Just because you don't want to cook a huge spread or can't get out of town to visit family doesn't mean you have to spend Thanksgiving without some great food. We're thankful for our friends at B4-U-Eat, who have compiled a thorough list of all Houston-area restaurants that will be open on Thanksgiving Day. Want to escape the fam for a while and grab a cup of coffee? Then head over to The Coffee Groundz......

Starting next week, OpenTable.com (a website that allows you to make restaurant reservations online) will be holding their yearly Appetite Stimulus Plan, in which Houston-area restaurants will be offering special three-course menus at a greatly reduced price. From November 17th through the 21st, the restaurants will be offering either lunch or dinner menus or -- in some cases -- both. The price for the lunch menus is $24, while the dinner menus are an......

Congratulations on not completely falling down on the job by exercising your right as an American citizen and voting today. But the fun's not over! You still have an entire night of talking heads, exhausting rhetoric and ceaseless exposition to look forward to as our nation chews the cud of the 2008 election until early morn. So instead of parking it on the couch and watching the overly-hairsprayed pundits on CNN and Fox News,......

Move over Montrose and Midtown: the first certified organic restaurant in town is moving in, and it's moving into the suburbs. Florida-based Pizza Fusion, the nation's only organic restaurant chain that also requires organic certification for all of its vendors, is opening this November at Vintage Park. Never heard of Vintage Park? That's because it's located at Highway 249 and Louetta Road, close to the Hewlett-Packard campus, in far north Houston. Originally imagined as......

Tucked away in the shell of an old K-Mart in a west Houston strip center that defines the word "unassuming" is one of the city's best markets and -- dare we say it? -- the best salad bar around. There. The secret is out. Sandy's Market doesn't look like much as you pass it on Katy Freeway, almost lost in the shuffle of endless beige stucco buildings that line the city's roadways. But step inside......

Houstonist took our sweet time finally getting down to The Lake House in downtown's Discovery Green, and do we ever wish we'd discovered (heh...get it?) this little gem sooner. Aside from its beautiful, modern-yet-relaxed architecture and location in the middle of Discovery Green, The Lake House is an unassuming little restaurant. It's made to fit seamlessly with the rest of the park, classic wood-paneling appropriately reminscent of a lake-side cabin and soaring glass walls showcasing......

Oh, how we wept and wailed when Ming's closed. We rended our garments in the streets, gnashed our teeth and decried the unfairness of it all. How could they move to Austin and leave us without convenient, if mediocre, Chinese food after a long night at Numbers? Never more to mourn, people. A new late-night sheriff is in town: Little Big's. Bryan Caswell, native Houstonian and head chef at the popular Reef, and his partner,......

The sad news has reached almost everyone in Houston by now: landmark restaurant Brennan's was lost to a fire in the early hours of Saturday, September 13th, even though firefighters bravely fought to contain the flames throughout the fierce winds of Hurricane Ike. Even sadder news is that the restaurant's sommelier, James Koonce, and his four-year-old little girl, Katharine, were badly burned in the fire. Both Koonce and his daughter are currently listed in......

We took a trip over to the Heights today at lunch to see how the historic neighborhood was faring five days after Hurricane Ike. The Heights, like many other older neighbohoods in Houston, was badly battered by the high winds and tornados that Ike produced. The incredible wealth of beautiful old live oak and pecan trees in the neighborhood only gave Ike additional fodder during its destructive rampage. Driving down I-10 towards the Heights, the......

If you're in the Washington Avenue area (or the Heights area, or Midtown, or Montrose...) and are still without power, we have good news courtesy of our friends at Catalan Food & Wine! The restaurant is very generously giving away what ice they have on hand tonight, after 10:00 p.m. Catalan will be reopening to the public today, September 17th, from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. After today, they'll have regular operating hours again, so......

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! David Bowie's 1972 manifesto could be the theme music for the last few weeks on Houston's restaurant scene. It's been busy to say the least, as demonstrated by several resignations, hirings and announcements. Houstonist is here to round up the highs and the lows. The newly-opened Americas in The Woodlands has lost both their head chef, Jonathan Jones, and their pastry chef, Plinio Sandalio. Jones was the original chef at Max's Wine Dive and......

Soon, there will be one more reason to be jealous of your friends who live in Midtown (aside from easy light rail access and The Big Top): Crave Sushi. Word from HAIF is that a new sushi restaurant is being built on Travis at Tuam, to fill the void in the underserved sushi market in Midtown. Crave Sushi is scheduled to open in December of this year, just in time for the weather to be......

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if there is an Ethiopian restaurant in a city, it will be called "Blue Nile." Houston, no stranger to universal truths, has its very own Blue Nile, tucked away in a strip mall on Richmond on the west side of town. Our Blue Nile has long been an outpost of exotic Eritrean and Ethiopian food, despite the fact that most Houstonians are blithely oblivious to its existence. And......

Saturday evening from 4:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. the Heights will unfurl "White Linen Nights in the Heights", so that we can toodle around the neighborhood, exposing ourselves to art, food, shopping and perusing some of Houston 's nearly condo-eradicated architecture. Yes, construction commenced in the 1890's on this, Houston's first, planned community (who knew a planned community could rock!). This event is free, parking is free, pedi-cabs? free! shuttles, yeah free, too!! So, bust......

News broke this morning that all 300 restaurants in the Texas-based Bennigan's chain had mysteriously and suddenly closed overnight, all across the nation. Confused staff reported showing up to work and being met by shuttered doors, while some managers spent their morning calling employees to inform them of the situation. Thousands of waitstaff, line cooks, bartenders and bussers across the country are simply stranded, waiting for any news from Bennigan's on whether or not......

