Sorry, Mom
Even your mother can’t top Rex Hale’s light-as-a-cloud shortcake.
Looking forward to Jerry Jeff Walker’s second Luckenbach, looking into a new way to settle feuds, and looking back over the career of Texas’ most prolific unknown author.
By Alison Cook
An East Texas librarian learns the perils of shushing the wrong guy; Houston and Dallas put on the ritz for couture; and Citizen Butt picks the Texas Supreme Court.
By Alison Cook
San Antonio media indulge in self-flagellation over Henry; Dallas goes gaga over Tom Cruise; Hoston thrills to a Pearl of a blues singer.
By Alison Cook
Hieromania, the burning curiosity of glyphies; Post time in the race for Houston’s new gossip columnist; an unlikely car and an unlikelier trailer; the parking garage from hell.
By Alison Cook
Corpus Christi learns to grow through adversity; Houston gives Percy Foreman a rousing send-off; Austin ponders the mystery of the misappearing shoes.
By Alison Cook
Thanks to adventurous chef Michel Bernard Platz, the flowers at Dallas’ L’Entrecôte are as likely to be on the menu as in a vase.
By Alison Cook
The case of the purloined painting; how to tell the Surf Club from the Yacht Club; cream of the ice-cream crop; people who live in pink houses.
By Alison Cook
The bash of the century in Austin; new heights for an Alamo author; slouching toward Jerusalem, Texas; plus designer tomatoes, East Texas ingenuity, and Amazing Car #8.
By Alison Cook
The prairie chickens in Texas’ vanishing grasslands are booming and boyish.
By Alison Cook
The issues in El Paso’s colonias are watery and grave.
By Alison Cook
Downtown San Antonio get a makeover; two for T-shirts; a spine-tingling story of a racehorse; the real winners at the Miss U.S.A. pageant; the Brownies go to marketing.
By Alison Cook
Grazing cheap and chic in Houston, Austin, and Dallas; tire-kicking at the Fizzlick liquidation boutique; returning a piece of Janis’ heart to Port Arthur.
By Alison Cook
Time-honored Texas rituals by Paul Burka,
By Jim Atkinson, Al Reinert, Liz Carpenter and Alison Cook
The Mansion chef’s most redolent recipe came from Sunday suppers at his grandmother’s house.
By Alison Cook
Down but not out in Bent Tree; dishes only the devil could love; hello, Wal-Mart; stupid napkin tricks; gossip boys and Gorilla girls.
By Alison Cook
A black and gamy Monday; Wick Allison as low-profile Buckley; heartthrobs Quaid and Swayze; fine food for feedlots; Augie’s Gringo Lingo.
By Alison Cook
Where there’s smoke, there’s chef Robert McGrath’s smokebox that works wonders on Southwestern dishes.
By Alison Cook
Cities in search of salvation; the new White House (as in Mark); the art of double-Daryled potshots; chile time in El Paso; chile relleno time in Houston.
By Alison Cook
On the cutting edge with Ollie North; Donna Rice on the cutting room floor; cutting corners to find good Vietnamese restaurants; and the gig ‘em gourmet cookbook, the Aggies’ unkindest cut of all.
By Alison Cook
Maybe as much as $20,000, if Lee Ballard of Dallas has anything to do with it.
By Alison Cook
Let’s play pretend by swapping out Houstonians for Dallasites. Plus: Battling books, good Mex-Mex where you’d least expect it, and our guide to the latest legislative phrases (use ‘em three times and they’re yours!)
By Alison Cook
Meet Bruce Auden of San Antonio, the fairest of the Fairmount.
By Alison Cook
Not much happened at the Legislature, but that doesn’t mean they left no traces. Plus: Houston’s I’m OK, We’re OK Wortham bash, unlikely Texas TV stars, and Frank Lorenzo’s flight to cushier climes.
By Alison Cook
Texas oil patchers bounce back; Houston artist Staley paints the art crowd; goat-gland genius Brinkley’s mansion casts its quirky spell. Plus: Caroline Schoellkopf’s marital woes, Tammy Faye Bakker’s impersonators, and Nancy Negley Wellin’s prodigal daughter.
