creek bottoms. Take one of them to the observation deck of a tall building and there is often a gasp followed by, “I…
Getting Nostalgic, Sort of, at Barcadia
Tuesday at Barcadia used to be the special free-play day when the Midtown location of the bar/kitchen/arcade chain first opened. Now everything is set on free play daily – everything that works, at least. (Currently, there’s no Galaga, no Star Wars, only one out of three skee ball machines -…
Striving for Perfection: “Asis/Esmeraldo/Espinosa/Lizárraga” at Sicardi Gallery
Work by 79-year-old Argentine artist Antonio Asis is a standout in Sicardi Gallery’s thoughtful works-on-paper show. The gallery is showing Asis’s geometric work from the 1960s — small, page-size acrylic works on paper. Carefully rendered on graph paper, Asis’s designs reveal their handmade origins in minute and endearing ways. Gorgeous…
Upcoming: Beirut, Carl Cox, Hayes Carll, Three Six Mafia, Etc.
Alexis Marceaux & the Samurai, Elaine Greer, Day Sailor: Thu., Oct. 27. Rudyard’s. DJ Ali Shaheed, Kashmere Reunion Stage Band: Sat., Oct. 22. House of Blues. Babyface: Sat., Nov. 5. Arena Theatre. Beausoleil: Tue., Nov. 8. McGonigel’s Mucky Duck. Beirut: Mon., Oct. 31. Warehouse Live. Black Veil Brides, Falling in…
Comment of the Day: Brown Letter Edition
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
The Little Bird’s New Nest: Aspen High End Consignment & Resale Boutique Opens in Houston
Alexander McQueen, Proenza Schoeler, Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi and Chanel are only a few of the designer labels you’ll find on the racks and shelves at new boutique The Little Bird, located in the Galleria area. After four years of success in Aspen and frequent patronage by numerous visiting Houstonians,…
So Long, Arch West, And Thank You For All For The Doritos
I heard that Arch West, the inventor of Doritos, had passed away at the full age of 97, from my shower radio, while I was getting ready for work. It was the perfect place to survey all the delicious damage that West’s work has done on my body these past…
Pop Rocks: Land a Man the Patti Stanger Way
Didn’t Bravo start its life as something other than the place where the most embarrassing specimens of mankind wash up on our channel listing like so many Cuban refugees? I vaguely recall there being performing arts and independent movies, which of course nobody watched, so now we get stuff like…
Pop Rocks: Landing a Man, Millionaire Matchmaker Style
Didn’t Bravo start its life as something other than the place where the most embarrassing specimens of mankind wash up on our channel listing like so many Cuban refugees? I vaguely recall there being performing arts and independent movies, which of course nobody watched, so now we get stuff like…
30 Seconds With Miles Zuniga
Rocks Off interrogated Miles Zuniga, who just released his solo debut These Ghosts Have Bones, to see what we could find out about the Fastball singer/guitarist and Austin’s own acolyte of the Church of John Coltrane 30 seconds. Rocks Off: What is the worst song in the world? Miles Zuniga:…
C-USA Considers Merger with Mountain West in Search of BCS Bid
In what seems both inspired and crazy, Conference USA, which includes University of Houston and Rice, is considering a football-only merger with the Mountain West Conference that would create a massive 22-plus-team mega conference in the hopes that it might receive a BCS bowl bid. Officials from both conferences discussed…
100 Creatives: Y.E. Torres a.k.a. “ms. YET” (NSFW)
What she does: Also known as ms. YET, Y.E. Torres is a contemporary bellydancer, multidisciplinary visual and performance artist, costume designer, model, curator and teacher. She leads bellydance technique and yoga classes at Verticality Pole Fitness and YogaOne Studios. “I’m interested in creating life out of line — be it…
Where Are We Drinking?
Do you know what you’re looking at? That, my friends, is a beet margarita. And it can only be found at one place in Houston. This particular watering hole is known for infusing its tequilas with a variety of spices, herbs, fruits and even beets. The sweet, earthy flavor of…
Unidentified Male, Bayou Body Count No. 148
An unidentified man was found dead and partially buried at 612 Keith about 2:25 p.m. on September 24. The cause of death is pending an autopsy, but police believe the victim was killed at a different location and dumped. According to HPD, a witness reported seeing a Hispanic male hurriedly…
Texans-Saints, Etc. — 4 Winners, 4 Losers
The easy fallback after Sunday’s 40-33 loss to the New Orleans Saints is to say “Same ol’ Texans,” and, in a way, I understand. Red zone issues, fourth quarter brain farts (23 points allowed), the untimely turnover, same ol’ Texans. But I choose to look at the glass half full,…
Comment of the Day: Down with Luby’s Mac & Cheese
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
Lawrence Daniel: Expects Reward for Stolen Compressor, Goes to Jail Instead
If you’re gonna attempt a low-grade redneck ransom plot, you might want to make sure you don’t have any felony warrants out first. That’s what 45-year-old Lawrence Daniel of Corpus Christi found out last week. This wild and woolly, ornery-lookin’ critter called an auto parts shop there and said he…
Rick Perry the Gunslinger: Report Released from Brady Campaign on Perry’s Gun Record
Governor Rick Perry’s love of guns has been well documented and he is more than happy to share his thoughts on the matter, particularly when it comes to killing a coyote on a morning jog and his affinity for laser sights on his weapons of choice. In Texas, loving your…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 4, Oysters on the Half Shell at Casey’s
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
Saturday Night: Stage Frights & Ending the Vicious Cycle At Numbers
The Stage Frights, Ending the VIcious Cycle Numbers September 24, 2011 The Stage Frights are only on their fourth show, but between the husband and wife team of Larry Rainwater and Spleen there are decades of experience in goth musical excellence. Previously they’ve brought Houston two sensational deathrock acts, Ex-Voto…
Historic Houston Home Has High Hopes as Hostel
The Morty Rich house, located in the Montrose area, was originally built in 1923 and was home to former Houston mayor and Fifth Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Chappel Hutcheson Jr. For a number of years, it was a private residence before becoming the Lovett Inn, a popular bed and…
IWatch Harris County App from the Sheriff’s Department Poorly Designed
The best smartphone apps meant for functionality rather than entertainment fill a need, are easy to use and provide appropriate functionality for the task at hand. The Harris County Sheriff’s Department IWatch Harris County app delivers about one-and-a-half of those requirements. The IWHC app for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry is…
Copycat vs. Real Deal: Luby’s Macaroni And Cheese
I sure do love some mac ‘n cheese. My mom makes a killer mac, so when I had to bring a side to a barbecue last year, I asked for her recipe. Her email reply was titled “Luby’s Cafeteria Mac and Cheese.” Eh? My Mom’s “killer mac” is really Luby’s…
Goodbye, Mr. Peppermint
Jerry Haynes, the boater-topped, candy-cane-brandishing kids TV host affectionately known across Texas as “Mr. Peppermint,” has died of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 84 years old. Haynes made his name as the host of Peppermint Place (originally Mr. Peppermint), a show that was broadcast for 35 years on WFAA…
Three Houston Cops Accused of Eating Evidence in May Pot Case
Man, the Houston Police Department is starting to seem less like a police force and more like the world’s biggest frat party these days. Hard on the heels of the dismissal of one veteran cop for driving to work drunk off his ass and crashing into a (luckily almost empty)…
WhoMadeWho: It’s Time To Get Some Real Problems
The latest video on our exchange program with Mick Cullen at Subterranean Radio brings us a Danish band called WhoMadeWho. Hopefully the picture up there has already eliminated any AC/DC reference points your brain might have been attempting, because WhoMadeWho is so far on the other side of the spectrum…
There Is a Happiness That Morning Is at Catastrophic Theatre: Get Ready to Get Culturally Slapped
The setup: After making their audiences bust a gut laughing at their summer Tamarie revue, Catastrophic Theatre likes to begin a new season by slapping that same audience upside the head. In a good way. This year’s slap comes via There Is a Happiness That Morning Is, written by Catastrophic…
Wine of the Week: An Under-$25 Fresh, Clean Sparkler
Whenever it comes to sparkling wine, the comparison to Champagne is inevitable. Together with Bordeaux and Burgundy, wine regions that the British embraced as benchmarks for fine wine in the 19th century, the Champagne “brand” is so powerful that it pervades nearly every discussion of sparkling wine. This is due in…
Dr. Brown’s Letters to Sophie, Volume II: Your Mom’s a Bitch
We’re still chomping at the bit to get our hands on any of the seven self-published tomes Michael Brown has written about his greatness, including how awesome he is at hunting dangerous game like giraffes. In the meantime, we have the unpublished Letters to Sophie, which we kicked off with…
Friday Night: Def Leppard & Heart At The Woodlands
Def Leppard, Heart Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 23, 2011 Like so many of their 80s hard rock brethren, Def Leppard has always straddled the line between serious musical territory and the self-parody that threatens all bands associated with that era. On one hand, High ‘n’ Dry and Pyromania are…
Idiot Fish: The Night I Ate an Endangered Species
A couple of weeks back, I enjoyed a beautiful dinner at Kubo’s next to a table of hilariously drunk Japanese people boisterously eating sashimi off a giant wooden boat that acted as a centerpiece/serving tray, while my dining companion and I marveled at our smaller — yet no less impressive…
The Week in TV: Whitney As Bad As We’d Feared
This was the week in TV Land: • Well, we’re a week into the new season, and a lot of new shows have premiered and old ones have returned. I made the mistake of watching 2 Broke Girls and Whitney last week, an experience that left me feeling scraped-out and…
NBA Training Camps Canceled — Five Things Players Can Do During This Time Off
The NBA officially canceled all training camps and portions of the preseason due to the continuing lockout imposed by owners. While there have been a few rumblings over the past week or so that there might be some cause for optimism with behind-the-scenes negotiating taking place, few honestly believe the…
What’s The Best Rap Song About A Girlfriend, Wife Or Side Chick?
For shame. Generally, the way Rap Round Table works is Rocks Off sends out a question of varying importance each week to rappers for them to discuss. About two years of doing this column has taught us that the best way to get responses is to do it on Twitter…
Our 5 Favorite Nonmusical Things From BestFest
The first-ever Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest is now a memory, mostly a memory of great musical acts and $5 beer. But the idea behind BestFest was to make the “Best of Houston® come to life,” and that includes arts and culture. So we came up with our own…
Will Houston Get Its First Real Cold Front This Weekend?
Last week, I brought up the fact that our weather should be moderating as the days grow shorter and cool fronts begin pushing southward. Well, looks like we might not have to wait as long for our first blast of seasonal cool air as originally thought. This time of year,…
Tacos at La Palapa
Even when eating downtown, not all of my meals are consumed below ground. On a recent (and rare) morning, I got out of the house a little early. Early enough to swing around the long way to the office, stopping by Catalina for a cortado, and finally managing to stop…
Pharrell Launches New Qream Liqueur At Exclusive Event
Pharrell Williams wears many hats. He’s a Grammy-Award winning producer, singer, songwriter, rapper, and successful clothing designer. Amongst those things, Williams has picked up one more project to juggle. Friday night, Williams dropped into Houston for the launch of his new liqueur, Qream. The drink is a collaboration between Williams…
Comment of the Day: Merrie Olde Laser Shows
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Something for Everyone in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change
The setup: A series of musical vignettes about relationships springs into comic life as polished material is mined for laughs by talented actors, who find the laughs and deliver them — in spades. The execution: There’s little mystery to the success and broad appeal of this long-running, widely-produced musica. It…
Caipiroska: The Cheapest Cocktail in America
The underage friend of a cousin, whom I’ll call F. Minor, was talking to me about college life. He’d pledged a fraternity the year before, quickly rising to become a social director of the house. Ignorant of frat life, I had to ask, “What kind of duties does that require?”…
Fast Times: Burger King California WHOPPER®
When I saw the commercial for the new Burger King California WHOPPER I thought: “Hey, I like guacamole! And hey, I think I used to like WHOPPERS, too!” And since my last experience at Burger King had been so surprisingly positive, I felt like I had a good shot at…
Saturday Night: Erasure At Verizon Wireless Theater
Erasure Verizon Wireless Theater September 24, 2011 Over the course of their 25-year history together, British duo Erasure has recorded 13 albums, released 40 singles, and sold 25 million records. The pair is subsequently considered as one of the definitive architects of New Wave synth-pop music. But Erasure has laid…
Saints 40, Texans 33: Five Plays That Got Away
The latest chapter in the long-running series of Texan near misses might have been the most painful. Sure, there were plenty of positives. The Texans (2-1) proved they were capable of hanging with the NFL’s elite on the road. They weren’t outclassed. Looking forward, with Peyton Manning likely out for…
What’s Cooking This Week?
Despite the beautiful weather, last week I made a dinner menu gearing me up for fall (not my fault – I’m from Jersey and I miss my pumpkin spice lattes). I’ll keep the autumn feeling going with a couple of next week’s meals. Here’s the plan. On the menu: Spinach…
Who Wants to Marry a Texas Millionaire: Our Bachelor Predictions
Every once in a while, we pop on over to Craigslist to see what is going on in the world of community events, garage sales and free stuff. This inevitably leads to an hour and a half of time spent reading the Missed Connections and then, we usually find ourselves…
Last Night: Cake At Best Of Houston BestFest
Cake Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest Midtown Superblock September 25, 2011 We’re not sure if Cake lead singer John McCrea is genuinely a cantankerous prick, or if he simply pretends to be one onstage because he finds it amusing to do so. The end result is largely the same:…
10 Awful ’60s Saturday Morning Cartoons
People of a certain age like to remember the ’60s as a golden age of cartoons, when nothing but magic came out of screens as kids lapped up their cereal while Daddy slept off a hangover upstairs. But for every Rocky & Bullwinkle, Jonny Quest or Top Cat, there was…
Opera in the Heights’ Daughter of the Regiment: A Rich, Sweet Treat
The set-up: Houston’s opera season is off to a roaring start with Opera in the Heights’ lively, beautifully sung production of Gaetano Donizetti’s operetta-in-training Daughter of the Regiment. The execution: Written for Paris in 1840, Daughter is a delicious French bonbon: whipped up sweet and airy, without a thought in…
Texas A&M and SEC Make It Official
Finally putting an end to unrelenting speculation, rumor and hand-wringing from colleges, media and sports radio, the Southeastern Conference formally accepted Texas A&M University into its conference Sunday, ending A&M’s tenure in the Big 12 and leaving the future of that conference very much up in the air. There will…
That’s Love, Y’all: Low-Key Texas Romance Filled with Humor and Character
The set-up: A youngish widow is courted by a shy younger man, to her older sister’s disapproval, in a sweet romance set in a small Texas town. The execution: The world of rural Texas is created onstage in a simple but compelling set designed by Judy Reeves, who also directed…
Where Are We Eating?
