Business

Mixed Review

Houston has every reason to be proud of the Alley Theatre: After fifty years in the business, it has national clout and a Tony award. Still, not everyone is pleased with its direction.

New Deli

It started as a hippie sandwich shop in Austin. Now, more than two decades later, Schlotzsky’s is finally kicking the competition in the buns.

.commies

A Fort Worth filmmaker makes history on the Internet.

Smokin’!

Sowing the seeds of the hemp craze.

The Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog

In Texas the ultimate arbiter of good taste has always been Neiman Marcus, the Dallas-based department store that marks its ninetieth birthday next year.

Pace on Earth

If you’ve seen a Kiss concert, a truck and tractor pull, or Miss Saigon recently, you can thank Houston’s Pace Entertainment for the privilege—and for the price you paid.

California Scheming

HOUSTON FINANCIER (or, as he is often described in the Golden State media, “Texas tycoon”) Charles Hurwitz clearly got the better side of his recent agreement to swap 3,000 acres of ancient redwoods in Northern California for $380 million in federal and state funds plus other public forest acreage. In

Beer Necessities

To survive at a time of heady demand for craft brews, the mid-sized Spoetzel and Celis breweries have partnered with major corporations. Still, they’re keeping their local flavor.

America’s Marketer

The Dallas Cowboys began the season struggling on the scoreboard, but they’ve continued to score big on the balance sheet. In a coup reminiscent of his deals with Pepsi and Nike, owner Jerry Jones has made an as-yet unannounced deal to designate Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation as the team’s official medical

A Shrimp Tale

After nearly fifty years of working Matagorda Bay, Vernon Bates could soon watch his business shut down for good—and so could the thousands of other shrimpers who make their living on the Gulf Coast.

Reality Bytes

Origin Systems founder Richard Garriott has sometimes lived his life like a computer game, but now that the multimedia industry is changing, he can’t play around anymore.

The Music Man

Most businesses in the West Texas town of Alpine cater to locals, but one attracts Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Junior Brown, and other musical greats. It’s the modest building where Michael Stevens, luthier to the stars, produces electric guitars—fewer than two dozen a year, at $2,700 to $10,000 plus. “We

Nerd Herd

The drought drives cattle ranchers online.

Unfriendly Skies

An airline deal sets off an American revolution.

Advertising • Lionel Sosa

Breadth of a salesman.

Business • Richard Rainwater

The last tycoon.

Drinksmanship

How Seagram uncorked a national controversy by airing TV ads in Corpus Christi.

Bad News, Baird’s

This spring, Texas’ leading white-bread maker was ordered to pay a fine of $10 million and settled a lawsuit for another $18 million. Why does the company have to cough up so much dough?

Belo the Belt

Reading the Arlington newspaper war.

The Poop on Drypers

In less than a decade, the upstart Houston diapermaker has come a long way, baby. But taking on the big boys has hardly been child’s play.

Merchant of Death

By pooh-poohing sentimentality and focusing on profits, Houston funeral home mogul Robert Waltrip is making a killing.

Cattle Call

The Federal Express of the cattle business.

Now Hear This

The surprising sound of the Internet.

Holy Cacao!

Introducing El Rey, the Venezuelan chocolate that is wowing chefs everywhere, thanks to the efforts of a Texan with a taste for treats.

7th Heaven

What do Monty Python, the Lion King, Ace Ventura, and Howie Mandel have in common? They’re all part of 7th Level’s strategy to marry show biz with the computer-game biz.

Tough Nuts to Crack

Marketing the Texas pecan like the California raisin seems to make good business sense. So why do small Texas growers think it’s a shell game?

Slime Time!

An Addison snail breeder gets fresh with the world.

Trailing the Field

Texas was supposed to be horse racing’s salvation, a Thoroughbred–loving state with money to burn. So why can’t the sport get out of the gate?

Mondo Bondo

Texas’ multimillionaire of the moment.

Power to the People

With its cut-rate knockoffs of Apple’s Macintosh line, Austin’s Power Computing hopes to surpass Compaq and Dell as Texas’ top clone shop.

Domino Effect

This month at least two hundred Texans will converge on Hallettsville for the state championship of straight dominoes. The outcome is unpredictable, but one fact is not: Chances are that every player will tote a set of bones made by Waco-based Puremco, the only manufacturer of plastic dominoes outside mainland

Hot Potatoes

Is it possible to have a low-fat chip that tastes good? After three years of top-secret tinkering, Frito-Lay thinks it has hit upon the ultimate snacker’s delight.

Home, Sweet Homestead

Five chic interior design stores in Fredericksburg are comforting, inspiring, and for the acquisitive, absolutely irresistible.

Crude Awakening

There’s black gold in the South American rain forest—lots of it. Can the oil companies get it out without ruining the jungle and the way of life of the Indians who live there? The perils of drilling in the heart of darkness.

Hostile Makeover

Mary Kay Ash and Jinger Heath have made fortunes getting women to buy and sell their beauty products. But no lipstick or powder can conceal the ugliness between these Dallas cosmetics queens.

Reversal of Fortune

Boone Pickens and his protégé, David Batchelder, built Mesa Petroleum into an energy giant. Now Pickens’ empire is crumbling and his former aide is leading the charge against him.

The Yaga Saga

A year after he was ousted from the Galveston clothing company he founded, Joe Flores is designing a way to out-hip his rivals.

Texas Twenty: Ekhard Pfeiffer

The Compaq kid.

Texas Twenty: Jay Wilbur

The prophet of ‘Doom.’

Texas Twenty: Princess

The celebrity realtor as realtor celebrity.

Royalty Pain

Silicone City

From invention to litigation, the breast implant has done more for Houston’s economy—and its psyche—than anything since oil.

Bottleneck

Henderson County residents and Ozarka are locked in a nasty fight over some of the best water in Texas.

Post Script

The only surprise about the closing of Houston’s oldest papers was that it took so long.

Open Season

Are gun sellers responsible for gun deaths? Gun store owners and gun show promoters each say no, but that may be all they agree on.

Are Texans Gun Crazy?

During the first week of April, as the Legislature considered the case for concealed weapons, Texas mourned the consequences of two gun-related tragedies in Corpus Christi: the murder of Tejano superstar Selena Quintanilla Perez and the shooting of five workers at a refinery inspection company by a disgruntled

Drug War!

How a small Houston biotech company and a giant California-based rival are battling over who developed what may be a revolutionary cure for asthma and allergies.

Chipping Away

Cyriz is dueling industry-gian Intel in a showdown for the fastest computers in the West.

Is MCC Obsolete?

Twelve years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the vaunted Austin high-tech consortium is still struggling to find its purpose.

Critter Bidders

High-tech meets down-home in Texas’ latest ranching trend: a video auction of emus, elk, and other exotic animals.