Katharine Shilcutt had a disastrous brunch at Tiny Boxwood's, and the commenters by and large agreed with her that the place is overrated. But one commenter, Mai Pham, made us want to give it a try, anyway:
I can see why the experience was less than stellar, but I'll go out on a limb and be one of the few to proclaim that I love Tiny's. For me, it's a place out of time. There's nowhere else like it in Houston.Am I rich? No. Do I live in River Oaks? Uh, no.
I agree, there are annoying things about it. The parking sucks. The food could be better and the prices could be better, but in the grand scheme of things, the prices aren't that bad.
But I don't go there for the food, really. It's the setting, which is gorgeous, the people-watching, which is generally quite interesting, the impossibly large cafe au lait cups, yummy warm cookies, fresh lemonade, the French-speaking patrons that allow me to make believe I'm somewhere in Europe, and the fact that it's not all grey and concrete, not flat and brown.
Maybe it's the verdant green grass that attracts me. All I know is that I will actually drive all the way into town on my day off to brunch at this place. I like to go there with a book, have a coffee, breathe a semblance of clean air. Or go with a girlfriend and hang out on the patio dishing about goodness knows what. I brought my girlfriend from Germany here for breakfast one morning, who was amazed she could find such a cute place in Houston and it's one of my go-to places to bring out-of-towners who have a honky-tonk image of Houston.
Well, that does it. Along with commenter Fiorucci34, we are a little bit in love with you, Mai Pham.