The breakfast below might not look all that special, but photos don’t do this meal justice. A plate of over-easy eggs, refried beans and sauteed potatoes go into this restaurant’s homemade flour tortillas along with some of its sharp red salsa — just a little drizzle is all you need…
The Scrubs Get Major Playing Time As Coogs Glide to Easy Victory
As the Cougars trotted off of the field after the first half on Saturday night, the question wasn’t whether the Cougars would be in need of another second half comeback. That wasn’t the question because the Cougars were up 35-0 over a clearly outclassed Georgia State squad. The question going…
BestFest: Hayes Carll Strikes Up The Band, Cake Shut It Down
By now Hayes Carll has to be the musical poet laureate of Southeast Texas, or the “scruffy redneck rocker” division, anyway. (Bun B holds the rapper crown in perpetuity.) Carll’s songs are as stuffed with detail as a roadmap, the Piney Woods gamblers of “Rivertown” and Crystal Beach ne’er-do-wells at…
BestFest: Buxton Incite Swoons, Deer Tick Get A Little Goofy
Maybe I’ve just never seen Buxton at a venue as large as this one before, but I’ve seen them play some pretty big places, and so far this is the biggest they’ve ever sounded. It was just confirmed for me that those guys can thrive equally well in either a…
BestFest: Honky Tonk Brothers Draw Blood, Carolyn Wonderland Laps The Field
The Home Brew stage served up a buffet of local talent with Johnny Falstaff, John Evans, Southern Backtones’ Hank Schyma, and Craig Kinsey of the Sideshow Tramps, otherwise known as the Honky Tonk Blood Brothers. Each member of the quartet turned out three songs from the recently-released Honky Tonk Blood,…
BestFest: Wild Moccasins Made In The Shade, Little Joe Rips
Well, Houston’s gradual transformation into Death Valley seemed to work in the Wild Moccasins’ favor; although somewhat sparse this early in the day, the crowd nonetheless crowded forward, pressed up against the barriers in front of the stage. Sure, it probably had something to do with the Moccasins’ infectious, bouncy…
Umbrella Man, Texans On At BestFest
Day 2 of the Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest is underway. Nick Gaitain & the Umbrella Man opened with a set of countrified conjunto, steamy barrio ballads and one of our favorite Los Lobos songs, “I Got Loaded.” The most prophetic line of the day may be from a…
BestFest: Bun B, Rap God; Toadies Close Out With A Shred
It’s hard to write about Bun B objectively anymore. Really, it is. He has ascended to where ever it is that people who are hard to write about objectively ascend to. It feels like, if he just did it with conviction, he could walk out on stage, take a dump…
BestFest: Slim Thug’s Sweet Tooth, Against Me! Destroys, Bun B Trills
Slim Thug is in front of me eating a popsicle right now. That sums up the second half of my day pretty well. There was skanking at Los Skarnales – both kinds – and a surprise Baby Bash mini-set before Slim Thug came onstage. I forgot how much “Suga Suga”…
BestFest: Chamillionaire, Starmaker; The Tontons, New Stars
God Almighty, that cool front did not last anywhere near long enough. The crowd seems to be in pretty good spirits, but it’s just past the hottest part of the day right now and fatigue is starting to show. It’s better now – ed. People are following the small bits…
BestFest: Don’t Be Afraid Of The Bus
The light-rail shutdown isn’t harshing the BestFest buzz. Rocks Off rode the Rail Shuttle earlier today, and we can tell you it was just fine. A little crowded, but not uncomfortably so, and we rode downtown to retrieve some things from our office in style. The stops are all along…
BestFest: thelastplaceyoulook Rolls In The Deep & All That Jazz
If you missed Hell City Kings, the first band that played today, you missed out on a really religious experience. That could have been because frontman Josh Wolf made the set look like a Christian summer camp. Since it was so early, there were only a few of us hanging…
BestFest Is Officially Off The Ground
The Houston Press Best of Houston BestFest® is here. It’s happening. The Hell City Kings just finished blasting away on the main stage, and the Texas Brass Band is making it funky right now on The Time’s “Jungle Love.” Rocks Off has already seen one MIchael Jackson impersonator. We’ll bring…
Live from New York: Our Dream Saturday Night Live Cast
For almost four decades, Saturday Night Live has been America’s premier sketch comedy show, spawning dozens of memorable characters, launching comedians into near-iconic status and, of course, making us laugh, cry and hurl. SNL’s presence has become a part of our national DNA, ranging from Monday morning water-cooler conversation about…
This Week in Deliciousness
Welcome back to the weekly roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we’ve been watching My Drunk Kitchen so much that our cooking skills have depleted drastically, while our drinking skills have massively improved. Also, I kind of want to try a reverse Chaz Bono and go woo me some…
In Honor of Jacoby Jones, 7 Celebration FAIL Videos
Next man in. That’s the old football saying that every coach spits out any time a player at the top of the depth chart gets hurt, basically saying there are no excuses. It’s up to the next guy at that position to step in and go to work. Two weeks…
Guns N’ Roses Tickets On Sale Next Friday
There’s a date and venue for Axl & friends’ Houston show now – Friday, November 4 at Toyota Center. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. next Friday at livenation.com and toyotacentertix.com, or by phone at 866-4HOUTIX. Welcome to the jungle, y’all. See you at BestFest…
A “Classic Cool” Start To BestFest Weekend
Kicking off with a swanky media preview party this evening, the area surrounding the “superblock” at Main and McGowen should be a beehive of activity the next 48 hours. Tonight Lonesome Onry and Mean will be partying in the Mercedes Benz VIP area and getting a first look at the…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 5, Tagliarini with Black Truffles at Da Marco
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
The X Factor Does Dallas (And Miami)
Audition round two of The X Factor is held in Miami and Dallas, and they tell a different story than Los Angeles. In my first recap, I was impressed with the consistently great talent The X Factor delivered, keeping the freak-show acts to a minimum. When the judges hit Miami,…
Jose Acuna: If You’re Wanted for Murder, Don’t Tell a Cop You Just Tapped His Car in the Parking Lot
You could say Jose Acuna did the right thing — he had lightly tapped into a car in a restaurant parking lot, so he went inside to find the driver. Commendable. On the other hand, when the tapped car in question is a Center, Texas, police car and — and…
Hail, Hail: 10 Things You Should Know About Pearl Jam
Amongst all the Nevermind love running rampant this week, people seem to forget that Nirvana contemporaries Pearl Jam are also celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. Obviously the Nirvana tributes are different since one member is not living and the weight that Nevermind still carries two decades later is undeniable…
Last Night: Giselle and Indigo at Houston Ballet
The Houston Ballet’s performance of Giselle and Indigo showed two of the company’s strengths — the ability to make traditional works completely their own and the ability to embrace contemporary choreography. It was a light, refreshing version of Giselle that audiences saw in the first act, which made the second…
Where You Should Be Tomorow: Best of Houston® BestFest
Here’s a picture from today on the Midtown “superblock” that will be home to the Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest. Now imagine it at about 9:30 tomorrow night, as the Toadies are bringing it with the Houston skyline behind them and a cooling breeze blowing around. You want to…
Project Runway: It’s the Menswear Challenge!
This week on Project Runway: It’s the Garnier Fructis challenge, and we know this because they say “Garnier” eleventy billion times; It’s PR’s first! ever! live! musical! performance! We learn that in addition to hating real, live women, Olivier hates real, live men. The guest judge is former AI contestant…
10 Popular Rappers’ Disney Alter Egos
Were you ever mildly attracted to Jafar in the Disney movie Aladdin? We were, probably because he reminded us so much of Prince. So, needless to say, Rocks Off is pretty stoked that Disney is bringing back some of our beloved iconic villains-like Jafar and Scar-to 3-D. We’ve always pictured…
The 10 Dumbest Star Wars Names
What, you haven’t gotten your Star Wars Blu-ray yet? We haven’t kept up with the news, but we’re guessing George Lucas tweaked something somewhere in this latest reissue and sent message boards into apoplexy. Thinking of Star Wars, we took a look at the IMDb cast and credits for each…
Upcoming Events: A Taste of Triniti and Brews on the Bayou
This weekend, if you aren’t headed to our own BestFest, check out the 3rd annual Wine Festival on the Kemah Boardwalk on Saturday, September 24, from 2 to 5 p.m. More than 50 samples from 17 different wineries will be on hand, including wines from the nearby Haak Winery in…
Six Ways BestFest Already Beats Austin City Limits
A decade ago this month, Rocks Off Sr. drove down from Jasper to check out this new event in Zilker Park called the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Back then it was a far cry from what it would become – there were only a couple of stages, and one…
Guys and Dolls and the Sky Masterson Part for Joseph Mahowald
He’s been a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall; played on Broadway in Jekyll and Hyde, Les Miz and The Pirate Queen; and appeared in film and soaps and taken starring roles in regional theater and on national tour. But there was one coveted role that always escaped Joseph Mahowald: the…
We Have Visited The BestFest Grounds, And It Is Good
Just minutes ago, Rocks Off returned from the Best of Houston® BestFest grounds at the Midtown superblock off Main and Travis, and we can say with all certainty that this weekend will be huge. We were there shooting a segment to air on Channel 39’s NewsFix today at 5 and…
Colby Ivan McCardle, 21, Bayou Body Count No. 147
A man was shot to death in a northside apartment complex parking lot last evening, Houston police say. Colby Ivan McCardle, 21, was talking with a group of friends in the lot in the 900 block of Greesn Road about 7:10 p.m. when, HPD says, “The group was approached by…
Odd Pair: Kolaches and a Californian Rosé
Out in California where I grew up, no one’s ever heard of a kolache. However gastronomically inclined and aware, I didn’t know what a kolache was until I moved to Texas three years ago. Since that time, the savory, flaky, crumbly, often gooey, and always deliciously homey sensorial experience of…
Chef Chat, Part 3: Grant Gordon of Tony’s – Chef’s Tasting Menu
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 nightly creations. We started with a Mediterranean branzino crudo with crispy skin. Set atop tasteful swooshes…
One More Reason to Attend BestFest: Live Graffiti Painting by Aerosol Warfare
Earlier this week, we gave you a list of reasons to attend BestFest (we were particularly proud of bringing Hipster Bingo back to the blogosphere). Well, we’ve got one more reason: Watching graffiti art collective Aerosol Warfare create a BestFest-themed work of art. “We’re going with a Midtown theme,” Aerosol…
Dig This: Dig Dug, Bang Bangz, Los Skarnales, The Wiggins & Craig Kinsey
The current volume of local music is staggering, so Rocks Off wants to help you (and ourselves) keep up. Dig This is back with another round of gems following some successful mining of the Internet. Here’s another handful of local music acts for you to explore, including a few that…
Rick Perry Gets Roasted Over Debate Performance — By Conservatives
If you’re going by the opinions of the rightwing talking heads and pundits who fill up Fox News airspace, then Rick Perry had a terrible debate last night and the bloom definitely seems to be off the rose. Maybe it’s the drought. Politico, the conservative news site that pretends it’s…
This Weekend in College Football: The Coogs Should Get the Easy Win While the Owls Look to Lose Again
While the Rice Owls (1-1) struggle with the Baylor Bears this weekend, the Houston Cougars (3-0) will be struggling with themselves. It might seem that the Owls have the harder struggle, what with having to handle stud Baylor QB Robert Griffin III, but anybody who has watched the Cougars struggle…
City Nights and Opera in the Heights: The Week in Art Photos
It’s time again to check out the Houston Press Flickr Pool and see what kinds of art shots our talented photographers have added. We love street art, unique perspectives and beautiful photos of Houston’s creative community. If you think you’ve got a good eye, drop your pictures in the pool…
Last Night: Atmosphere & Evidence At House Of Blues
Atmosphere, Evidence House of Blues September 22, 2011 Aftermath is pretty sure that this indie/hip hop genre is the next big thing. Here’s why: Firstly, it’s much catchier and original than most of the rap you’ll hear on the radio; secondly, it incorporates live musicians actually playing instruments, which is…
Countdown to BestFest: It All Starts Tomorrow
The 23rd annual Houston Press Best of Houston® issue is coming out on Thursday, September 29. But you don’t have to wait until next week to celebrate: Come join us as we celebrate the issue’s release at this weekend’s BestFest block party. Headlining bands the Toadies and Cake will play…
Atheist Woodstock: Christopher Hitchens & Richard Dawkins Together in Houston
For crissake, the Hyatt Regency downtown is going to be one godforsaken place next month. Noted atheist Richard Dawkins had long been scheduled to appear at the Atheist Alliance of America/Texas Freethought Convention October 7-9, but now there’s a special guest — perhaps the other most famous atheist around, Christopher…
Big Bite Night Goes Bollywood
The 2011 Big Bite Night at the Houston Museum of Natural Science went Bollywood this year. Narin’s Bombay Brasserie was among the nearly 50 restaurants spotlighted at this year’s event. And this year, the museum spread the dozens of restaurants out even further, creating an easy flow and intimate seating…
Football! This Weekend’s Best Bets, A Salute To TV Season Premieres
Television fascinates me. It seems like a new station pops up onto my channel grid every day to the point where I’m actually a little disappointed I haven’t been approached by anyone to televise the Sean Network. I mean, doesn’t everyone have their own network these days? (Admittedly, the content…
Saturday At Numbers: A Night Of Pure Texas Goth
Saturday will bring some of Texas’ darkest and most talented Goths together for a night of music and fashion. While the rest of you are out soaking up BestFest a good portion of the Gothic Council will be over at Numbers for an evening of fashion and music. The focus…
Person of Interest: Better Than We Dared Hope
When you throw together the producer of Lost and Star Trek (J.J. Abrams), the co-writer/producer of The Dark Knight (Jonathan Nolan), and Jesus himself (Jim Caviezel), the end product is either going to be fairly impressive or seriously disappointing. Happily, in the case of CBS’s new prime time drama Person…
Community: Free to Be … You and Me
Community has always had two jobs: telling stories and selling itself. Most traditional sitcoms only have to worry about the first one. Writers and producers figure out how to move characters in and out of relationships, and the good ones try to do it with a kind of memorable flair,…
Comment of the Day: The Debate Over Last Meal Requests on Death Row
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Thunder Soul: Kashmere Stage Band Rumbles Onto Big Screen
It’s hard enough to believe that a single high-school stage band could win 42 out of 46 competitions entered throughout the ’70s. It’s even harder to believe that the same band that won those competitions did so by playing nothing but the rawest renditions of “Super Bad” and other classic…
Bartender Chat: Thelia of The Stag’s Head
We stopped into The Stag’s Head on a Monday afternoon craving an ice-cold Strongbow and a low-key scene, and we got just that. The spacious pub was practically empty except for an older gentleman with a heavy northern English accent sipping a beer. We took a quick spin around the…
Reviews for the Easily Distracted: Moneyball
Title: Moneyball Oh. That’s Fine. I Guess. What’s the problem? I’m Not Really Into Baseball Movies: That’s cool. There’s almost no baseball in Moneyball. Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: Three-and-a-half treadmills out of five. Tagline: “What Are You Really Worth?” Better Tagline: “How Many World Series Titles…
Openings & Closings: Shepherd on Draft
Anyone who may have mourned the passing of Octane — the coffee shop-cum-cafe in Garden Oaks — will be pleased as punch to hear what’s taking its place: Shepherd Park Draft House, a “pub/restaurant” which fills as much of a niche as Octane attempted to do. The bar will be…
Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest: TOMORROW!
The Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest kicks off tomorrow, and you better be there. Can you bring kids? If they’re under ten, they get in for free. Can you buy tickets on site? Yep. Can you bring in food? No, but check out this stellar list of local restaurants…
The X Factor Auditions Round 2: Miami and Dallas
Audition round two of The X Factor is held in Miami and Dallas, and they tell a different story than Los Angeles. In my first recap, I was impressed with the consistently great talent The X Factor delivered, keeping the freak show acts to a minimum. When the judges hit…
Week in Photos: Alabama Theatre
Each week, we take a dip into the Houston Press Flickr pool and see what our talented photographers have been up to. We’re looking for pictures that represent the best of Houston, from food to art to events, to secret hidden spots of beauty. Just drop them in our Flickr…
Happy Birthday, Nintendo: 6 Awesome Retro Game Covers
Today is the 122nd anniversary of the founding of Nintendo. Yes, you read that right. Nintendo is older than the automobile, Dracula, and the country of Iraq. In a just world, we would brave an abandoned warehouse haunted by tentacle monsters in order to win a cache of steampunk video-game…
Tarell Waller, 24, and Javon Shantrice Williams, 22, Bayou Body Count Nos. 145 & 146
Police say a drunk woman ran a red light and plowed into two pedestrians, and she has been charged with intoxication manslaughter in their deaths. Chavon Latowya Frank, 30, was driving westbound on West Fuqua about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday night when she drove through the red light at White Heather…
Yao Ming and the Fight Against Shark Fin Soup
As beloved as Yao Ming is to Houstonians, it’s no match for the affection held for him in China. And the former Rockets basketball player is hoping that his high profile in his native country will encourage his fellow countrymen to stop consuming shark fin soup. At a press conference…
100 Creatives: Wendy Wagner
What she does: Wendy Wagner is a Hunting Prize-winning painter, animator and mixed-media artist who has been making art most of her life. “My father was a professor at UT and would bring home stacks of paper from work that I would draw on. I would go through these stacks…
Four Ways the Nerdy Yet Useful “If This Then That” Web site Will Help Organize Your Online Life
I recently stumbled onto the brilliant website If This Then That or ifttt.com. IFTTT is a website that brings together a range of different online services and makes them play nice together. And what makes IFTTT so unique is that it takes something extremely nerdy at its core — if/then statements…
Last Night: Glen Campbell At Stafford Centre
Glen Campbell Stafford Centre September 21, 2011 Thursday night may have been the most profoundly uncomfortable Aftermath has ever been watching a live performance. In the past year, we have seen many artists of advanced years in concert, from Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson to Texas Johnny Brown and Little…
Biggest Loser, v 3.0 — Luther Campbell
Yes, we’re dusting off the Biggest Loser feature again! I’m sure you’re fired up. The feature that was originally meant to highlight specific groups of people with dysfunctional behavior and whose rules were subsequently bent to include specific individuals in the second version, now adds another individual to its figurative…
Comment of the Day: 9 Kinds of Stupid
Here on Eating Our Words, the commenters absolutely make the blog, and our Comment of the Day honors the best of the bunch. Every day, we read you guys and pick the commenter, or commenters, who made us laugh, cry, salivate over something delicious, or think about things in a…
Drought Fallout: Renaissance Festival Will Now Feature Ye Olde Laser Show
Another victim of the drought and wildfires in the area this year: the fireworks show at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Instead it’s Laser-Show Time, dudes! “The Royal Fireworks display is one of the most anticipated aspects of the festival day,” said Terre Albert, TRF general manager. “Given the recent wildfires…
100 Favorite Dishes: No. 6, Saigon Burger at The Burger Guys
This year leading up to our annual Best of Houston issue, we’re counting down our 100 favorite dishes in Houston. This list comprises our favorite dishes from the last year, dishes that are essential to Houston’s cultural landscape and/or dishes that any visitor (or resident) should try at least once…
City of Needles: Houston-Filmed Puncture Comes Home
We all know the standard Hollywood courtroom scene: It usually involves a full house, immaculately dressed lawyers and a snarky judge. The best drama happens on the witness stand, and nothing’s ever settled out of court. But in Puncture, Mike Weiss, the real-life Houston lawyer portrayed by Chris Evans in…
Lordy Lordy, T. Rex’s Electric Warrior Is 40
A few months back, we had this to say about T. Rex on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of their single “Bang A Gong (Get It On)” reaching the top of the UK charts. This Saturday, parent album, Electric Warrior, turns 40 years old. It bears repeating, not because…
Brew Blog: Isastegi Basque Cider
Unless you’ve had this, it’s not what you’re thinking. I suppose this could be an overly broad generalization, but it seems the the general market for hard cider is something akin to the market for “hard lemonade.” The resulting expectation is for sweet, fizzy beverages with little to set each…
Beyonce’s Mom Selling Her Kinkaid-Area Mansion
Got a spare $3.5 million lying around? You can buy the home of Beyoncé’s mom, Tina Knowles, and still have a dollar left for a McDonald’s breakfast! The 8,850-square-foot mansion is near the Kinkaid School by San Felipe and Voss. According to its official listing, it: unfolds on 2.6 acres…
Jose Gomez: We Talk with the HPD Cop Who Arrested Him for 1981 Murder
HPDJose Gomez: Arrested yesterday for 1981 murder.Jose Gomez was arrested yesterday and charged with murder for a killing 30 years ago. For 30 years he’s been living in the Houston area as a prime suspect in the murder, but cops had only a first and last name — no date…
The X Factor: Simon Cowell’s Softer Side
Wednesday night, Fox’s highly-anticipated The X Factor debuted, and though as of this writing I was unable to find any ratings numbers I have to imagine they were stellar. Not too good – Ed. Simon Cowell has massive appeal, and even if numbers continue to decline throughout the season, I…
Let’s Annoyingly Pop Culture Your Ass, Charlie Brown
So Art Attack was sitting in our lair practicing for an inevitable showdown with our arch nemesis when a press release from Fox came over the Internet announcing two upcoming animated Thanksgiving specials. One involved Ice Age, which may or may not be a fine set of films seeing as…
Countdown to BestFest: 1 Day Left, Plus One-Day Passes
Our first ever BestFest block party is taking place this weekend in Midtown to celebrate our upcoming 23rd annual Best of Houston® issue, and you don’t want to miss out. In addition to big-name bands like Cake and the Toadies, plenty of Houston legends will be performing on our two…
Brigitte Gabriel Bringing Her Islamophobe Spiel to Katy’s First Baptist Church
If you’re wanting to hear a bigoted, pathetically overbroad stereotyping of a religion and a culture, what better place to go to than a church? First Baptist Church in Katy, to be exact. They’re hosting a speech by Brigitte Gabriel, the rightwing ranter who’s made a career out of bashing…
Chef Chat, Part 2: Grant Gordon of Tony’s
Yesterday, we chatted with Grant Gordon about his road to becoming a Executive Chef at Tony’s. See our chat here. Today, we talk about his role at Tony’s and some of of his favorite things about Houston. EOW: So what do you do here at Tony’s? GG: I’m executive chef…
Top 10 Hip-Hop Album Intro Tracks
Before iTunes and Amazon gave us the luxury of picking and choosing which tracks we want off an album, we had to buy the entire CD or cassette tape to listen to everything we paid for. The intro tracks are usually what help us decide if the album is something…
Cirque du Soleil Brings Dralion (and Its Amazing Juggler) to Houston Area
When he was six years old, Vladik Miagkostupov came to the United States with his parents, who were with the Moscow Circus. After touring America, they decided to stay, and moved, of course, to Las Vegas. Twenty-one years later and Vladik Miagkostupov is one of the key acts for the…
Gun-Control Group Gives Rick Perry Great Boost (Among Gun Nuts)
The Brady Campaign, perhaps the nation’s most prominent gun-control group, has just given Rick Perry a big ol’ helping hand in the GOP primaries. They’ve released a report called Gunslinger: Rick Perry’s Reckless Record on Guns, highlighting his record. “Not only is Rick Perry an extremist on guns, but he…
Wine of the Week: $15 Is the New $10
“What’s your favorite wine for under $10?” If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that question, I’d probably have about $15. When it comes to wine pricing, you’ll often hear wine trade folks talk about “price points,” in other words, a “maximum” price that allows us…
Up All Night: Life Is Hell with “Cool Neighbors”
When childless friends of mine ask me about having kids, I usually skip topics like lack of sleep (as inevitable as the tides) or childhood maladies (stock up on rash ointments, children’s acetaminophen, and Neosporin) or that whole “bonding with your kids” thing, and go straight to the End of…
No More Last Meal Requests on Death Row Senator Says UPDATED
Houston State Senator John Whitmire, who wields great influence on prison issues, says he wants to do away with granting last meal requests for inmates about to be executed. The over-the-top meal of Lawrence Brewer, executed last night for the dragging death of James Byrd, was the last straw. Whitmire…
Houston Tops Dallas for Dining, Says LivingSocial, But What’s In a Survey?
In the last two weeks, two very different surveys have been released on the dining scenes in cities across the nation: one from Travel + Leisure, which placed San Antonio above Austin on its top 20 list — while failing to recognize any other Texas cities — and one from…
NASA Ringtones: “Houston, We’ve Had a Problem” and Others
NASA geeks rejoice: The agency has made some of their audio greatest hits available for use as ringtones. var so = new SWFObject(“http://media.houstonpress.com/players/vvmMiniPlayer2.swf?k={rlD=Tlzq4o=&autoPlay=no”,”theSWF”, “91”, “32”, “8”, “#FFFFFF”); so.write( “player_1316709769” ); You probably could have finagled a way to do some of these before, but now NASA has made it easy,…
Honey Honey: Banjos Plucked Like Foreplay
It’s a well-known fact that band names are essentially gobbledygook, but here at Rocks Off we’re working hard to find meaning in the oddest monikers. Publicist Renee Harrison has a knack for finding us at our most vulnerable (hint: it’s when we’ve almost reached the answer at the bottom of…
Delightful By Design: Rob Urbinati’s Vivid Murder Mystery Death By Design at HFAC
The setup: A rare event — the world premiere of a comedy commissioned by a local theater — merges wit, sophistication and even pratfalls into a medley of humor and fun. The execution: Playwright Rob Urbinati must have had as much fun writing this comedy as the audience has in…
Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest: Now with Less Wristband Tampering!!
A dilemma has been solved. You wanted to go to the Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest on Saturday but not Sunday? Maybe a schedule conflict or irrational Toadies hatred? Problem solved. Now you can buy single-day tickets to the event…
Pics From The BestFest Buildout: Looking Good
Houston Press Art Director Monica Fuentes took these photos of the Best of Houston® BestFest construction going on down at the Midtown superblock earlier this morning. Rocks Off is impressed. Here’s some more. A lot more…
Health Department Roundup
Some bigger names caught a little heat this week, and one smaller name caught some ridiculous, Phoenix-in-August heat. We hope the owner of the smaller place in question wears it as badge of honor, like when you get publicly shot down by a woman so badly that you end up…
NBA’s Marcus Camby Arrested for Weed in Pearland
Many NBA watchers wonder how the hell Marcus Camby can keep playing at the ancient age of 37. We may have our answer. And as with so many things, it’s weed. Camby was arrested earlier this week in Pearland for marijuana possession, reports the Pearland Journal. How did it happen?…
The X Factor Premiere: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint
Last night, Fox’s highly anticipated The X Factor debuted, and though as of this writing I was unable to find any ratings numbers, I have to imagine they were stellar. Simon Cowell has massive appeal, and even if numbers continue to decline throughout the season, I expect the premiere of…
Dr. Brown’s Letters to Daughter Sophie, Volume I: Sex Should Take Five Minutes
Dear daughter: “Sex doesn’t always have to make you see stars. Typically, it’s the man doing most of the work.”It’s been six years since we actually heard Michael Brown talk in court; back then, he took the stand to vomit forth unsubstantiated allegations that his daughters with third wife Darlina…
Rick Perry’s Top 10 “Oh Faces”: A Soundtrack
Once again, Texas is front and center on the national political stage, our spokesman an almost cartoon-like embodiment of every Lone Star stereotype: Fast-talkin’, gun-lovin’, bible-thumpin’, boot-wearin’, oil-worshipping, death penalty happy, larger-than-life right-wing Republican with a tanned, leathery face reminiscent of the Marlboro man. At this point, we half expect…
Celebrate Retro This Weekend with Second Annual Vintage Houston
Vintage lovers rejoice. On Saturday, September 24, the historic Heights Fire Station will be transformed into a vintage oasis, celebrating the styles, music, designs and cultures of days gone by. Whether rockabilly or mod, pin-up or ’70s bohemian, flapper or ’60s chic, veteran vintage collector or inquisitive beginner, this event…
The New Kid on the Block: Happy Hour at Felix 55
When I think of Morningside Drive in the Rice Village, casual dining and late night bar hopping come to mind. So Chef Michael Kramer’s (formerly of Voice and The Tasting Room) new restaurant, Felix 55, is somewhat of an anomaly in the midst of Irish pubs and casual cafes. I’ve…
No Light Rail for Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest
Thanks, Metro: You’ve taken away the best option for getting to and from the Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest. There’s no light-rail service this weekend “to allow Texas Children’s Hospital to continue construction on a pedestrian bridge over Fannin Street that will connect all of the hospital’s patient care…
Tunnel Explorer: First Look at Tejas Grill
When Tejas Grill and Sports Bar opened up recently, several people joked about creating a Batman-esque Tunnel Explorer signal. It would be mounted to the roof of the Houston Press offices, and shone into the sky to alert me to new tunnel eateries requiring a visit. I’m all for this…
MetroRail Suspending Service This Weekend: BestFest Plan Bs
As a frequent and mostly satisfied mass-transit commuter ourselves, Rocks Off has been recommending those of you headed to our Best of Houston® BestFest this weekend take the MetroRail to the McGowen stop. It would have been nice, but we just found out Metro will suspend its rail service this…
Charlie Sheen’s Ex-Goddess Bree Olson on Feature Dancing, Eating Vegan and Going Mainstream
Most porn-loving folks have known who Bree Olson is since at least November 2006, when the then premed student took the giant leap into the world of adult films. Earlier this year, as Charlie Sheen went nuclear and began a deranged media campaign on sanity, Olson was one of the…
Comment of the Day: Alleged Bass Pro Shops Racism
We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it’s time we paid some damn attention to them. So we’ll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day’s work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula…
Pop Rocks: R.E.M. — They Got There from Here
News of R.E.M.’s demise yesterday wasn’t so much greatly exaggerated as it was endlessly propagated. I follow less than 100 people on Twitter and I’d conservatively estimate 500 of them made some mention of it. Quite a reaction to what has to be one of the most understated band break-ups…
Pop Rocks: It’s the End of R.E.M. As We Know It
News of R.E.M.’s demise yesterday wasn’t so much greatly exaggerated as it was endlessly propagated. I follow less than 100 people on Twitter and I’d conservatively estimate 500 of them made some mention of it. Quite a reaction to what has to be one of the most understated band break-ups…
Toadies: “We Just Picked Up Where We Left Off”
Saturday’s BestFest headliners the Toadies were in town fairly recently, and they should be back soon when they promote their next album. In the mean time, however, we’ll have them here this weekend, and we’re hoping that a lot of you will join us to bask in their unique and…
Dinesh Shah on Trial Again: Assault Victim on Stand, Says Shah Controlled Mind, Beat Him and Blew Him
Dinesh Kumar Shah, the violent con-man featured in two Houston Press cover stories from this summer, is currently on trial again. This time around, he’s in criminal court answering to allegations that he assaulted a former dancer for the Houston Ballet. Today that dancer took the stand under direct questioning…
Pop Rocks: R.E.M. – Talking About The Passion
News of R.E.M.’s demise yesterday wasn’t so much greatly exaggerated as it was endlessly propagated. I follow less than 100 people on Twitter and I’d conservatively estimate 500 of them made some mention of it. Quite a reaction to what has to be one of the most understated band break-ups…
100 Creatives: Jennifer Decker
What she does: Jennifer Decker got her start as a local actress and in 2001, she teamed up with playwright John Harvey to create Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company. These days, she keeps busy teaching morning classes in English at Houston Community College and spending her afternoons and evenings as Mildred’s…
First Look at E Tao
“You should try the stuffed chicken wings,” said our young waitress at E Tao as my friend Dr. Ricky and I considered which items to order from the restaurant’s broad menu for dinner on Sunday night. “All the Chinese people” — she indicated to the table next to us –…
The Cooling Down of Houston, Relatively Speaking
