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......

Washington Avenue runs approximately three miles, a relatively small stretch of road in comparison to the hulking concrete freeways and endless ribbons of asphalt that flow through Houston. But those three miles, stretching parallel along I-10 and dead-ending into downtown, are potent ones. Washington Avenue is a microcosm of Houston's history and future, succinctly merging the two in ways that no other area of town does as successfully. But at its current rate of......

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......

So if you've been following our easy, no-fuss no-muss primer on learning about art and local artists, etc. now is your chance to show off your new knowledge! This weekend brings us Spacetaker's 2007 Holiday Sale, featuring all kinds of work from local artists. They'll have everything from jewelry to paintings to sculpture for purchase AND 75% of the proceeds benefit the artist while 25% goes to Spacetaker, which helps nurture the Houston arts community!......

Beginning this Sunday at 11:00 a.m. (in commemoration of Chef JJ's Birthday) you can now have brunch at MAX's Wine Dive from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.! Reservations for brunch will be accepted for parties of four or larger (we highly recommend you reserve your spot - this place gets all crazy busy what with all the seein' and bein' seen going on - add the luscious food and well, it's a recipe for "Waiting,......

Good morning, Houston. Weather got you down? Here's a fun story to lighten your mood: drunk astronauts. A report on astronaut mental health (undertaken after the infamous Lisa Nowak incident) revealed that NASA has sent astronauts into space totally sloshed. This happened in spite of the fact that they put a ban on alcohol consumption at least 12 hours before launch. Oops. We hope they're not too hard on the astronauts. After all, it's......

Californian indie band Two Gallants returns to Walter's on Washington tonight for a free show. It's the band's first visit to Houston since their scuffle with the law at the same venue last October. Since the charges against the band were dropped a few months ago (and since the band has a new album coming out tomorrow), Two Gallants is offering the free show as a gift to Houston and to "put a bit of......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. Is it true that the New Orleans Poboy lot is going to be turned into a Barnes & Noble? You’re getting your Houston landmark bulldozed for crappy chain store story confused. I'm not sure what will be built on the lot where Original New Orleans Po-Boy served up some of the best burgers in Houston. Whatever it becomes, it won’t be as interesting......

Hey, guess what? It rained again yesterday — and we mean a lot, in case you didn't notice. Not only was there a bunch of rain, but also high winds and hail of all varieties: "I got a lot of reports of hail — pea-sized, marble-sized, from Sugar Land to Tomball out toward Pasadena, Hobby Airport, League City — dime-sized hail is being reported there," KPRC meteorologist Frank Billingsley said. Most areas reportedly got 1......

I have a huge problem. I’m a big Bears fan (and a huge White Sox fan, but I’ll let that slide for the time being as to not open old wounds), but as this weekend approaches, I realized that I have nobody to watch The Game with. For years, I would be watching The Game with a few dozen other sweatpants-wearing, brat-eating, true Chicagoans — and for the first time in my first month as......

A safety tip from Houstonist: If some duct tape-wielding strangers show up at your door one night, don't let them in: They may be planning to rob your house while you watch. That's what happened to a guy in his townhome at Floyd and Hartman streets, just off Washington Avenue. About 10 p.m. yesterday, he said two middle-aged white men knocked on his door; when he answered, they forced their way into his house, tied......

Houstonist recently lunched at Christian's Totem on Washington Avenue, near I-10. In the spirit of passing along "burger-love" to Houstonians, we had to tell you about this little joint. It has undergone some remodeling of late, but, the burgers are just the same! Huge, juicy fully-loaded burgers with nice crispy onion rings or fries. We've had both the fries and the rings, they are fantastic - it just depends on your personal preference - we......

If you haven't heard yet, the Pig Stand, the venerable Washington Avenue greasy spoon, has closed after 83 years of serving up burgers, onion rings, greasy breakfasts and sloppy Pig Sandwiches (pulled pork and barbecue sauce, if you didn't know). According to the San Antonio Express-News, the problem is rooted in back taxes: The Pig Stand chain has been in financial trouble since filing for bankruptcy reorganization last year, and now the state has......

The couple who called the cops the night of the infamous Two Gallants show at Walter's on Washington spoke to the Chronicle this weekend: Ryland and Scott Peveto, who own a Victorian shotgun house behind the club, say that the bass from Walter's is shaking their house — and their peace of mind. The Pevetos said when they bought the house a couple of years ago, noise wasn't much of an issue; now, though, the......

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Randy. This is one of our favorite signs in Houston, and we're glad to see it getting some flickr love. It's the neon creation on the Washington Avenue side of the Pig Stand, which has been serving up diner food since 1924. In case you wondered, you probably have seen that sign somewhere before — maybe in The Evening Star or Reality Bites? And yeah,......

TxDOT has dropped plans to build 30-foot-high elevated frontage roads along the Katy Freeway between Washington and T.C. Jester, a move apparently driven by concerns from nearby residents about noise, pollution and aesthetic harm the elevated roads could bring. The proposed new feeder roads were part of TxDOT's $40 million proposal to create continuous frontage roads between Washington Avenue and Taylor Street — there are now gaps between Taylor and Studemont, Yale and Patterson......

Between Houstonist and our friends, we've probably managed to rack up enough speeding tickets in the last year to keep city government financially solvent. And no wonder: According to the National Motorists Association, Houston is among the 10 worst cities in the U.S. for speed traps. We rank No. 5 on the list behind the Detroit suburbs, D.C., Orlando and Colorado Springs. Austin comes in 7th. Really, this is just another arbitrary ranking, kind of......

We wonder: Does anyone actually try to use the Katy Freeway/West Loop interchange on the weekend anymore? Every weekend, lanes and ramps are closed there and we can only guess what kind of traffic backups it creates — we'd think people would get the idea and avoid the area altogether. But we guess Ikea's siren song is strong. At any rate, here are this weekend's Katy closures: The ramps from the Katy east- and westbound......

KPRC is reporting that a woman had to be rescued on the Katy Freeway this morning after a gravel truck overturned and dumped its load on top of her car. The truck reportedly overturned at about 10 a.m. on the eastbound freeway near Washington Avenue, trapping the woman inside her car. HFD crews made the scene and dug the woman out; the woman was taken to the hospital, but her condition hasn't been released. KPRC......

Recently, Houstonist was looking for a place to unwind with a friend and share a good bottle of wine without killing our pocketbooks. Luckily, we found The Corkscrew — it's one of the newest wine bars inside the Loop, and it's quickly becoming one of our favorites. Like many wine bars, The Corkscrew has a variety of wines (more than 250 in rotation here) with knowledgeable staff to help you. Unlike many wine bars......

The Chronicle has a story today on the last residential holdouts in the path of First Ward progress — namely the new Target and Sawyer Heights Village shopping center near downtown. Oscar Trevino and his mother have lived in a house adjacent to the Target site for more than 45 years, but they said they're not going to hang around when the shoppers start coming this summer. "We didn't want to sell," Trevino said, "but......

Katy Freeway chaos is getting to be a weekly ritual: This weekend, you can expect yet more delays on the west side. It hurts so good. Alternate lanes of the westbound freeway will be closed between Washington Avenue and the West Loop, as will the ramps from I-10 westbound to the West Loop, from 9 p.m. today until 9 p.m. Saturday. To go north on the West Loop, exit Washington, turn right and take......