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Joanne Harrison

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Reel Worlds

Houston mines international gold with the Pan-Cultural Film Festival

By Joanne Harrison
Feb 10, 2000

Mohammed Kamara believes that film is the true universal language. It certainly has been for him. As a boy in Guinea, West Africa, he was exposed to cinema through the World Health Organization and the American Red Cross. "They used to bring 16-millimeter projectors in the back of a Land...
King of the Hill

The King Biscuit Patio Cafe is hangout heaven

By Joanne Harrison
May 29, 1997

Located on a small rise at a bend in the road just east of Norhill Addition in the Heights, the King Biscuit Patio Cafe offers one of Houston's most spectacular vistas -- an absolutely killer view of the White Oak greenbelt, with the tips of downtown's skyscrapers peeking over the...
What's in a Name?

If the name is Russo's Cafe Anthony, it's memorable Italian eating

By Joanne Harrison
Apr 10, 1997

It's a shame that many people know Russo's Cafe Anthony more for a legal struggle over its name than for its food. It's a shame, because Russo's place, located just north of the museum district in a row of converted fourplexes, is a splendid neighborhood-style Italian restaurant. Still, it's understandable...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Jan 9, 1997

Serious Sauce You can get into some intense arguments over the merits of barbecue joints in this town. There's the Goode Company faction, and the Drexler's faction; there are Otto's aficionados and those who favor Luling City Market. There are even Luther's partisans. But for old-fashioned, chow-down barbecue, I don't...
Sushi Safari

After years of denial, our critic learns the truth: She has to eat it raw

By Joanne Harrison
Jan 2, 1997

A confession: Over the last decade, while people nationwide were learning about sushi, going gaga over urchin roe and ebi and maguro and awabi, I was lagging behind, wondering how anyone could even consider putting raw fish between their lips. Perhaps it was my dual Boston/Houston background, but it seemed...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 26, 1996

Talking Turkey (Sort Of) Take a chicken. Bone it. Stuff it with cornbread stuffing. Slather it with Cajun sausage, or maybe crawfish etouffee. Take a duck. Bone it. Stuff it with the chicken. Slather the duck with the sausage or the etouffee. Take a turkey. Bone it. Cram the duck...
Seriously French

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 26, 1996

When I hear that an eating establishment is one of only four Relais Gourmand organization restaurants in North America, and that the seriously gourmet menu is in French, I expect to find a dining room that's terribly formal and just a bit off-putting. Perhaps there'll be a sneering maitre d'...
Island Dreams

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 19, 1996

When the Reggae Hut's owners say they serve up "authentic Jamaican food and vibe," they aren't exaggerating. Like the gentle motion of waves in the Caribbean Sea, a steady reggae beat rocks hypnotically from speakers in the ceiling of the small Jamaican storefront restaurant on Almeda, creating subliminal images of...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 19, 1996

Pay Now, Eat Later This time of year, everybody in town tries to find a new way to get you to part with your money. So it's not surprising that a quintet of tony restaurants have decided to offer dining packages that are just right to place under the Christmas...
A Night in Old Moscow

Svetlana offers a taste of Mother Russia -- in more ways than one

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 12, 1996

I've spent a fair amount of time in Eastern Europe, but I haven't been anywhere like Svetlana since that night long ago when I went to a Red Army dine and dance club on a little side street near the Kremlin with a pal who'd used his father's Politburo ID...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 12, 1996

Doing the Time Warp Houston's full of contempo-wannabe restaurants where the cuisine is clever and the decor ab-fab to say the least; mercifully, Ducho's Steak House isn't one of them. For decades this homely time warp has been hiding on a small residential street perpendicular to North Shepherd at the...
South of the Sabine

The Sunset Tea Room gives way to some new ideas about old-fashioned food

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 5, 1996

For close to two decades, the venerable Sunset Tea Room just off Kirby was the venue of choice for the sort of Houstonians who, at other times, would likely be found eating at the country club. The strip center space wasn't all that evident unless you knew it was there,...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Dec 5, 1996

Sadler Moves On Bill Sadler has done it again. Early last month, the restaurant entrepreneur who built the River Cafe into a success, and then sold it, passed ownership of his Cafe Noche into the hands of his longtime chef Alan Mallett. Sadler had made his neo-regional Mexican outpost on...
Heavy Mettle

There's nothing delicate to be found in Old Heidelberg's deliciously Teutonic soul

By Joanne Harrison
Nov 21, 1996

Nobody has ever accused German food of exhibiting a minimalist sensibility. The hearty meat and potato dishes that make up the cuisine's canon are clearly designed to stick to your ribs (and probably, truth be told, to the walls of your arteries as well). Heft makes a certain sense in...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Nov 21, 1996

Perfectly Simple Ethnic encomiums are the watchword this week. So let us now sing the praises of Niko-Niko's, the odd little Greek joint located in a former gas station on Montrose that is, mirabile dictu, one of the few multiple-winners of Marvin Zindler's Blue Ribbon award for cleanliness. And that's...
Pedigree Counts

Arcodoro has some growing up to do, but Dacapo's already does its parents proud

By Joanne Harrison
Nov 14, 1996

Just ask the Freudians: The strongest human urges are the need to eat and the drive to reproduce. It's a textbook case of psychology in action: As soon as a clientele convinces a restaurateur that they just love his or her food, the proprietor starts looking for new venues and...
Bonjour, Neighbor

Unlike many that claim the homey name, Europa is no bogus bistro

By Joanne Harrison
Nov 7, 1996

There are plenty of restaurants in Houston that call themselves bistros, but most of them do so simply because they think the word adds a certain Continental sheen to the same old fare. But when folks refer to Europa, a hidden gem near Rice Village, by that Left Bank term,...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Nov 7, 1996

Heavenly Hopes This summer, when the quondam church on the lower reaches of Westheimer gave up its identity as Dream Merchant, clothier to the outrageous young, we were pleased to see the site revert to being a restaurant. As Gantry's (yes, as in Elmer), it had once been the home...
Back to the Classics

By Joanne Harrison
Oct 31, 1996

This spring, when customers wandered into the venerable Massa's in search of a fix of time-honored Gulf Coast fare, what they got instead was a shock. There on a menu that should have boasted little that wasn't fried and familiar were such items as Maqac Chow, pickled okra prepared in...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Oct 31, 1996

Location, Location ... Is there such a thing as a restaurant location jinx? If you look at what's passed through 3009 Post Oak Boulevard, you might think so. Though Don's, the proto-Landry restaurant, had a long and successful run in the spot, in recent years those calling the address home...
Back to Wok

A pair of Asian pioneers return to blaze new (if familiar) paths

By Joanne Harrison
Oct 17, 1996

When Daniel Wong's innovative, multiregional Chinese kitchen on Richmond and the Lu family's funky Vietnam restaurant near the corner of Main and Elgin each closed several years back, their considerable followings were left disconsolate. Those who favored these two very different Asian establishments were convinced they'd never see the like...
Dish

By Joanne Harrison
Oct 10, 1996

Clashing Caesars Once again, local gourmand Guy Stout has put out the call to chefs across Houston, asking them to gather up their romaine lettuce, olive oil, eggs, anchovies and whatever other fixings they may deem appropriate and compete to see who can come up with the city's best Casesar...

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Joanne Harrison