Congratulations! If you lived in Houston for the last three or four months, you managed to survive the hottest summer in recorded history. Whenever someone complains about a 98-degree August afternoon in future summers, you will be able to say, “That’s nothing” and be completely accurate. This summer, as if…
Houston Press Best of Houston BestFest
We couldn’t pass up a chance to celebrate our 2011 Best of Houston® winners with a two-day art-food-music blow-out. The Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest has dozens of restaurants, vendors and artists lined up (many of them are past Best of Houston® winners). Expect exhibits by Winter Street/Spring Street…
Best Artist
Neither trendy nor gimmicky, Joe Mancuso consistently produces solid, stunning work. Floral forms are his stock in trade — a red flag in the case of a lesser artist. But instead of making hokey or insipidly decorative work, Mancuso makes flowery paintings and wall-based constructions with poetry and elegance. From…
Best Bar Food
Royal Oak came on the scene towards the end of 2010, a newly minted addition to the Montrose bar scene and the next venture from the owners of the hipster-Valhalla watering hole Boondocks just a block away. Royal Oak is shinier and brighter than Boons, and it has one killer…
Best Artistic Likeness of a Former President
The area near downtown has more than its share of U.S. Presidents rendered in artistic medium, from David Addicks’s Mount Rushmore to the oddly short but all-seeing George Bush Monument looking over Buffalo Bayou. But our favorite is the collage of images on the north side of the famed Fonde…
Best New Gay Bar
Freshly opened F Bar is the new favorite hangout of the fabulous, gay Montrose set. Crystal chandeliers preside over an elegant black interior dotted with white marble columns. Mirrored accents lend F Bar an upscale brasserie air. But with drag shows, karaoke nights and happy hours galore, this is still…
Best Enchiladas
Los Dos Amigos holds court with other old souls Wabash Feed Store, Guadalajara Bakery and Laredo Taqueria as reminders of Washington Avenue’s not-so-distant past, and it’s held on this long for good reason: The food, especially the enchiladas, seems to get better the longer Los Dos sticks around. And the…
Best Bread
Baked fresh several times a day, the French baguettes from Lee’s Sandwiches are soft and airy on the inside and crispy golden on the outside. The closest thing you’ll find to authentic Parisian baguettes, these loaves only cost $1. Stuff with meats and cheeses to make a sandwich, slice and…
Best Burger Joint
Tucked away in a tiny compartment in the middle of downtown, Hubcap Grill is maybe the easiest place in the world to drive by without even seeing. Yet vast and ample rewards await therein. The burgers, oh Lord, the burgers: The patties are hand-formed, never-frozen beef, and the buns are…
Best New Professor
Rice University may be known as one of the leading private universities in the South, but it’s not known for being trill. Or it wasn’t. This past spring, one of the greatest Southern rappers of all time doubled as a professor of Religious Studies, lecturing on the parallels between hip-hop…
Best Place to Encounter Alligators
With its antediluvian palmettos, teeming sloughs and oxbow lakes, and mighty live oaks, a trip to Brazos Bend can feel like time-travel to the Cretaceous Period. That goes double, or triple, when you encounter one of the park’s dozens upon dozens of wild alligators. It’s surreal enough when you see…
Best Wings
The old Midtown location of El Patio has been transformed under Chef Jonathan Jones — he of Beaver’s fame — into a raucous, vivacious exploration of modern Mexican cuisine. Between leche de tigre-laced ceviches and kicky carne guisada tacos, you’ll find his Jalisco-style wings. An odd item for a Mexican…
Best Soul Food Restaurant
The fact that Yelp doesn’t even list a single review for this place means that Esther’s is doing something right: You know that when you’re eating here, you’re one of the family. The customers are a tight-knit bunch at this little restaurant with a steam table (if there’s no steam…
Best Bookstore
The last time we were in this store, we were standing in line, eager to purchase an out-of-print book, while a middle-aged man two spots ahead of us paid more than $100 for some rare finds, including a copy of Alice in Wonderland from the early 1900s. But instead of…
Best Architect
The Initiatives for Houston grant program already acknowledged this year’s winners for Best Architects with a $2,500 check for their Emergency Core project. The Rice University School of Architecture students are designing a sustainable, livable and, most importantly, affordable alternative to disaster relief shelters. Stone and Barlow set out to…
Best Vintage Record Store
Well organized, easy to browse and stocked with foundational albums in the rock, soul and jazz genres, Black Dog Records is the spot to visit whether you are just starting a record collection, want some classic jams or are in need of replacing weathered first-edition pressings. For the wayfaring “music…
Best Male Lingerie
Underwear, thongderwear, boxer-brief-dongderwear. Male U-Wear has it all at its delightful little shop in — where else? — Montrose. Any pair you can imagine, they’ve got: plaid print, fruit print or even the kind perforated with a sexy cock peephole. Male U-Wear stocks the best array of swimsuits, from Speedo-type…
Best Ass-Kicking
In another dreary and forgettable season for the hometown team, this alone stands as the highlight. All game long, dastardly Tennessee Titan cornerback Cortland Finnegan had been tugging on the cape of the closest thing the Texans have ever had to Superman: the fleet and powerful wide receiver Andre Johnson…
Best Mom and Pop Restaurant
Mel’s Country Cafe is a family-run establishment off the beaten path in Tomball that delivers on all the name implies. Diner tables fill the ranch house and add to the comfort factor when you step in. A 16-ounce chicken-fried steak anchors a menu that offers home-style victuals like greens, fried…
Erasure
Boxers or briefs? Golden Girls or Designing Women? Pet Shop Boys or Erasure? Not that you couldn’t be a fan of two British synth-based gay-sensibility touch-of-camp dance-pop duos at once, but they seem to have divided up the niche neatly between themselves. PSB’s lyrics and attitude are (generalization alert) a…
Best Coffee Shop
Here’s our exhaustive criterion when it comes to drinking coffee: It has to be good. Annnndddd that’s about it. All of the bells and whistles in terms of decor and iPod playlists are fine, but if the warm liquid that fills our barely awake beings tastes like brown water, our…
Best Public Art Project
The Rice University Boniuk Center for Religious Studies and Tolerance turned to the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (a past Houston Press MasterMinds Award winner) to add a visual arts aspect to the 2011 Sacred Sites Quests program. The program hosts high school students on an annual tour of churches,…
Best Local Benefactor
There has been a lot of talk in the past two or three years about Houston’s music scene undergoing a renaissance, but it takes more than just talk to push it to the next level. Shortly after he took over as president and CEO of New West Records, the rootsy…
Best Comedian
As a part of the Whiskey Brothers comedy troupe, John Wessling covers a mighty amount of ground. He’s ubiquitous on the Houston comedy scene as the leader of the Houston Comedy Union, popping in at open-mike nights around town and rapping about our local sports teams, whose poor records and…
Best Campechana
Campechana at Goode Co. Seafood is almost a Houston institution, and we’re pushing for it to move out of “almost” territory and into permanent acceptance. As with the seafood joints that line Airline Drive, the campechana here is served in tall sundae glasses with an olive perched on top like…
Best Housemade Pasta
The difference between hardened, store-bought pasta and the homemade variety is the difference between receiving a postcard from Rome and standing on the steps of the Coliseum. Fratelli’s Chef Teresa Tadeo Wittman insists on authenticity, from sauces seasoned with herbs grown on-site to cracker-thin pizza, bubbly and charred to perfection…
Best Breakfast Tacos
It’s difficult to think of a better meal for a bleary-eyed Saturday morning than a slew of Tacos-A-Go-Go breakfast tacos. You start with egg, and then you choose two of 12 ingredients (or more for a quarter per item). Choices include black beans, bacon, potato, spinach and our favorite, Tacos-A-Go-Go’s…
Best Local TV Commercial
Attorney Jim Adler has built a reputation on loud commercials touting his legal acumen, likening his approach and effectiveness to that of a particular blunt-faced toolbox staple. But lately, he’s been tinkering with a new metaphor: the junkyard dog. In what appears to be a spot filmed on location in…
Best Civil Court Judge
Patricia Kerrigan was appointed to the 190th District bench by Governor Rick Perry in 2007 after a career mostly spent defending corporate clients, so the attorneys who sue those corporations might have been excused if they felt some doubts about how she’d do on the bench. But Kerrigan has proven…
Best Vietnamese Rice Plate
For Vietnamese people, eating a broken rice, or com tam, plate is synonymous with eating a burger. Start with a rice plate and add toppings like grilled pork, grilled beef, meatballs, shredded pork, Korean-style beef shortribs, Chinese sausage, fried eggs and more. As the name would suggest, Com Tam Kieu…
Best Chicken-Fried Chicken
The red-painted farmhouse, huge live oak tree and wooden farm tables out front give Live Oak Grille a quintessential Texan charm that is warm and welcoming. It’s a place where families and friends convene for a cold beer or a root beer float, along with a solid, hearty meal of…
Best Barbecue Restaurant
At Gatlin’s, low and slow are the keywords in this family’s burgeoning barbecue empire. There’s barely any seating inside, and only a small attached patio, but that doesn’t stop the lines from forming outside the front door every single day, demanding Greg Gatlin’s brisket and ribs. Unusual for a barbecue…
Best Place to Reinvent Yourself
If information is power, the Houston Public Library can make you King Kong. Forget about those shushing librarians guarding stacks of books. Today’s HPL system is more like a vast multimedia network filled with experts and information. It’s all there, at your fingertips, everything you ever wanted to know about…
Best Barber
Bart Maloney has good hands. If he’s not snipping away at the brand-new Big Kat’s Barber Shop — he specializes in shear cuts and razor shaves — Maloney may very well be across the street at the Continental Club or Big Top, caressing his steel guitar in Nick Gaitan &…
Best Sexy Lingerie
Tucked in Uptown Park, Top Drawer Lingerie is the perfect solution for those days when local ladies need a boost. And we’re not just talking about the bras. The whole store is daintily feminine, and it feels like a parlor, complete with a chandelier. Lacy panties, silk teddies, and bras…
Best Swimming Hole
Though it’s better known as a training spot for scuba divers, Twin Lakes is the perfect place to cool off without having to fight the traffic, and the crowds, in Galveston. Just 20 minutes south of downtown off the farm roads of 288, this aquifer-fed pool is clear enough for…
Best Place to Take a Staycation
Dining at Café Mawal, you can pretend you’re in the ancient country. Not only does it serve authentically Jordanian food — think grilled beef and chicken kebabs and light salads like fattoush — it also offers a unique dining experience inside its traditional Bedouin tent, made of goat hide and…
Triumph of Love
The Classical Theatre Company opens their new season with a fun comedy by one of France’s most adored playwrights of the Enlightenment period, Pierre de Marivaux. His Triumph of Love is a charming tale about love beating logic. At the center of the story is Leonide, a girl who will…
Best Bar Atmosphere/Decor
We love the black-and-white-tiled floor and the raggedy old couches in their little nooks scattered about. We love the jukebox in all its soul, rap, classic rock and new wave glory. We love the wintertime fire pits out back, and the huge net tent in the way back of the…
Best Juke Joint
A couple of things need to be on point for a juke joint to be dubbed as such. For one, it can’t boast any mainstream online presence (e.g., Facebook, Twitter or even a business Web site) whatsoever. For two, absolutely, under no circumstances, can the place be an ironic sort…
Best Gay Bar
Ever since it opened in 2006, George has been one of our favorite neighborhood haunts. You don’t have to be gay to feel at home in this laid-back Montrose joint; if you like friendly bartenders and clientele, kick-ass happy hours, pool, darts, and good conversation, then you’ll be just fine…
Best Contemporary Art Show
This sprawling, video-packed show brought the work of Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez to Houston. The standout was the artist’s stellar film essay, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. Collaged from the likes of archival news footage, Hollywood films and television commercials, the film presented the evolution of hijacking into a political and media tool…
Best Bubble Milk Tea
One of the original bubble milk teahouses in Houston, Star Snow Ice is still serving up the same delicious boba drink they’ve been making for decades. Because the drink here is not as creamy as those you’ll find at other teahouses, you can really taste the authentic flavor of the…
Best Cupcakes
The cupcakes are dense and richly flavored, and the frostings are so smooth and thick, they taste as good as a piece of fudge. With flavors like white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter chocolate, red velvet and mint chocolate, Crave Cupcakes are truly crave-worthy. Handmade with care, each big-enough-to-share dessert…
Best Dumplings
This unassuming little restaurant in the shell of an old Long John Silver’s has brought excellent pan-Asian food to a neighborhood that was sorely missing it. And the best item on its extensive menu is one of the simplest: steamed pork and vegetable dumplings, hand-filled and hand-crimped in the kitchen…
Best Appellate Judge
Last year, the prosecution-lovin’ judges on the Court of Criminal Appeals declared that the state’s lower appellate courts could no longer reverse cases because of factual insufficiency — in essence, whenever the evidence was alarmingly weak but a jury had nevertheless convicted. Terry Jennings of the 1st Court of Appeals…
Best Benefit to Living Downtown
Say what you want about downtown; with the addition of the light rail and increasingly landscaped and well-tended pedestrian areas, it’s never been easier to get around by foot if you live in the CBD. Don’t want to endure the mid-day heat in your suit? Take the tunnels and walk…
Best Calamari
At most restaurants, the calamari is an afterthought. But at Zimm’s Little Deck, it’s given just as much attention as its fancy po-boys and signature cocktails. Here, fresh — never frozen — squid is battered as lightly as possible and served in a no-nonsense white paper boat that lets the…
Best Restaurant Wine List
In keeping with its casual, neighborhood vibe, Zelko Bistro has always prided itself on offering unusual yet highly affordable bottles of wine. But chef and owner Jamie Zelko takes it one step further with a large section that’s entirely devoted to vintages from women-owned-and-run wineries. It’s her way of paying…
Best Drink Special
A great Bloody Mary is tricky to pull off. It’s not enough to put it together from a mix, and even if you use all the correct ingredients, it can still get watered down by too much ice or overdone by too much hot sauce. The Bloody Mary at Natachee’s…
Best Act of Larceny
It wasn’t the perfect crime, but it certainly took the largest amount of cojones. Andy Surface of Alvin set up a fake business venture that sounded kinda like the company that does the printing for Condé Nast magazines, including The New Yorker and Vogue. He then sent out e-mail invoices…
Best Vegan Bakery
Sinfull Bakery doesn’t have its own store, but you can pick up its vegan delectables at Central Market, Whole Foods, Onion Creek Café and others — check the Web site for the full list. According to the bakery’s Web site, the whole thing didn’t “just start as a hobby” for…
Best Farmers’ Market
It’s possible to walk out of Canino Produce Co. with a good week’s supply of produce for less than $20, which may be the least interesting thing about the sprawling warehouse-like facility on Airline Drive. Opened in 1958 and now occupying more than 20,000 square feet, Canino has any sort…
Best Early Morning Ass-Kicking
Rolling out of bed for a sunrise midweek workout is not the easiest thing on your to-do list. But for the toned ass that lasts all weekend long, it’s well worth checking off. Reggie Flye, of former YMCA boot camp fame, is your host of an intense Wednesday workout at…
Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest
We couldn’t pass up a chance to celebrate our 2011 Best of Houston® winners with a two-day art-food-music blow-out. The Houston Press Best of Houston® BestFest has dozens of restaurants, vendors and artists lined up (many of them are past Best of Houston® winners). Expect exhibits by Winter Street/Spring Street…
Best Composer
This year’s winner for composer, Dominick DiOrio, spends a lot of time in school, both as a student and a teacher. He’s on track to receive his doctorate from the Yale University School of Music next May, and he’s an associate professor of music at Lone Star College in Conroe…
Best Renovation
As Houston’s oldest continuously-operating bar (not including icehouses), Leon’s always had its stained-glass and crystalline charms. There was even a level of elegance remaining beneath the nicotine grit and spilled Busch residue of the past 60-plus years. Last year, Pete and Vera Mitchell of Under the Volcano fame bought the…
Best Local Filmmaker
We don’t know of a lot of choreographers who go on to become award-winning film directors, but it’s a transition Shawn Welling seems to have made quite easily. Welling’s Project Aether, a science-fiction feature making its world premiere, took home three of the top trophies at WorldFest, including Best Actress…
Best Nightlife Trend
For a while there, it seemed like every concert review we ran on the Houston Press’s Rocks Off music blog contained some complaint about how the audience apparently found their own conversation much more interesting than whatever was happening onstage. It wasn’t just us, either; we were at several shows…
Best French Fries