Houston Restaurant Week is just around the corner and menus for the popular event have finally been posted. Is your favorite restaurant among the participants this year? Probably. Are there some tried-and-true establishments serving up much-adored dishes? You betcha. Are there some exciting new restaurants to try? Definitely. The annual Houston Restaurant Week is a partnership with the End Hunger Network, a local non-profit devoted to ending hunger in Houston through volunteer-based programs that collect......

Houstonist headed out to Washington Avenue this past Sunday afternoon to try the newest Italian restaurant cum grocery store, Raia's Italian Market. With an untested location in a brand-new building and the time-tested juggernaut Nundini's only a few blocks away, it would appear that Raia's has a lot to overcome if it wishes to succeed in a market already saturated with Italian restaurants (Candelari's, Spaghetti Western, Star Pizza, Collina's, Patronella's, and Cavatore are just......

Looking for a fun way to spend a summer evening with your girlfriends? Don't mind laughing hysterically and crying into your Kleenex within the span of the same two hours? Then head on down to Gravitas, where they'll be hosting "Dinner & A Chick Flick" every Tuesday throughout July. For just $20, you'll get a hardcore chick flick (guys, be warned!) and a comfort food-style dinner pairing that matches the theme of the movie. The......

This weekend, the Houston-area chapter of the Chowhounds boldly declared, "We don't need no stinkin' Texas Monthly surveys!" as Pearl Bar played host to the first annual Chowhound BBQ Smackdown to find the best barbeque in Houston. The results were surprising, to say the least. The Houston Chowhounds are a group of food bloggers (pro, semi-pro and amateur), food lovers and industry insiders from around town who arrange various meet-ups and events for fellow foodies,......

Can we interest you in the brisk salt air and the reassuring view of distant oil platforms in the Gulf with your beer? If so, you'll want to attend the next Saint Arnold pub crawl this Saturday, June 28th starting promptly at 4:00 p.m. The oft-held and oft-enjoyed pub crawl is getting a new (and an old) twist this weekend. The new twist is that -- for the first time ever! -- it's being held......

Slate takes notice of what millions of Houstonians already know: Houston, We Have No Problems (a longer version of the article can be found here, in Newsweek). Similar to the recent Kiplinger's article that named Houston as the nation's best city in which to "Live, Work and Play," the Slate article touts Houston's booming and diversified economy (we're only 50% dependent upon oil and gas, you know), the Texas Medical Center, the Port of......

We were all set to interview chef Randy Rucker earlier this week when a slight delay occurred that required us to reschedule. That delay? Rucker's brother had killed a 100-pound wild hog and brought it part and parcel to his doorstep that same afternoon. Unable to resist the fresh pork, Rucker descended upon the beast and before he knew it, was "knee deep in pig and just couldn't get away." The result? "Nothing was wasted,"......

Do you love bagels? And saving money? And helping sick kids? Of course you do! So read on... Beginning today, June 6th, and running through this Sunday, June 8th, you can get a hot, toasty bagel and a shmear (that's fancy bagel-talk for cream cheese or butter) at Einstein Bros. Bagels for only $0.99! Your bagel and shmear would normally cost $2.49, but Einstein is hoping that you and your fellow customers will donate the......

Great news!! If you have not checked the list of participating eateries in the Dining Out For Life list, Niko Niko's is participating!!! Houstonist had lunch w/ a couple of peeps this week. As always, it was delish - we chose rice for our starch to accompany the gyro plate, it's creamy and flavorful - we'd love the recipe, just saying. We've had the potatoes and the fries previously, both are very good choices, as......

Molina’s Cantina, a family-owned and operated Tex-Mex Restaurant chain headquartered in Houston, announced yesterday that they will not renew their lease at 5227 Buffalo Speedway, located at the northeast corner of Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet. The last day of business will be Saturday May 24, 2008. The Molina family is proactively seeking a new location within the same geographic region and intends to be back in business in the West University area soon. Meanwhile the......

It's an American tradition, just like representative democracy and childhood obesity: the Super Bowl. Even people who aren't football fans usually find a way to watch the game (or the commercials, depending on your priorities) and the die-hards view Sunday as some combination of Christmas, graduation, and the non-lame parts of the Olympics all rolled into one. If you don't have plans for the big game already, here are a few options around town: -......

Yes, that is some fried chicken you see. Yes, as the name would have you believe - this is a Mexican Restaurant review. Befuddled? Then you are too new. Or, perhaps, you don't know your fried chicken quite as well as you would like to think you do (just saying, or we need to be corrected by you, our reader). Houstonist loves a challenge, so we gave ourself one - get skinny(er) and keep giving......

We love restaurants in cute little houses. They immediately make us feel comfortable and at home, except we don't have to cook or wash the dishes. And yet, while the quaint brick cottage is one reason we love Seco's Latin Cuisine, the food is enough to make us forget our surroundings. Usually we like to come here for the $13 Sunday brunch buffet, so that we can stuff our selves silly and then have the......

What would be the obvious career path for someone who went to Harvard for undergrad and Yale for law school? Well, write and publish restaurant guides, of course. Duh. Houstonist had the opportunity to sit with author/entrepreneur/foodie/publisher/world-traveller Robin Goldstein and his managing editor/foodie/marketer/public-relations-exec/S.O. Alexis Herschkowitsch. Robin has just released his Houston restaurant guide – Fearless Critic, Houston Restaurant Guide (one of the very first complete printed guides in Houston - and no, Zagat doesn't count).......

Good morning, Houston. Hey, guess who's having a birthday today? Well, OK, it's technically not Houstonist — our second birthday was back on Nov. 20, but we figured that if the queen can have two birthdays, so can we. And so we're throwing ourselves a little birthday party tonight, and you're all invited. It starts at 6 p.m. at Monsoon Wok, Lamar at San Jacinto (yes, street parking is free downtown after 6). Six......