Mai's misses the mark: We all know the story by now. Houston landmark Mai's burns down tragically in 2010, reopens to great acclaim in 2011. There are many, many, many people in Houston who are thrilled with Mai's rebirth. I just wasn't one of them.

Dolce Vita bids arrividerci to The Woodlands: In a bid to expand his restaurant empire far beyond its Montrose confines, Chef Marco Wiles (who also owns Da Marco, Vinoteca Poscol and Dolce Vita) opened a second location of his highly acclaimed pizza place -- Dolce Vita -- in The Woodlands. The refined, deeply Italian-style pizza didn't go over well with suburban customers who were requesting Ranch dressing for their pizza bones and Skee-ball for their kids, and the ill-advised restaurant closed a few short months after opening.

Trader Joe's goes north: When the restaurant gods close a door, sometimes the grocery store gods come along and open an even bigger one. That's what happened -- sort of -- when Trader Joe's dashed thousands of Houstonians' hopes and dreams by choosing The Woodlands instead of the much-discussed Alabama Theater as its first Houston-area location. But what's bad news for Houstonians was great news for Woodlanders, who are busy preparing to welcome the new grocery store with open arms.

Freetail Brewing hightails it out of Houston: Houston has lacked a strong brewpub scene for years, which was only exacerbated by the closure of the city's last brewpub: Two Rows in Rice Village. So when it was announced that San Antonio's own Freetail Brewing would be opening a second location in downtown Houston, the beer community rejoiced. Their excitement was short-lived, however, when plans were scrapped a mere two months later. Freetail owner Scott Metzgar blamed the failure to launch on being unable to secure funding, but there's good news yet: a homegrown brewpub, City Acre, plans to open next year.

TABC troubles continue: Although the lobbying efforts were great, House Bills 602 and 660 -- which would have significantly loosened the ridiculously tight reins TABC has on beer producers -- failed to pass the Texas Legislature. However, good news came in a recent ruling in favor of Austin-based brewery Jester King, which won a lawsuit it filed against the TABC. A federal judge ruled that the TABC's restrictions on allowing breweries to advertise where their beers are sold were unconstitutional. Moreover, Texas-brewed beers can now actually be called beer.

Chefs play musical chairs: One of the great things about Houston's young chefs is their tendency to never stop learning, to never stop gathering new ideas or expanding into new territory. However, that also means that 2011 was the year that some of our best chefs left their posts in midstream. The stories from the past year alone are nearly endless: Stella Sola is swimming along under Adam Dorris's stewardship, but we still miss Justin Basye's presence in the kitchen he founded. Yelapa foundered after chefs L.J. Wiley and Brandon Fisch both left in succession. Fans of modern cooking were left at loose ends when Randy Rucker and Chris Leung departed from Bootsie's. Michael Kramer cycled through both The Tasting Room and Felix 55 in the span of one year. Michael Dei Maggi's partnership with a newly revamped Dragon Bowl lasted for only a few short months. Chris Shepherd left Catalan, which closed with his departure. Jason Hauck left Soma just as the restaurant started making some of the best ramen in town. Steve Marques left The Burger Guys, but happily resurfaced at Max's Wine Dive. Ditto Lyle Bento, who left Feast but ended up running The Modular with Josh Martinez, and Greg Lowry, who left Voice but ended up at Triniti with Ryan Hildebrand.

It's these last three examples which give us great, great hopes for 2012, though: Almost every single one of these talented chefs has remained in Houston throughout it all, with many of them set to open new projects in the next year or tackle new posts at equally exciting restaurants.

And, really, if that's all we have to complain about, we have it pretty good, Houston.