Jamie Zelko was originally the executive chef at Bistro Lancaster before opening her own namesake restaurant in the Heights. Featured on the Food Network earlier this year, Zelko Bistro serves Southern comfort food with a gourmet twist. Each bite of Zelko’s parmesan truffle fries is delicate and delicious. The potatoes…
Best Desserts
It’s probably surprising to find that a sushi restaurant excels at desserts, but you won’t find anywhere else in town right now that offers the cutting-edge selections found at Soma. Using liquid nitrogen, Chef Jason Hauck has created some exhilarating and exciting dessert items like his Nitro-Bourbon ice cream, which…
Best Act of Kindness
“Kindness” might be too frivolous a word to describe the heroic undoing of a terrible injustice. Anthony Graves spent 18 years on death row for the horrific slaughter of an entire family, his fate sealed in part by the word of another convicted killer who later recanted. In 2002, after…
Best Use of a Smartphone
If the traffic alone at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo gets you stressed, the event’s new iPhone app, launched this year, might at least ease some of the pain of coordinating your visit to one of the biggest events in Houston. The app features driving directions, a way to…
Best Recovery Program
Got a teen in trouble with drugs? Cornerstone Recovery Program is an outpatient service equipped to help you and your child. Firmly rooted in the tenets of the 12-Step program, Cornerstone provides comprehensive A-to-Z treatment by a qualified staff, many of whom have personal history with addiction in their families…
Best Burger
Although you wouldn’t expect it from a wine bar, Plonk has one of the best bacon cheeseburgers we’ve ever tasted. And that’s because Plonk is more than just a wine bar: It combines excellent food with expertly chosen wine and beer in a cozy, neighborhood setting. The guanciale burger is…
Best Happy Hour Food
The happy hour scene at Benjy’s on Washington is always hopping, and with good reason. What draws the crowd is not just the consistently excellent cocktails but the unbelievably priced bar menu, where a myriad of dishes can be had for a mere $5. The menu changes, but standouts have…
Best Place for a Vegetarian to Take Their Meat-Loving Friends
For a meat-heavy restaurant that comes from a Frenchman with an extensive butchery background, Hoggs ‘n’ Chicks makes a mean veggie burger — possibly the best in the area. Quinoa is the base here, along with plenty of vegetables: carrots, spinach, bell peppers and more mingle in this delightful patty…
Best Mechanic
What you want from an auto mechanic is pretty simple: Competence, sure, but more than that you want someone you can trust, someone whose eyes don’t light up as he looks under the hood and imagines all the wonderful things he can charge you for. Arthur Cruz fits the bill…
Best Washateria
They say you should never trust your lacy underbits to an untested laundromat. After learning the hard way too many times, thank goodness we found Graustark Laundry. Whimsical bubbles painted on the outside greet laundry-doers at this comfortable and friendly Museum District spot. If you’re lucky, you’ll even be greeted…
Best Window Shopping
Though in constant flux, one thing about 19th Street in the Heights hasn’t changed in years — it beats the Galleria by a mile (several blocks, actually) when it comes to window shopping. For one thing, the items in the windows on 19th Street are things you can actually afford…
Best Addition to Bike Trails
As pleasant as the opening of last year’s Heights-area MKT Bike Trail was, its usefulness was somewhat limited. Its eastern end terminated in a desolate stretch of First Ward, about a mile from downtown, forcing riders to navigate some fairly traffic-heavy, debris-strewn streets the rest of the way to the…
Gulf Coast Reads: On the Same Page with Chitra Divakaruni
The Gulf Coast Reads project is soon coming to an end, but you have one more chance to see Calcutta-born author and now Sugar Land resident Chitra Divakaruni discuss and sign her novel One Amazing Thing. The book, which chronicles the struggles of nine people who are trapped in a…
Best Place to Laisser Les Bons Temps Rouler
For NOLA-philes, there’s nothing quite like the Big Easy in Houston. This little dive sits on otherwise swanky Kirby Drive, and though it’s not much to look at, it’s a treat for the ears. With live music every night of the week, the good times never stop rolling here. For…
Best Dance Company
Dominic Walsh Dance Theater isn’t yet ten years old, but it’s already a fixture as one of the great contemporary dance companies of our time. The cadre of eight dancers master new ways of moving under the tutelage of Walsh, a longtime principal with the Houston Ballet and 2008 winner…
Best Concert Series
Canned Acoustica didn’t start out as a concert series. Photographer and local music junkie Mark C. Austin planned last November’s inaugural Acoustica as a way to see several of his favorite artists in the same place and help out the Houston Food Bank for the holidays. The response was so…
Best Theater Company
We know, we know, not that grande dame downtown, not Big Sis; the Alley doesn’t need another accolade! Oh, yes they do, especially after this past season. Most definitely, it was the best time overall in Houston theater (as long as you conveniently forget Wonderland, which went bye-bye on Broadway…
Best Place to See Cock
Not only roosters — ahem, cocks — can be found out back behind Wabash, the old feed store that’s been here since Washington Avenue was paved with bricks. You can also purchase chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, doves, chicks, kittens and puppies. And you can purchase chicken byproducts, too, with a…
Best Crawfish
One of the most recent Viet-Cajun joints to crop up in southwest Houston, Wild Cajun is currently our favorite (and not just because it also serves sushi and amazing chargrilled oysters). There are only two flavors of boil here: garlic butter and the signature Wild Cajun. You can guess which…
Best Flack
If Cripe’s name looks familiar, it might be because you’ve read her statements when she was with Continental Airlines, or her passionate involvement with a mayoral task force formed to fix the city’s tarnished animal control department. More recently, embattled City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones tapped Cripe to help explain her…
Best South Asian Temple
Inspired by the grand Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, India, this Pearland vision is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Meenakshi. The ornate carvings and curves of the buildings in the temple complex will sweep you away to sweltering Southern India, as will the spicy vegetarian fare on sale there. If you…
Best Charity
If there were a Fortune 500 of charitable organizations in the U.S., no doubt Neighborhood Centers would be on that list. With the dynamic Angela Blanchard at its helm since 1998, the nonprofit — begun in 1904 as an “affordable nursery” by Alice Graham Baker (yes, those Bakers) — has…
Best Cajun Restaurant
Danton Nix isn’t Cajun, but you’d never know it from his spot-on Cajun and Creole dishes at his namesake restaurant. Tucked into an unassuming building in the Museum District, Danton’s always feels like your own secret discovery. Nights spent gulping down fresh Gulf oysters in the mahogany-paneled bar with an…
Best Taco Truck
From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, this colorful taco truck located in front of a washateria dishes up some super-tasty tacos. What sets it apart from its competitors is that there’s no scooping of premade filling onto a taco shell when you order here. All the fillings are finished…
Best Steakhouse
Now that it’s removed the churrascaria portion of its menu, Samba is a more streamlined South American steakhouse, and Chef Cesar Rodriguez is really allowed to shine. From Peruvian-style steak tartare with peppadew peppers and plantain chips to an amazing dry-aged New York strip, this place knows its way around…
Best Antique Store
Run by a father and son in the hot little Montrose block at Taft and Hyde Park, Reeves Antiques specializes mostly in mid-century furniture and decor at prices that are half of what you’d find in those shops on the Westheimer strip. Turnover is high, which means you’ll find something…
Best Place to Pamper Your Pet
It doesn’t matter if your dog is a mutt or a pedigreed champion, Urban Tails Pet Resort is the perfect place for your canine friend. Your pooch will have a choice of luxury loft lodging (with lots of perks) or cage-free sleepovers, so Fido can snuggle up with his friends…
Best Fashion Innovation
Houston’s only 100 percent eco-fashion boutique, Green by Adeline focuses on “fashion with a conscience,” designing clothes that are sustainable and comfortable out of ecologically sound fabrics like bamboo, beech tree and wood cellulose. Adeline Sung, who has lived in Houston for two decades, studied fashion in Milan and Paris…
Best Aero
Nothing about the October through December 2010 version of the Houston Aeros hinted at its thrilling Calder Cup championship run. Even when the club brought Jed Ortmeyer aboard on New Year’s Day, the American Hockey League franchise looked to be one of the many middling minor-league clubs of North America…
“Ruminations of a Cluttered Mind”
Tierney Malone is a man who is forever seeking answers. What distances Malone from the token deep thinker is that he’s able to translate his reflections into a tangible piece of writing, music or visual artwork that more often than not wows an audience. For his current show, “Ruminations of…
Best Performance Space
There’s a good chance that Emily Johnson’s The Thank You Bar would have been just “eh” if it had taken place in a space less awesome than the DiverseWorks Theater. Same goes for Kristina Wong’s Cat Lady and Catastrophic Theater’s Paradise Hotel, which graced the simple yet fantastic space during…
Best Local Author
Roger Wood gets tapped as local author this year for his entire body of work. There was the 2003 title Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues (Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life and Culture), a look at Houston’s especially rich history of blues, a collaborative effort with…
Best Actress
Shannon Emerick recently played two iconic characters who bookend the 20th century, and she played both of them to perfection. This year, she played George Bernard Shaw’s ideal woman, the eponymous heroine in Candida (1898). As Shaw’s “new woman” — Candida is cool and regally elegant, always in control and…
Best Open-Mike Night (Comedy)
Houston was the proving ground for some of stand-up’s most renowned — and groundbreaking — names. We’re talking folks like Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison. Others, like Mitch Hedberg and Joe Rogan, recorded albums in H-town comedy clubs. Bob Newhart recorded his legendary debut album here — it was the…
Best Macaroni & Cheese
This little side order of macaroni and cheese is not your typical version. Made with Gruyère, with a drizzle of truffle oil finishing off the creamy pasta, Shade’s mac & cheese is distinct, yet not pungent. The overall impression is of a dish rich but delicate in flavor. It usually…
Best Juice Bar
You won’t find antioxidant power boosts, protein powder or açaí berries at Juice Box — just an extensive menu of delicious fresh fruit smoothies in almost every conceivable combination. Mango, banana and pineapple? Durian and Chinese yogurt? Apple and avocado? Done, done and done. The fresh-fruit ice tea is also…
Best New Approach to Mass Transit
Few local government agencies were as dysfunctional as Metro for the last ten years or so. Run by a secretive, defensive management that disdained transparency and any criticism, the agency ran up big costs, got little done and put Houston’s projected light-rail system at great risk by trying to cut…
Best Campaigner to Improve Bikeways
Because most of them are aligned with Houston’s waterways, most of Houston’s bike trails run east-west. Getting north and south can be a dangerous chore, but many people believe the solution is relatively easy: convert miles and miles of Houston’s utility easements for dual-purpose as bike (and hiking) trails. The…
Best Scientific Breakthrough
The asthenosphere and lithosphere don’t usually concern us, but thankfully a brainiac team over at Rice University led by Alan Levander has them on their radar. There’s a huge section of land known as the Colorado Plateau; it has a “rising while it’s sinking” quality that’s had scientists scratching their…
Best Restaurant Atmosphere
You don’t just come to Moon Tower for the hot dogs; you come for the sign that says “This ain’t fast food. Shut up and wait!” You don’t come to grab your dogs and wolf them down in five minutes; you come to share pitchers of Real Ale and throw…
Best Local Democrat
It was a brutal legislative session for public education in Texas this year, as the Tea Party Caucus demanded budget cuts that had districts slashing programs and laying off teachers. Democrats like Scott Hochberg were hopelessly outnumbered, but did the best they could fighting rear-guard actions to protect as much…
Best Empanadas
Tucked into a strip mall on Westheimer near the beltway, Marini’s is a family-run empanada delicatessen offering sweet and savory varieties of the fried pies. The Gaucho is the standard variety, with onions, spices and olives that accentuate the finely ground beef without overpowering it. Vegetarians and omnivores alike will…
Best Place to Get a Used Bicycle
Let’s say you’re the type of person who loves to ride a bike but isn’t necessarily a fanatic about the accoutrements — fancy bike shorts and little caps and things like that — or having some absolute top-of-the-line $5K wheels. Let’s say you just want something that will reliably get…
Best Resale Shop
One thing that sets Family Thrift’s 12 area locations apart from the competition are the hours. Unlike so many local thrift stores, they are open late — until nine p.m. on weeknights. That gives the working stiffs who need the cheap clothes a chance to get there. We also love…
Best Gay Porn Store
Don’t let the blackened windows at this Montrose haunt scare you, because inside, Black Hawk Leather & Video is a bright, happy gay man’s playground. Racks of the highest-caliber porn live here, including favorites like Jizz Gym, Key West Cum and Oink Pigs at Play. It’s a classy, clean one-stop…
Best Sports Party
It came, we showed them what’s up and now they’re all excited to return in 2016. Houston’s first Final Four since 1971 was basically drama- and lame-free, and out-of-towners left the Bayou City knowing a bit why we love living here. Along with the curious quartet of Connecticut, Kentucky, Virginia…
“Raimund Girke 1930-2002, Investigating White”
It was the late 1950s when German painter Raimund Girke and his contemporaries turned away from abstract expressionism and explored reductive styles and techniques. For the new exhibit “Raimund Girke 1930-2002, Investigating White,” Gallery Sonja Roesch has brought together a group of his works that explore white as a color…
Best Radio DJ
Don Sam is everything a radio DJ used to be and still should be. He has a silky-smooth baritone voice. His knowledge of the vintage R&B, soul, funk and zydeco he spins every weekday afternoon stretches the limits of the word “encyclopedic.” And best of all, he has fun doing…
Best Dance Party
There is nothing quite like starting off your weekend with a cold Red Stripe in one hand and a sweaty dance partner in the other, while you hear the smooth sounds of early ska, mento, rocksteady, and the best bedrock R&B at the monthly A Fistful Of Soul parties in…
Best Addition to the Local Arts Scene
Truth be told, you had us at “stark naked,” but we were happy to find that there was much more to this start-up theater company than just a great name. Husband-and-wife team Philip Lehl and Kim Tobin-Lehl, who also had a hand in the Brave Dog Theatre, founded Stark Naked…
Best Phoenix
No one would have thought, while they watched Agora engulfed in flames on Halloween Eve of last year, that the coffee and wine hangout would be back on its feet within mere months, just in time for the spring and great patio weather. The beloved Montrose location looked like a…
Best Chinese Restaurant
The original location in Chinatown has been serving up savory Chinese food for decades. Now, with a second location in the Galleria area just outside the Loop, both Chinese Cafes are popular destinations for diners wanting quick, delicious Chinese food. Catering to both American and Asian palates, the place is…
Best Peruvian Restaurant
Since it opened last August, Latin Bites Cafe, a tiny hole-in-the-wall with just 36 seats inside and 12 seats on the patio, has gotten one rave review after another, receiving mentions in local and statewide news outlets as one of the best new restaurants of 2010. Chef Roberto Castre has…
Best 15 Minutes of Fame
This might be a bit of a cheat, because Nikki Araguz — who first came into our consciousness when her firefighting husband died in the line of duty and it was subsequently revealed she was born with a penis (or a penis-like birth defect, depending on what version she’s telling…
Best Local TV News Reporter
Well, this certainly isn’t a surprise: KHOU’s Mark Greenblatt winning our Best TV News Reporter award. After all, he won it in 2008 and 2010. But if you’re thinking we’re stuck in a rut or something, in our defense the guy just keeps coming up with compelling investigative pieces that…
Best Think Tank
The Baker Institute is the place to turn for the latest trends in national and international affairs, and how to change them. A nonpartisan think tank, it brings together experts across all disciplines — academia, media, business and nonprofits. Journalists, policymakers, even U.S. presidents have lectured and hosted seminars at…
Best Sangria
The sangria at Ibiza Food & Wine Bar, with its light and fruity flavors, is the perfect summer drink. Not overwhelmed by the red wine, Ibiza’s version has an aromatic sweetness that tastes mildly of melons; a sip, and you’ll be transported to summers in Spain. The only improvement we…
Best Local Republican
Let’s face it: It was not a good year for Republicans in the legislature, unless by “good” you mean “getting everything they wanted passed.” Which is probably how they define it, sure. But the session turned into an orgy of slashing budgets for health and education and passing a bunch…
Best Vietnamese Restaurant
Vietnamese food is so much more than pho and banh mi. Located in the heart of Chinatown in the back side of Dynasty Mall, Saigon Pagolac specializes in beef cooked seven different ways. There is a beef salad, beef fondue (thin slices of beef cooked in a vinegar broth), grilled…
Best Pawn Shop
