Pat’s Pick
Shade
Houston
Shade
Attention, Houston: Claire Smith is back. Residents of the Bayou City became the young chef’s loyal followers during the six years that she owned the Daily Review Cafe and mourned when, in 2000, she decamped for Chicago. Happily, it didn’t take too long for her to come to her senses and make her way home. In December, in partnership with her husband, Russell Murrell, and chef Jeb Stuart (an alum of the Daily Review), Smith opened Shade in the city’s easygoing Heights area. Her innovative style shows up in dinner entrées like short ribs braised in a zingy, Thai-influenced red curry and moist halibut in a prosciutto wrapper. Even lunchtime dishes are imaginative: A spinach-and-frisée salad is dotted with crisp bacon lardons and topped by a poached quail egg “on a raft” (a round of toast), and a meaty grilled lamb sandwich is made with homemade flatbread and garnished with cucumber-mint raita. Equally up-to-the-minute, the tall rooms are done in cool pastels, with curvaceous blue chairs in the bar area. It’s so nice to have you back where you belong, Ms. Smith. PATRICIA SHARPE
Chocolate Cherry Croissant Bread Pudding With Bourbon Sauce and Ice Cream
On The Road
Eat! They Said
In the game of Where To Eat When on the Road, the surprises behind doors 1, 2, and 3 really aren’t surprises at all. There’s your standard please-drive-forward-and-pick-up-at-the-window hamburger, your country-kitchen chicken-fried steak (which is sometimes simply shoe leather slopped with gravy), and your Italian bread salad with feta cheese. Okay, so maybe the last one isn’t all that standard—unless you’re fortunate enough to be traveling down U.S. 290 through Dripping Springs. That’s where you’ll find, in the limestone-walled, tin-roofed former home of Hamburger Hill, an ambitious new venture named Roscoe’s. We started with a skewer of teriyaki-splashed grilled shrimp atop a bed of leafy greens, which maintained a modicum of road-food charm by arriving in a basket lined with parchment paper, and then proceeded to one of the evening’s specials: a thick pork chop stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, shallots, and asiago cheese (thank heaven this entrée was served on a plate not made of paper). The crown jewel of this spot is its deli case stocked with the likes of stuffed peppers, meatballs the size of baseballs, and yes, Italian bread salad, available to go or to eat on the spot. And die-hard traditionalists shouldn’t worry, because Roscoe’s also has burgers, sandwiches, and salads, plus catfish on Fridays and the venerable CFS on Saturdays. STACY HOLLISTER
Season’s Eatings
That’s Amore
If your relationship (with your sweetie or with chocolate) needs a jump start this Valentine’s, try one of these novel Texas-made gifts. Austin’s Dr. Chocolate (512-454-0555) promises to cure the Valentine’s Day doldrums with one of its Pizzas d’Amore, cleverly garnished with candied cherries (standing in for pepperoni) and nibbles of pecan. This pie comes in a red heart-shaped tin; special delivery plans are up to you. El Pasoans can declare their love with chocolate-dipped potato chips (for the person who can’t commit—to either savory or sweet) or chocolate-covered Twinkies , both courtesy of the Candy Bar (915-526-0622). In Houston, the Chocolate Bar (713-520-8599) tops its milk- or white-chocolate pizzas with nuts and candied fruit and a sprinkle of grated white-chocolate “cheese.” They are packed in real pizza delivery boxes, to complete the surprise. For a south-of-the-border treat, San Antonio’s On Main (210-737-2323) offers solid milk-chocolate tamales hand-wrapped in real corn husks. A greeting card reading “You’re One Hot Tamale” accompanies the confections, which are made in nearby Pleasanton. Will these silly sweets bring back the magic? Who knows, but they’ll definitely make Valentine’s Day fun. S. L. MCDONALD
My Library