By Alison Cook
Houston ignores its AIDS crisis, Dallas restaurant gossips chew over hard times, San Antonio headline writers get their due. Plus: Chuck Robb’s blooper, Larry McMurtry’s sniffles, and Shearn Moody’s new taste in nightlife.
By Alison Cook
Marty Wender can’t do anything wrong—and San Antonio loves him for it. Joe Russo can’t do anything right—and Houston loves him for it. Plus: pop paraphernalia, naming Henry’s baby, Poppin’ Pigskins, and Who Killed Mark White?
By Alison Cook
Sneak a glance at our inaugural notebook to find out why Clements’ speech didn’t fly, which city had the most imperial ball, and who triumphed in the guv’s snub. Plus: Mad Maxian Car #3, space tombs in the sky, and ZZ Top’s song scuffle.
By Alison Cook
The City That Works isn’t working like it used to. Plus Amazing Cars of Texas #2, revolutionary folk art, and Topic A—what everybody can’t stop talking about.
By Alison Cook
Admit it. The first courses always seem more interesting than the entrées. Why not make a meal of them?
By Alison Cook
Mix election time, South Texas, and barbecue, and you get the pachanga circuit, where politics and barbecue are served with equal reverence.
By Alison Cook
Proprietors of some of Texas’ priciest restaurants are spinning off more-economical eateries that are giving the originals a run for the money.
By Alison Cook
From El Paso’s ingenious taco trays to Austin’s uplifting breakfast tacos, each Texas city celebrates this noble creation in its own way.
By Alison Cook
You want tacos with carnitas or cactus pads? Beef barbecue or bacon and eggs Come to San Antonio, where tacos aren’t just an afterthought on a Tex-Mex munue—they’re a way of life.
By Alison Cook
A splendid state park; snacks you shouldn’t feed to a dog; a wild and crazy Republican.
By Alison Cook
Robert Sakowitz set out to be a retail Renaissance man. Like his hero Leonardo da Vinci, he was going to do everything. And he did—including something he never imagined: fail.
By Alison Cook
Hot, hot, hot! Here’s why grills have become the trendiest of the trendy restaurants in Texas.
By Alison Cook
We just rate them. You voted for them.
By Paul Burka and Alison Cook
By her dedication, her rigor, her almost overwhelming enthusiasm, Diana Kennedy forced a generation of cooks to take Mexican food seriously and jolted Texans into realizing that there is life beyond the combination dinner.
By Alison Cook
Like the killer bees, Montezuma's revenge is moving north.
By Alison Cook
Can there be too much of a good thing? Five of Texas’ favorite restaurants have duplicated themselves in other cities, and now they’re finding out.
By Alison Cook
Law and order in Colorado City; winning and losing with the Dallas Diamonds; bargains and hassles on People Express; broiling and sweating in pursuit of mesquite chic.
By Alison Cook
Tales of Houston as it faces life after the boom.
By Peter Elkind and Alison Cook
When Houston’s rich and powerful join forces with environmentalists to battle big corporations, they can be fighting over only one thing. Garbage.
By Alison Cook
Up for sale in Dallas, the Shanbaum house boasts a whopping 28,000 square feet and what may be Texas’ most comprehensive collection of sixties and seventies kitsch—along with a $2.75 million price tag.
By Alison Cook
Bearing Gallic sophistication and outrageously delicious desserts, the Lenôtre family has taken Dallas and Houston by storm.
By Alison Cook
A nuclear quandary in West Texas; the fine art of political feuding in San Antonio; the redfish ranching business in Monahans; the education of a power broker in training in Houston.
By Alison Cook
In which a group of society ladies samples the thrills and chills of an essentially masculine pastime.
By Alison Cook
Fie on the cilantro fad, greaseless barbecue, and indiscriminate mesquite-grilling. Let’s hear it for Frito pie, catfish plates, and other gems of Texas’ true cuisine
By Alison Cook
We just rate them. You voted for them.
By Paul Burka, Kaye Northcott and Alison Cook