This family-run business has been buying, selling and trading jewelry, watches, guns, instruments, appliances and other stuff for more than 30 years, which means they must be doing something right. And get this: If you already have a loan at another pawn shop, Mason Road will pick up that item…
Best Sexpert
If it can be transmitted during sex, Nike Lukan is on it to end it. As the Director of Prevention Services at AIDS Foundation Houston, she raises awareness about the problem of HIV and AIDS in Houston. Lukan helps organize Hip Hop for HIV, a project that provides a free…
Best Fans
Houston voraciously welcomed its new entry in the NFL when the announcement came. But ever since play began in 2002, the team has delivered a ton of disappointment, inept playing, coaching and front-officing, and, really, little reason to cheer. But Texans fans haven’t given up. They’re not blindly slavish; they’ve…
Best Weekend Getaway
The water’s much prettier and greener than that of the Upper Coast, and there’s both grit and family-friendly fun in this Coastal Bend town less than four hours down the Southwest Freeway. Fishing charters, dolphin-watching tours, parasailing adventures and ferries to nearly uninhabited Saint Joseph’s Island embark from the town’s…
Best Art Gallery
Inman Gallery is well respected for consistently presenting quality contemporary art. Owner Kerry Inman and director Patrick Reynolds encourage artists to take risks and try new things, making the space feel more Kunsthalle than commercial gallery. And now Inman is better than ever in a newly refurbished and expanded exhibition…
Best Band Stage Show
Even without the confetti and streamers they are fond of sometimes, Wild Moccasins easily put on Houston’s best stage show gig after gig. They even baked cupcakes for their fans once. Simply put, no other band in town that we can think of has so much fun playing together. The…
Best Actor
If you saw thunder and lightning over Catastrophic Theatre early last season, you witnessed the volcanic performance of Matt Kelly in Jason Nodler’s whiplash adaptation of Bluefinger, The Fall and Rise of Herman Brood. This rock opera dissected the Dutch cult singer/artist/druggie/sex addict in the most theatrical way possible: with…
Best Washington Ave. Bar
Approaching from the east, Liberty Station is one of Washington Avenue’s last outposts of sanity before you hit the horror, the horror of the hardcore strip. Liberty Station is usually immune to the Ed Hardy afflictions of the rest of Washington; the converted old-timey gas station has an authentically bohemian,…
Best Oysters
Most people come to Wild Cajun for the crawfish, and with good reason — the Vietnamese sports bar’s two crawfish blends are hopped up with spice and finger-licking fantastic. But the hidden secret here is the chargrilled oysters, each plump bivalve individually topped with shallots and a nose-clearing, eye-opening ginger…
Best Pork Chop
To call Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille’s dish a pork chop is almost a misnomer, because it’s more like three courses of pork in one. When you order “Perry’s Famous Porkchop,” it arrives at your table on a cart, and the server uses gloves to break the pork chop into three…
Best Place for a First Date
Ah, nature. Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping and Mother Earth is at her most fertile. And if you’re on a first date at Mercer Arboretum & Botanic Gardens, so are you. Wander together hand-in-hand on meandering paths bright with flowers, and breathe deeply in the heady herb garden. Copses…
Best Criminal Defense Attorney
A lot of people worked long and hard to get Anthony Graves exonerated and off Death Row, but it was Houston’s Katherine Scardino who got the job done. Working with her partner from Angleton, Jimmy Phillips, Scardino went into the heart of darkness that the rural Texas judicial system can…
Best Law Office
In selecting sites for their offices, most lawyers go for weighty solemnity or tried-and-true antique charm — think vintage Heights Boulevard arts-and-crafts bungalow. Not appellate court lawyer Tim Hootman. His riotously colored assemblage of old rail cars — a caboose, a boxcar and an old Pullman sleeper — on the…
Best Gay-Friendly Restaurant
Deep in the heart of the Gayborhood, Ziggy’s has been taking all comers and serving them delicious, healthy food for years, long before the corner of Fairview and Taft became the hot spot that it is today. Ziggy’s proudly proclaims that 70 percent of its customers are regulars, and you’ll…
Best Place to See Wildlife in the City
The north side of Memorial Park may be where all the eye candy is, but the south side is the less-beaten path, featuring a winding network of multi-use and all-terrain dirt trails for hiking and biking. It’s also perfect for wildlife spotting. During the day it’s a haven to butterflies,…
Best Banh Mi
Ask most Vietnamese in town where to go for the best banh mi, and more likely than not, they will point you to Nguyen Ngo French Cafe. It’s a favorite destination for out-of-towners, who come here for sandwiches made with the famous family-recipe shredded chicken that the owners brought over…
Best Grocery Store
Who says The Woodlands is boring? After all, the suburb to the north gave birth to the coolest grocery store to come along since Central Market. And it’s been such a success, in fact, that Hubbell & Hudson just opened a second location, the first being located in prime territory…
Best Pet Psychic
Wondering why your dog is incessantly barking when you’re away from home? Curious to know what your departed cat is up to in the afterlife? Sonya Fitzpatrick, the world-famous pet psychic, can tell you. For $300 for a half-hour phone session, the English-born animal communicator will tune in to the…
Best Texan
Defensive end Antonio Smith was probably the least sucky player on a very sucky Texans’ defense last year, which, as you can probably guess, isn’t really the highest praise possible. But he gets extra points for us for going after spoiled, performance-enhancing-drug-taking, and lately underwhelming teammate Brian Cushing during a…
Best Astro
Picking a Best Astro was no easy task this year. The team is suffering through a season of legendary ineptitude. Still, Hunter Pence, All-Star and great guy, seemed like a lock. Until he was traded. No worries, we’ll just pick Michael Bourn — and then he became an Atlanta Brave…
BEST OF HOUSTON®
This is a city of invention — a place where people not only invent themselves, but invent ways to make Houston, and the world, a better place. Our resident geniuses do it all. Some advance technology; others reimagine public parks, stage brilliant plays and revolutionize the way we eat. We’re…
Best Resurgent Drinking Area
During the past few years, Washington Avenue has been getting all the drunk love in Houston from the mostly Anglo crowds with money to burn and brain cells to kill. But as of late, Midtown has been making a comeback of sorts as Houston’s other drinking destination for the well-healed…
Best Artist Collective
There’s a reason why the 2011 Texas Biennial chose Box 13 as Houston’s only space for the month-long art showcase. The East End gallery and co-op, for three-plus years, has boasted a wing-dinger of a reputation for contemporary artists showcasing left-of-field works. The Harrisburg Boulevard warehouse, which used to house…
Best Local Music Smartphone App
KTRU Lives. The beloved Rice University station may be gone from the FM airwaves — though those with HD radios can find it on KPFT’s HD-2 channel — but Sam Foster’s nifty little app puts Rice Radio as close as your touchscreen. (It’s free, too.) The design is simple, just…
Best Place for a Gay Pow-Wow
This spot at the intersection at Montrose and Hawthorne is called “headquarters” by the gay community, and it’s the top non-club place to refuel, flirt and ogle potential suitors. Visit the Montrose neighborhood hang on any given day during business hours and you’ll find gay men peeking over their shoulders…
Best Indian Restaurant
One wouldn’t expect to find such a delightful Indian restaurant located outside of the Mahatma Gandhi District of Houston, but Gourmet India is an oasis on the west side of town serving up some of the best Indian food in Houston. Lunch is an all-you-can-eat buffet of breads and dips,…
Best Late-Night Restaurant
Open until 3 a.m. on Saturdays, 2 a.m. Fridays and midnight the rest of the week, Tan Tan is a favorite among the late-night crowd for consistently serving up an extensive menu of Chinese-Vietnamese food ranging from rice plates and pan-fried noodles, to wonton soup and Vietnamese hot pot, to…
Best Free Wi-Fi Spot
This little Montrose coffeehouse serves beer and wine, but what makes it a great place to do a little after-hours work or telecommuting is the spacious dining room — more so than its Heights cousin Antidote — and free wi-fi. You’ll see plenty of students here pecking away on their…
Best Sustainable Dwelling
This year, a group of enterprising young professionals turned a flooded, foreclosed home in Midtown into Houston’s first green co-op. With a rainwater cistern that powers the toilets, a worm farm and a huge heap of compost, the whole house is a bastion of sustainability. There’s even a greasel: a…
Best Thinker: Getting Electricity into Homes
Hard as it may be to believe, Texas is actually on the green cutting-edge when it comes to providing electricity, thanks to its enthusiastic adoption of wind power. The blustery, abandoned Panhandle is tailor-made for windmills, but other areas of the state are just as perfect. The world’s largest windmill…
Best Beef Noodle Soup
The beef soup at Chinatown’s San Dong Noodle House (formerly Santong Snack) is a rich, full-bodied potion, dark in color and redolent with the aroma of long-simmered meat. If you order the Roast Beef Soup Noodle, you get the broth plus a handful of baby bok choy, a pile of…
Best Costume Shop
It’s inevitable: When Halloween comes around or you just need that certain something for your party, someone yells, “Just go to Frankel’s!” The family-run shop, which began life in 1950 as Morty’s Magic Mart, has become Houston’s own Walmart of costumes, wigs and everything in between. We mean Walmart in…
Best Pho
When it comes to pho, the secret is in the broth. Pho Danh ladles it daily to discriminating diners from the location in the back of Hong Kong Market. The light yet deep beef flavor in your bowl tells you that some big bones have been simmering for days in…
Best Vintage Clothing
If the jumbled feel of Retropolis gives you hives, head down 19th Street in the Heights to Replay, where you’ll find a younger, more curated collection of vintage fashion, owned by “Crazy Mike” Hildebrand and Laura Levine. The shop is arranged thematically, from Aloha wear in one section to ’70s…
Best Nursery
Squint your eyes at Enchanted Forest’s lush landscape and pretend it’s the backyard of your dreams as you put your feet up and lounge on the patio furniture with the resident animals. Newbie or seasoned gardener, you’re in excellent hands here, whether you’re seeking out a desert willow tree, drift…
Best Dog Park
Your dog will kiss your ass (unless you’re trying to break him of that habit) for taking you to this awesome park’s 17 acres of trees, ponds and agility equipment. Unlike at some other parks, neither you nor your four-legged friend will feel penned in. Whether you want to relax…
Best YMCA Location
With its modern interior and exterior, indoor track and spacious confines, the new YMCA in the heart of downtown Houston breathed new life into fitness in our city. Hell, sometimes we go just to gawk at the view of the skyline from the treadmills, and before we know it three,…
Best Dynamo
Danny Cruz might not be the most potent player on the Dynamo roster, but if he’s on the field against you, chances are you’re going to remember him. He’s high-energy, aggressive and not afraid to get a yellow card or two. Off the field, the 21-year-old has been active in…
Best Reading Series
Poetry has a new platform in Houston, and it’s a welcome one: the Public Poetry reading series. Started in the spring of this year by Fran Sanders in partnership with Houston Public Library and held in various public library locations around town, the series features four poets and a celebrity…
Best Latin Club
Salsa hot spots come and go, but Tropicana will always be there when you need to dance away the night. Inside an unassuming strip mall storefront on Fondren, you’ll find a Casablanca-esque nightclub of dark reds and deep mahogany. The hardwood dance floor is spacious, and the salseros who wear…
Best Lyrical Genius
You may not have realized it yet, but Houston is in the middle of a genuine rap renaissance, with talented MCs and DJs dropping new tracks almost daily, and another must-have mixtape about once a week. We asked the Houston Press’s main rap writer, Shea Serrano, for his choice of…
Best Place to Catch a Free Punk Show
For a while, local punk rockers stayed away from the longstanding Mango’s because the at-the-time management wasn’t into booking such acts. However, that flipped once again when a more left-of-field-minded crew took over the space at Westheimer and Taft. Now, nearly every Wednesday features a free show that includes the…
Best Pita Bread
Phoenicia Deli has been a popular destination on the west side of town since 1992. In more recent years, it opened an international and specialty food market just across the street from the original deli and started turning out fresh pita bread. In the middle of Phoenicia Specialty Foods sits…
Best Mojito
The bar at Truluck’s may not be the go-to destination for mojitos, but it should be. Strong, with a good dose of lime juice, and the requisite fresh aroma of well-crushed mint leaves that every mojito should have, just one sip will transport you to a beach in Cabo San…
Best Junior Geniuses
There must be something in the water. When it was announced in March that Bellaire High School’s Daniel Yun had scored a perfect 2400 on his SAT exam, there was jubilation and high fives all round. Then in May, Houston ISD announced that another Bellaire student, Amy W. Jiang, pulled…
Best Medical Breakthrough
Future victims of cardiac arrest just got a few extra seconds added to their window of rescue time thanks to the Defib Task Force. A group of Rice University bioengineering students (Lisa Jiang, Joanna Nathan, Justin Lin, Carl Nelson and Brad Otto), along with some experts (Texas Heart Institute’s Mehdi…
Best Cultural Corner
The run-down plaza near the intersection of Bissonnet and Rampart may not look like much, but this is no ordinary strip mall. It’s the cheapest trip around the world you’ll ever take. At Maru Grocery, Houston’s one-stop shop for all things Ethiopian, you can buy fresh spices, just-made injera and…
Best Italian Restaurant
This little restaurant with a silly name (there’s no pizza served here anymore), located in a neglected strip center, is a drive for most Houstonians. But it’s worth every mile. Owner Barbara Coglianese hails from Imola and has imported her Bolognese-style Italian food almost part and parcel to this surprisingly…
Best Hispanic Supermarket
This concept store from H-E-B has been a massive success in its first location in a heavily Hispanic area of Pasadena, and it’s easy to see why: The store has been designed to resemble a massive indoor mercado complete with tortilleria, an aguas frescas bar and even women cleaning and…
Best South American Restaurant
The new Américas River Oaks is stylish not only in decor but also in its food presentation and menu. Much like the grandiose booths and larger-than-life lighting fixtures, everything is presented with a flourish: Lobster mini corndogs with corn poblano dipping sauce are playfully served lollipop-style on a wooden block;…
Best Place to Buy Fish
If fish is on the menu for Saturday night, you need to head to Louisiana Foods Total Catch Market, located near Loop 610 and the Katy Freeway. The tiny market peddles the Gulf’s finest by-catch: creatures that are accidentally caught while fishermen are netting a different species. But at Total…
Best Small Business Helper
You might make the world’s best apple marshmallow salad, but if you sell it out of your kitchen, you’ll be shut down before you can even start up your start-up. Luckily for you, there’s Kitchen Incubator. It’s the first licensed commercial kitchen for rent in Houston, meaning you can reserve…
Best Sports Talk Host
If you work in the radio biz and can somehow get associated with Jim Rome, you’re automatically in the airwave gold category. That’s what Travis Rodgers did for $5 an hour, reading the “Huge Fax of the Day” (dude has been in this game for a long time) before hopscotching…
Best New Astro
Clint Barmes brings more name recognition, but Angel Sanchez is the hoped-for future for the ‘stros at shortstop. Raised in Puerto Rico, the six-foot-one-inch, 200-pound utility infielder has, as evident during the latter part of 2010 and during the early stages of the 2011 season, provided as much of a…
Best Icehouse
The bungalow-like bar (its name stands for Reopened Houston Avenue Bar, supposedly) opened last year only a couple of blocks from Washington Avenue, but light-years away from that strip’s preening see-and-be-seen sensibility. REHAB is just a bar, and that’s all it is: Cold beer and mixed drinks at downturn-friendly prices,…
Best Improv Troupe
The scrappy kids in Rogue Improv have been making Houston laugh on Thursday nights upstairs at AvantGarden and Rudyard’s for a little more than a year now with their brand of long-form improv. The team, lead by a core of eight players, men and women, plus assorted students of the…
Best New Movement
Houston is a hip-hop city through and through. We birthed the Geto Boys, UGK, Slim Thug and Paul Wall, just to name a select few. But in the past two or three years, the scene has seen an influx of new blood, raised not just on hip-hop and R&B but…
Best Arts Festival
No one tops the annual Dance Salad Festival for sheer star power. Curated by dance phenom Nancy Henderek, the festival runs three days, with each featuring a different lineup of performances by members of select world-class dance companies. Henderek travels the world, visiting companies that are presenting the most cutting-edge…
Best Poet
Well-known arts advocate and director of the literary group Inprint, Rich Levy is also among Houston’s poetic elite. Work from his book Why Me: Poems, released in 2009, established him as a singular voice among the many clamoring to speak for the middle-aged, middle-class American male. The longing, the loneliness,…
Best Falafel
Fat and fluffy, the chickpea patties at Niko Niko’s are equally tasty on their own, but we prefer them tucked into one of the restaurant’s signature breakfast pitas with scrambled eggs, sautéed onions and tomatoes. They’re alluringly crispy outside, the crunch giving way to a dark green interior that’s soft…
Best Middle Eastern Restaurant
This Westchase-area restaurant located in a strip mall has been around since 1999, but the Parsa family has been in the restaurant business going on five generations, and they wisely haven’t changed anything about how they cook classic Persian cuisine, such as the beef kubideh and chicken barg. The house-made…
Best Place for a He to Be a She
Whether as a place to test the waters for the first time or as a favorite haunt for someone with a long history of cross-dressing/transgenderism, Baba Yega is the perfect place for a he to be a she (or vice versa). The cozy atmosphere, the diverse clientele and the caring…
Best New Downtown Park
Not long ago, we were walking downtown and became aware of a foul odor. We looked around and were aghast to discover that the residents of the high-rise condos across the street had obviously been using the patch of grass by our feet as a toilet for their dogs. This…
Best Margarita
The tequila selection alone at Hugo’s — more than 40 choices, counting its bottles of mezcal — should indicate that you’re in for a serious cocktail at this Mexican favorite. Sommelier Sean Beck dreams up exciting twists on the classic cocktail, like El Sueño Profundo with smoky mezcal, but it’s…
Best New Restaurant
There’s nothing else like Pondicheri in Houston, not even Indika, Anita Jaisinghani’s first and extant modern Indian restaurant in Montrose. Here in River Oaks, Pondicheri shakes up everything you thought you knew about Indian street food, offering Jaisinghani’s updated interpretations for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even tea. Breakfast and lunch…
Best Hobby Shop
Forget the grown men who refer to the objects of their hobbies as “toys.” Sweet Spot Audio and More will have none of that. A grown-up hobby shop for the Don Draper kind, Sweet Spot is a cigar shop, men’s boutique and audiophile’s fantasy rolled into one. They sell coffee…
Best Bloody Mary
The Bloody Mary at Flora & Muse isn’t the kind of heavily garnished, Clamato-heavy cocktail that you gulp down as a hangover cure. European-style bistro Flora & Muse offers an elegant twist on the standard cocktail. Served in a long-stemmed glass chalice — the same curving sides to it as…
Best Flea Market
When they say “village,” they mean it: Here you will find more than 100 acres of all kinds of goodies — clothes, electronics, furniture, luggage, records, knives, jewelry, bikes, candles, cell phones…pretty much anything you can think of. Every weekend, 1,500 dealers open up shop to give you some of…
Best Coffee Roasters
We discovered Java Pura Coffee Roasters at a tasting at Central Market and now go out of our way to get to their offices in the industrial district in Bellaire just to stock the office. (Though not really geared for walk-in traffic, the offices are quite nice, and they sponsor…
Best Urban Nature Spot
A 20-acre pocket forest park inside the Loop, West 11th Street Park is the hidden jewel that makes the Timbergrove neighborhood live up to its name. The glade’s many tall pines abound with a variety of woodpeckers, from the common downy and yellow-bellied varieties to the mighty crow-sized pileated and…
Best Baked Potato
The fact that it’s named after one of our favorite Astros ballplayers is even more reason to love Demeris Bar-B-Q’s Big Puma baked potato. The Big Puma comes loaded with Demeris’s signature smoked turkey, juicy and sweet, atop a baked potato that’s been split open and stuffed with everything else…
Giselle/Indigo
The woman who taught Houston Ballet Artistic Director Stanton Welch how to dance is staging the company’s new production of Giselle. Ai-Gul Gaisina, previously of the Kirov and Stanislavsky Ballet Theatre, counts Welch among her former star students. Working with the three dancers sharing the role of Giselle — Danielle…
Best Documentarian
Despite being only in his early thirties, Alex Luster has been shooting video in the Houston streets for 20 or so years, having hustled his way into a job at a Spanish-language news station at the tender age of 14. That experience shows in Stick ‘Em Up!, his debut feature-length…
Best Brain
Justin Cronin’s bestselling novel The Passage was released in paperback earlier this summer, winning the Rice University professor a new legion of fans. The book, inspired by his daughter’s suggestion for a story about a girl who saves the world, earned Cronin some $5.5 million in film and domestic publishing…
Best CD By Houston Expat
Opening with “Stomp and Holler,” Woodlands native Hayes Carll’s KMAG YOYO is one of the most ass-shaking and gut-wrenching albums to come from a Texan’s brain-casing this year. The follow-up to 2008’s critically adored Trouble in Mind, February’s KMAG YOYO (soldier slang for “kiss my ass guys, you’re on your…
Best Band Name
You have to hand it to Commie Hilfiger. The four-piece group goes all out to help the proletariat among Houston’s live music scene lose the shackles of oppression via Stolichnaya-flavored punk rock. The second half of their name is just as important, because these guys know their threads, too. It’s…
Best Resurrection
When Downtown’s Angelika Film Center closed under cover of night one August weekend last year, it felt like the final nail in the coffin of both the increasingly vacant Bayou Place and the indie film scene in Houston, leaving us just River Oaks Theatre and the Museum of Fine Arts,…
Best Korean Restaurant
Located on Gessner and Blalock in Koreatown, Nam Gang is the place to go for Korean barbecue. You can order plates of beef short ribs (galbi), pork belly (samgyeopsal) and thinly sliced cuts of meats (bulgogi) — all of which you cook yourself on a griddle in the middle of…
Best West African Restaurant
It’s a bit of a zero-sum game to pick the Bayou City’s best West African restaurant, especially considering Houston’s already stacked scene for fufu and spicy soups. However, Afrikiko is about as close to a bona fide African experience (an experience, by the way, that usually includes soccer on the…
Best Visitor
Though she blessed us with her presence under some of the most horrifying circumstances ever, we were happy to welcome Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords with open arms as she recovered from a gunshot wound to the head. On January 21, approximately two weeks after the Tucson shooting spree that left…
Best Wheat-Paste Poster Artist
Coolidge, Cutthroat, Eyesore and Dual all justifiably have their fervent partisans, but our absolute favorite is 2:12. That could be simply because we are junkies for color, and 2:12 uses lots of it, much more than wheat-pasters like Cutthroat and Dual or even a stencil painter like ‘Lidge. 2:12 hybridizes…
Best People-Watching
One could argue that the real people-watching goes down in the valet drive that’s shared by Philippe and its next door neighbor, RDG + Bar Annie. But the younger set always makes its way up Philippe’s grand staircase, and that’s where the pretty young thing-watching commences. Celebrities both local and…
Best Hot Dog
Everything at this tidy little restaurant run by husband-and-wife team Charles and Brenda Rivers is a Chicago specialty, from the pizza puffs to the hot Italian beef. So you know that the Chicago-style hot dogs they serve — dragged through the garden on a steamed poppyseed bun with a thick…
Best Liquor Store
Phooey on getting lubricated at home before going out. Instead, step into Spec’s Midtown location and prep for a night on the town at one of the state’s most massive odes to boozery. There’s always some sort of beer and/or wine tastings, especially on the weekends. No worries on the…
Best Mexican Restaurant
Located just outside the Loop, this local spot is always filled with loyal, regular customers who have been coming here for more than 30 years and know it simply as Tia’s. You’ll find enchiladas, tacos and fajitas on the menu, but the real standouts are the more traditional Mexican fare,…
Best Sex Shop
If you want to feel luscious, head on over to Erotic Cabaret, a perennial favorite among Houston sex-havers. This sexy standby has been open since 1982, so the friendly and nonjudgmental staff knows its craft well — from the lube to the dirty dancewear. Erotic Cabaret sells the best costumes…
Best Doggie Daycare
Fido may be a big boy who gets along better with small dogs, and Muffy might prefer to be in the yard all afternoon instead of in her crate. No matter how special your pet’s needs are, The Pooch Pad will try to meet them. Located in an old house…
Best Comeback Attempt
A lot went into the toilet when University of Houston star quarterback Case Keenum crumbled to the Rose Bowl Stadium turf with a shredded knee. At that time, in September 2010, the Abilene-born athlete had put his name in the Heisman Trophy race, led a long-comatose program (and Houston’s sports…
Best Chicken Soup
Unlike a standard caldo de pollo or caldo xochitl, the caldo Tlalpeño at Tacos del Julio calls for the addition of a very important ingredient: chipotle chiles in adobo sauce. The dark red chiles come in a little plastic cup full of adobo, allowing you to flavor the broth as…
3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Houston
There won’t be a Bollywood film in sight at the 3rd Annual Indian Film Festival of Houston, but there will be so many great contemporary Indian films in other genres, fans will hardly notice. The five-day festival will screen nine features and shorts. There’s the compelling drama Fatakra, by former…
Best Roller Derby Nickname
Picking a derby nickname is one of the most important rites of passage in the flat track world. It’s got to be clever, and must also instill fear in the hearts of fellow skaters. Bonus points if it calls to mind a buxom but imposing beauty. It’s for all of…
Best Historic Art Show
Kurt Schwitters’s early 20th-century collages were packed with the detritus of urban German life, and those collages were the focus of this stunning show, “Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage.” Schwitters turned things like bus tickets, cigarette packs and chocolate wrappers into evocative gems that would influence artists for generations to…
Best New Arts Venue
Founders Tom Stell and Leighza Walker started the nonprofit Obsidian Art Space as a way to promote original work, and they’ve done just that. Obsidian Art Space already has hosted such performances as the world premiere of Selkie, A Sea Tale by Divergence Vocal Theater. The space also played host…
Best Movie Theater
The Alamo Drafthouse at West Oaks Mall has been perfecting the art of the communal living room for years now. The movie theater, which has a full bar and menu, aims to pull people off their couches and their NetFlix queues to experience film and television events with other people…
Best Arts Ambassador
Pianist Jade Simmons has added yet another credit to her already impressive résumé — international arts ambassador. A first runner-up at the Miss America competition in 2000 with a masters degree from Rice University, Simmons long ago proved that she is beautiful and smart. A recording artist for E1 (formerly…
Best Hidden Treasure
Most people were stunned when tiny Jonathan’s the Rub — perhaps the darkest horse of 16 competitors — took home first place in the Houston Press Burger Bracket competition this year. The little restaurant in Spring Branch certainly knows how to grill a great burger, but that’s not all: Chef…
Best Tex-Mex Restaurant
El Real was one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the year, in part because of the star power behind it — celebrity chef Bryan Caswell and former Houston Press food critic and author Robb Walsh. The restaurant has proved that it takes Tex-Mex seriously with its tasty old-school…
Best Thinker: Using Animals for Therapy
The horses we see in Houston at the rodeo every March aren’t the only ones in town. There’s plenty of whinnying and neighing going on over at Red Dun Ranch, in the name of therapy. Laurie Baldwin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, and her colleagues at Red Dun Ranch help these…
Best Bright Idea
A team of grad students at Rice University finally figured out a way to make use of those now-defunct broadcast television frequencies — use them to carry a downgraded wi-fi signal to Houston-area homes that previously could not access the free citywide wi-fi network. Student Ryan Guerra created equipment that…
Best Revival of a Genre
Southwestern cuisine stopped being hip in Houston somewhere around Cafe Annie’s millionth year in existence, long before its closure last year. So imagine our surprise when TQLA swooped in with Southwestern vet Tommy Birdwell at the helm and made it cool again. (Of course, having 167 different varieties of tequila,…
Best Brunch Restaurant
Among the Mia Bella locations around town, it’s this captivating space on the corner of Main and Preston that’s our favorite: It’s easily accessed by light rail, although you’ll find ample space to park downtown on a quiet Sunday morning. And although the streets may be calm, Mia Bella always…
Best Camera Store
Walking into certain camera shops in town can feel like the equivalent of walking into the Comic Book Guy’s store on The Simpsons. If you’re not cool enough to know the most obscure photo trivia or have the newest DSLR, you’re treated with barely veiled derision. Not so at Houston…
Best Breakfast Restaurant
Tel-wink cranks out breakfast so fast there are stacks of warm toast 18 inches tall at the expediter counter during peak times. Demand like that, and a line of waiting patrons that snakes through the interior, can mean only one thing. The breakfast special rocks: grits, sausage, eggs and toast…
Best Place to Buy Music
Another much-needed record shop was added to the healthy yet modest music-store scene when this East End indie swung open its doors on November 1. Owned by South Dakota transplants Titus Haag and his wife, Vinyl Junkie focuses on punk and hardcore rarities (though one can also pick up a…
Best Cigar Shop
We like a cigar store that’s downtown. We like a cigar store that’s family-owned. And we like a cigar store that carries more than 100 premium brands at decent prices. We don’t like snooty and snobby, and we’re not huge fans of any cigar shop that attracts overgrown frat boys…
Best Cheap Tickets
The UH Cougars play exciting football at a high level that can be very entertaining to watch, in an old-school stadium which has its charms if you don’t need the modern conveniences, and at night there’s a great view of the skyline to add to the atmosphere. Sure, they play…
Best Milk Shake
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as an old-fashioned milk shake made with real ice cream and served in a soda fountain glass with a metal mixing can on the side. At Avalon Diner, they’ve been doing it for years. Open since 1938, Avalon Diner is part of that dying breed…
Ralphie May
Here’s some advice to all the comedians out there: picking out names for your kids is not the time to be funny. It’s a little late for Ralphie May’s kids, a two-year-old boy named August May and a four-year-old girl named April June May. (The fact that May is married…
Best eVite Music Series
Perhaps you remember that in the days B.Z. (before Zuckerberg), if someone wanted to invite you somewhere — be it a birthday party or their band’s CD release show — they would send you an “eVite,” an e-mail that directed you to a quaint little RSVP site where you could…
Best Bar Bathroom
There are a lot of things to like about the “new” Fitzgerald’s: better sound, better bookings, not feeling like the floor upstairs could give way at any minute. Oddly, though, one of the things we like best is something the Heights club’s new owners haven’t changed at all. Walk into…
Best Bartender
Alex Gregg is the epitome of the classic bartender archetype: rolled-up sleeves, a broad and genuine smile and a can-do attitude. Gregg will mix up absolutely any drink you can fathom, and a few more of his own creation. The ultra-creative cocktail menu at Anvil is peppered with his inventions,…
Best Museum
Yeah, we love Picasso and dinosaur bones and all the traditional museum fare, but there’s something particularly awesome about a museum whose slogan is “Any Day Above Ground Is a Good One.” Since 1992, the NMFH has given us a glimpse into a world that most of us who haven’t…
Best Curmudgeon
“Curmudgeon” may not be quite the right word for Don Walsh. The Rusted Shut front man can be effusive and quite friendly, especially when we run into him at a show or in his random, rambling phone calls to our office that always seem to happen on Friday afternoons. Put…
Best Pizzeria
The specialty pies at Pink’s Pizza include such interesting concoctions as Deuce (goat cheese, mozzarella, spinach, portobello mushroom, roma tomatoes, and garlic with pesto sauce); Double Down (rosemary chicken, bacon, mozzarella, spinach, tomato, and roasted garlic with alfredo sauce); and Santa Monica (gorgonzola, mozzarella, prosciutto, eggplant, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, and…
Best Salsa
Working your way through the six salsas at Jarro Cafe is like taking a master class on the Scoville scale. The offerings range from eye-opening (the chunky oregano and chile-accented onion salsa) to sneaky-hot (the sweetened chile arbol paste) to volcanic (the bright green tomatillo-serrano slurry). Beneath the heat lurk…
Best Cemetery
Though not the most aesthetically pleasing cemetery in the city, this final resting place for the indigent and unidentified is especially moving. It’s especially sad to consider that, with roughly 13,000 people buried over the site’s 18 acres, the cemetery is almost out of room. For many souls buried here,…
Best New Building
Mai’s Restaurant was started in 1978 by the Nguyen family as a sandwich and coffee shop. It went on to become a Houston institution with a large menu of Vietnamese favorites. After the restaurant was destroyed by a fire in 2010, the family, led by Nguyen granddaughter Anna Pham, rebuilt…
Best Salad
The best salad in town at a place best known as a palace to pork, a monument to meat? Yes. And that’s because Stella Sola treats its vegetables with as much care and love as it does its many proteins. The Dal Giardino salad — which translates to “from the…
Best Restaurant
In a city that lacks truly amazing Italian food, Marco Wiles has been toiling at perfecting his restaurant’s cuisine for years. And it’s work that has paid off. Gourmet once said of Da Marco that it’s “as close to Italy as you can possibly get without leaving Texas.” That was…
Best Visionary Web Support Company
Need a website? Web hosting? A server to rent or buy? Local programming whiz Keith Christensen started out renting a house near the Galleria and over the years expanded his data solutions business to include Voice over Internet Protocol, which allows users to make calls through their computers, for businesses…
Best Dim Sum
While some may lament its nontraditional choice to serve dim sum all day long, that’s exactly the aspect of Dim Sum King we love most. Six days a week (it’s closed on Tuesdays), you can get dim sum for brunch, lunch or dinner — and all of it good. There…
Best Asian Supermarket
Clean, brightly lit and full of bargains, Super H Mart is still the standard by which we measure all Asian grocery stores. Food court with a wealth of ethnic specialties on the go? Check. Bakery with glamorous cakes and fascinating pastries? Check. Produce section stocking hard-to-find fruits and veggies? Check…
Best Spice Shop
Although you can certainly find any spice your heart desires here, it’s the spice blends (the Pasta Sprinkle is simply indispensable) and smartly boxed spice sets (the assortment of baking spices makes a great gift) that are the main draw here at Penzeys. Well, that and the ability to open…
Best Gun Range
The first time we entered the Arms Room in League City, we were hit with the smell of gunpowder and the music of gunshots in the air, from handguns, semiautomatics and shotguns alike. For people who are averse to the steely art of bullet-shooting weapons, that may sound like a…
Best Bang for the Buck
In a city filled with swanky, upscale sushi restaurants serving up overpriced, Americanized fare, Oishii is a breath of fresh air. You won’t find any pretentious decor, exotic cocktails or blaring techno music at the tiny restaurant just outside of Greenway Plaza; just warm, friendly service and traditional Japanese-style sushi…
Billy Joe Shaver
If there were any justice in this state, Billy Joe Shaver’s trademark denim western shirts would be just as iconic as Willie Nelson’s braids and George Strait’s doe-eyed stare. Now edging into his mid-’70s, outlaw-country stalwart Shaver is nearly 20 studio albums into a rough-and-tumble career that has seen him…
Best Photographer
Fans of photographer Chuy Benitez have watched the young artist grow by leaps and bounds over the last few years. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2005, he came to the University of Houston’s MFA program and quickly got noticed on the local arts scene. A show at Project Row…
Best Curator
Members of the local art community are frequently saying that Claudia Schmuckli needs to get more love for Blaffer Art Museum’s top-notch exhibitions. In January 2009, Schmuckli became Blaffer’s director and chief curator following a nine-month nationwide search (which, by the way, wasn’t really necessary since Schmuckli has been under…
Best Literary Journal
For a journal that focuses on works of 300 words or less — that’s the “nano” in the name — it’s a shame we have to wait half a year between issues. Luckily, Houston-based NANO Fiction keeps us tided over with a regular reading series, a summer reading list, plus…
Best Place to Beer-Nerd Out
The epicenter of the craft beer movement in Houston is here at Petrol Station, where beer nerds assemble nightly in their efforts to take beer to the next level. But whether you’re a connoisseur or a newcomer to the world of beer, Petrol Station has something for you. Interesting and…
Best Party Crashers
Sometime over the past year, plus-size singer and previous Best of Houston® winner YouGenious either decided that he was no longer content merely to be Houston’s “Misfit of R&B,” or that although Shakespeare may have said all the world’s a stage, it was up to YouGenious to prove it. So…
Best Jewish Deli
When it comes to the canon of New York-style Jewish delicatessen food, it ultimately boils down to that old gastronomic proverb: It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion. Any of the top deli owners in this country — whether in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Palm Springs, or Houston —…
Best Seafood Restaurant
The oysters alone win this award for Danton’s. Served any way — fried, Rockefeller or baked — the fresh, plump, straight-out-of-the-Gulf oysters are a must-have. But the best way to enjoy them is to belly up to the bar and order a dozen raw on the half shell, especially on…
Best Historic Preservation
Now the only historic beachfront hotel left on the Gulf Coast, the Hotel Galvez & Spa has just completed an $11 million renovation in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Owners George Mitchell and his family have made several updates to the property, modernizing it while maintaining its turn-of-the-century charm. The…
Best New Ecosystem
Since opening last December, the Houston Zoo’s African Forest habitat has drawn thousands of visitors to marvel at the latest addition, years in the making, spread out over six and a half acres. Populated with charismatic families of chimpanzees, giraffes and white rhinos, the African Forest also educates visitors about…
Best Expense Account Restaurant
If you’re gonna ball, go big or go home. Vic & Anthony’s is all about going big, with its opulent dining rooms, grand central kitchen that’s as imposing as a throne room, seductive piano bar and service that will make you feel as if you’re a prince among men. Here,…
Best Restaurant Service
It’s a rare restaurant that still gives its customers the white-glove treatment. It’s a rarer one still that does so with a genteel Southern charm that never makes the service feel pretentious or stuffy. Brennan’s has prided itself on years of such impeccable service over more than four decades and…
Best Maid Service
Tiese Jordan’s housecleaning service, A Natural Woman’s Touch, is a refreshing change from the services with an ever-changing, anonymous cast of characters who wham and slam through your home in between five other homes within the same day. Jordan will bring help if needed for larger jobs, such as a…
Best Thinker: Flood Control Innovator
No one who lives here needs to be told that Houston can flood every now and then. Doing something about it, though, can be intimidating — drainage and flood projects can be hugely expensive, take years and years to plan, approve and build, and only affect limited areas. Stephen Costello…
Best Place to Buy a Gun
Pawn shops and gun stores are fine places to pick up a handgun or rifle if you like paying higher prices than usual to pay someone’s rent or overhead costs, but the real gun enthusiasts in town all know that their best bet is hitting up the traveling High Caliber…
Best Tailoring
Do yourself a favor the next time you need an item of clothing altered. Take it to an actual alterations shop, and not just your local dry cleaner. The best one we’ve found is Le Silhouette, which you’ve likely driven past dozens of times on Alabama but never noticed. That’s…
Best Picnic Spot
This really should be “best picnic spots,” because there’s not just one place in this beautiful park to have a friendly (or romantic) picnic. Spanning nearly 450 acres, this historic park near the Texas Medical Center and Rice University is one of the most picturesque places in Houston. We really…
Best Cheap Seafood Restaurant
J & J is ostensibly a seafood market, with fresh flounder, red snapper, bass, shrimp and scallops on ice. More so, it bustles with eager customers lined up for the exceptional Gulf Coast-style fried fish, shrimp, and oyster dinners and combos. You get a choice of trout, drum, red, catfish…
Goodbye Charlie
In his day, George Axelrod was one of the most popular screenwriters in Hollywood. He was best known for The Seven Year Itch and his Academy Award-winning film version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but his most well-written comedy might be Goodbye Charlie, the gender-bending tale of a womanizer who gets…
Best Hidden Bar
It’s tucked away in that confusing little welter of diagonal streets near where North Main and Airline Drive snake under Loop 610, and it’s tiny, so the Rose Garden is literally hard to find. Also concealed is the culture it represents: that of the Polish Texans who came to this…
Most Innovative Promoter
What makes Pegstar an “innovative” promoter? A few years ago, founder Jagi Katial didn’t buy into the conventional wisdom that Houston was a terrible town for indie-rock, and has reaped the benefits ever since. Katial kept making offer after offer to bands whose first instinct may have been to bypass…
Best Bar – Outer Loop
Some of the interesting eye candy drinkers will find at this Wakefield strip locale: Wooden nickels as tender, pieces of whittled beige carpet as buckets-of-beer coasters and a cash register propped up with an upside down Smirnoff Ice cardboard box. And that’s just the start of the no-frills offerings —…
Best New Book About Houston
If you have anything more than a passing interest in the history and/or soul of Houston, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book. Former Press staff writer (and occasional theater critic) David Theis has done yeoman’s work in rounding up this anthology of writings about Houston, ranging…
Best Brasserie
The old Tony Mandola’s space that abuts River Oaks experienced a dramatic makeover when Charles Clark and Grant Cooper birthed Brasserie 19 in a whirl of glossy whites, sparkling brass, modern fixtures and old-school charm. It’s everything an updated brasserie space should be, with an impossibly long, marble bar and…
Best Chain Restaurant
Most chains get a few, or even several, dishes right, but Hillstone manages to nail them all, starting with the spinach artichoke appetizer. The sandwiches are hefty, with cheeseburgers, veggie burgers, fish and a French dip, while the gorgeous salads are meals unto themselves. There’s a soup calendar that might…
Best Veggie Burger
For many, Beaver’s sets the pace when it comes to non-traditional barbecue in Houston, so it is still a challenge to get vegetarians to walk through the door — until they learn about The Nut Burger. The patty is concocted from a brown rice base with nuts mixed throughout and…
Best Lawyer
Texans are used to high-profile criminal cases where, let’s face it, the defendant is stone-cold guilty but has the means to get a supremely skilled and supremely expensive lawyer to bitch-slap a prosecutor’s weak case. But what happens when that defendant isn’t loaded, and the prosecutor is especially rabid, to…
Best Criminal Court Judge
Correction: Former State District Judge Caprice Cosper has never expressed the opinion that she has been impressed with her successor, Judge Maria Jackson. The Houston Press regrets the error. When she was elected to the 339th Criminal District Court in 2008 as part of the Obama-led Democratic sweep, Maria Jackson…
Best Sushi
This mom-and-pop sushi restaurant in a slow-paced Chinatown strip mall doesn’t look like much from the outside. The only indication of its quality lies in its name: Miyagi is an extremely common name in the Ryukyu Islands, and it serves to let other Japanese know that an Okinawan runs this…
Best Restaurant Sommelier
Sean Beck started out as a waiter at Backstreet Cafe during his college days. Today he’s a certified sommelier running the wine lists at three of Houston’s best restaurants — Backstreet Cafe, Hugo’s and Trevisio — and he was rightfully singled out as a “rising star” when Star Chefs came…
Best Manicure
Manicures are like summer romances: They’re meant to last awhile, then fade away just as you’re ready to replace them. Prestigious Nails in the Heights is the perfect place for a fling-worthy manicure, with minimum investment and maximum reward. The space, painted a soft sea-foam green, is well-lit and incredibly…
Best Place to Change a Child’s Life
You only have to hear Robin Dysart’s story to understand the life-changing work being done by the staff of dedicated doctors, nurses and researchers at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dysart’s nine-year-old son had suffered from epileptic seizures his whole life, often as many as two or three an hour. As the…
Best Place to Feel Accomplished
Getting a car wash can be terminally boring: There’s only so much time you can spend looking at rows of Christmas tree air fresheners and risqué mudflaps while you wait for the workers to scrub months’ worth of grime and pigeon droppings from your neglected car’s hood. That’s why we…
Best Time Machine
If the glorious chocolate malts and grape phosphates at Another Time don’t take you back, the renovated soda fountain in historic downtown Richmond, overlooking a beautiful train museum, certainly will. After polishing off your patty melt and banana split, keep the time warp going by visiting all of the many…
Best Rocket
If a multimillionaire NBA player could ever be considered an “everyman,” Chuck Hayes would be the guy. A six-foot-six center, Hayes gives up a huge height advantage to opponents but plays dogged, tough defense. He’s an utter scrapper who gives you everything he’s got. The New York Times called him…
Best Date Night Restaurant
Everything about Giacomo’s whispers romance, but not in that cheesy Harlequin sense. It’s effortlessly and casually romantic, just as you’d want your date to be. Fairy lights twinkle in the canopy of the sweet little patio; the wine bar is dimly lit and well-stocked with Italian classics; the dining room…
Moneyball
At the time of this writing, the Oakland Athletics sit at a distant third in the American League West, 18 games behind the Texas Rangers managed by Ron Washington, once the first-base coach under A’s wonderboy Billy Beane. The A’s have not had a winning season since making the playoffs…
9/11 Idiocy, To Go
SPACED CITY 9/11 Idiocy, to Go By Richard Connelly A guy named Tarek G. wrote a Yelp review of Houston’s Petrol Station that included quite a tale: His to-go box, which included an un-American hamburger ordered so he could participate in the Satanic Islamic ritual of watching the Cowboys game,…
Am I Supporting the Mexican Drug Cartels if I Smoke Pot?
Dear Mexican, I am a half-breed, as they say (Mexican father, Anglo mother), and recently I’ve been reading a lot about the drug violence in Mexico. I’ve become increasingly disturbed by the way in which we Americans are directly contributing to this war by supplying the demand for drugs while…
Touch the Sky
Since I skipped last year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival, I must have been trying to make up for lost time. Friday I bounced around Zilker Park almost nonstop, rarely pausing at any stage longer than a couple of songs. This approach yielded worthwhile new discoveries (Fool’s Gold, Delta Spirit,…
Hanson
>Ike Hanson, guitarist for family band Hanson, thinks that his band would have had an easier time breaking in today’s climate than in 1997, when “MMMBop” was blowing up on radio. “It’s never easy to break in any band, but now I think people are more receptive to pop-rock,” he…
Weird Al Yankovic
It might be easy for some people to dismiss Weird Al Yankovic as an ’80s relic/Dr. Demento ripoff — if it weren’t for the fact that since he started his comedic music career in 1976, he’s sold more than 12 million albums and performed more than 1,000 live shows. Most…
Erasure
It’s now been a full quarter-century since Erasure’s debut The Innocents, but you’d never know it. Back from wherever it is arty electro duos go to recharge their batteries — like Numbers, where vocalist Andy Bell made a solo stop last year — Erasure is about to release their 14th…
Joe Jonas
The good news about Joe Jonas’s solo career, away from that little project with his brothers (about whom you may have heard a bit), is that now the world has another Robin Thicke to contend with, although Brother Joe doesn’t sing about eating your panties off. Yet. Of course, with…
Midtown Throwdown
After years of covering other people’s festivals, the Houston Press has decided to toss our own hat in the ring with this weekend’s first-ever Best of Houston® BestFest. We’ve pulled together two days of what we think is the best Houston music has to offer, past and present (mostly present),…
Peter, Bjorn & John
Countless musicians have been derided for appealing to the masses. But here’s where things get tricky: Good pop music isn’t especially easy to write, unless you’re Peter, Bjorn & John. And now, after spending a few years trying to get away from the pop sound that made them famous, the…
Brutal Blood
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, who wrote Topdog/Underdog, Venus and Fucking A, has never been known as a shrinking violet. She’s one of the most “out there” voices in theater. Singularly provocative and always thoughtful, using rich, loaded language to sear her social conscience into ours, she tackles, and revels…
Texans FTW?
Texans FTW? Online readers comment on “The New Normal,” by Sean Pendergast, September 7: Maybe this year: If Foster stays healthy, and Kubiak actually uses him for a whole game, I think this may be the year we finally make it to the playoffs. I think everyone knows Kubiak did…
Capsule Art Reviews: “Hayden Fosdick: Paper Compounds,” “Insperity Golf Experience,” Marc Swanson: The Second Story, “Raimund Girke 1930-2002,” “Working in the Abstract: Rethinking the Literal”
“Hayden Fosdick: Paper Compounds” Hayden Fosdick’s small, minimalist collage works feel right at home on the walls of downtown urban boutique The Tipping Point. The little cut-and-paste jobs, utilizing imagery and paper from a collection of old books the artist inherited from his late father, look like tiny wheat-paste street-art…
The Real World
Take a trip behind the scenes in our slideshow, and see exactly how those terrific cheese enchiladas are made. A mammoth burger sits in front of me at El Real Tex-Mex Cafe, one bun heaped high with meat that’s balanced precariously between a pantry’s worth of toppings. On the bottom…
Evening Shadows
When Chatter asked Carolyn Wonderland how many Houston Press Music Awards she’s won, she confessed she couldn’t remember, as she was often out on tour when they were presented. After ruling her hometown’s blues-rock scene for most of the ’90s with her band the Imperial Monkeys, where she racked up…
Capsule Stage Reviews: Anna in the Tropics, Damaged Divas of the Decades, Ether Dome, Farragut North, Republic Day, Woof
Anna in the Tropics While the cigar rollers toil in a small factory in ’20s Tampa, Florida, a new “lector” reads to them to pass the time and alleviate boredom. He chooses Tolstoy’s classic tale of adulterous passions Anna Karenina, and their lives change forever. Tradition, morality and dreams dash…
The Peddler
On November 15, 2001, an intern with the Harris County District Attorney’s office handed veteran in-house investigator John Lemerond a file on a couple of seemingly shady travel Web sites called Myowntravel and Academy Travel. Both of those sites were run, in whole or in part, by a 29-year-old two-time…
