Quick Links

Contributors

Patricia Sharpe

Patricia Sharpe's Profile Photo

Executive editor Patricia Sharpe grew up in Austin and holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Texas at Austin. After working as a teacher (in English and Spanish) and at the Texas Historical Commission (writing historical markers), she joined the staff of Texas Monthly in 1974. Initially, she edited the magazine’s cultural and restaurant listings and wrote a consumer feature called Touts. She eventually focused exclusively on food. Her humorous story “War Fare,” an account of living for 48 hours on military MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), was included in the anthology Best Food Writing 2002. Many of her stories appear in the 2008 UT Press collection Texas Monthly on Food. Her story about being a restaurant critic, titled “Confessions of a ‘Skinny Bitch,’ ” won a James Beard Foundation award for magazine food writing in 2006.

Sharpe has contributed to Gourmet, Bon Appétit, Saveur, and the New York Times. She writes a regular restaurant column, Pat’s Pick, for Texas Monthly.

1225 Articles

Eat My Words|
August 21, 2008

Back to the Future with the Frisco Shop

By the most conservative estimate, my dear departed father ate at the Nighthawk, near the UT campus 18,237 times in his eighty years on this earth. That’s lunch every working day for 35 years (he was a journalism prof), followed by a snack in the middle of the afternoon. The

By

Eat My Words|
August 11, 2008

Eating Houston

To hell with Zagat. What you want is The Ultimate Food Lover’s Guide to Houston. A little larger than a pocket book but still handy (at 5″ x 8″), it is a smart, witty, 352-page guide to not only Houston restaurants but the area’s entire food scene. I especially like

By

Eat My Words|
August 7, 2008

Got Pie?

No, it’s not as lucrative as the Pillsbury Bake-off, but it’s not as nerve-racking either. Enter the Driskill Hotel’s first annual Pie Bake-off and you could be the winner of a $500 gift certificate from the historic Austin hotel. Plus, your pie will be famous not just for fifteen minutes

By

Eat My Words|
August 6, 2008

Blue Humor

Beaver’s Ice House, in Houston, has gone blue with a vengeance. You know Beaver’s, right, it’s Monica Pope’s retro-mod barbecue joint. Seems that the girl has thrown political neutrality to the four winds and is having what she calls “Blue State Tuesdays” there every Tuesday evening from

By

Pat's Pick|
July 31, 2008

Screen Door

Poor June Cleaver would be so confused. The pretty, proper dining room at Screen Door—the two-month-old restaurant at Dallas’s One Arts Plaza—looks as if it could be the Cleavers’ living room. But June would never have served iced tea in a milk bottle. And if there had been daughters in

By

The Filter: Dining|
July 31, 2008

New and Noteworthy

Café ZolHouston This charming spot offers an intriguing selection of what it calls “Scandinavian tapas.” The lobster chowder with crawfish and the Exotic House Salad of greens, grapes, and kiwi whetted our appetite for an amalgam of flavors and textures. Give serious consideration to the shrimp in phyllo with

By

Eat My Words|
July 31, 2008

The Boy’s (Soon to Be) Back in Town

Paul Petersen, executive chef of Cafe Cenizo at the Gage Hotel in Marathon, is scouting locations in Austin. So says a trustworthy source. Plans are to develop a second restaurant here in town, with Paul directing both it and the one at the Gage. Fantastic! Read up

By

Eat My Words|
July 25, 2008

What’s Not To Like About Fruit Bat Soup?

I think it’s weekend silliness setting in, but I am rolling on the floor (well, maybe flopping around on the floor is more like it) after reading the list of attractions for a trip to Palau, including fabulous waterfalls, jungle river-boat cruises, and fruit bat soup! Yes,

By

Eat My Words|
July 8, 2008

Eating Vancouver–Part 2

I won’t mention the shock to a Texan’s system of seeing several signs in Vancouver for ‘Steamed Burritos.” I mean, I love the city, but are they INSANE in British Columbia? Oh, all right, I didn’t try one (would you?), so how can I criticize? Even so, the whole idea

By

Eat My Words|
June 30, 2008

Eating Vancouver

Wouldn’t you know it? I flee Texas for Vancouver, Canada and they’re having a heat wave–gawd, it must have been 90 degrees yesterday. There is no justice. But, still, what a beautiful city. Struck out on a couple of recommended places–don’t bother with Congee Noodle–it’s allegedly an authnetic noodle house,

By

Eat My Words|
June 10, 2008

Further Update on Snow’s

In the “Know Before You Go” category, I’m just sayin’ that if you don’t get your pre-order into Snow’s by this Wednesday, June 11, you may come up empty (see post just below this one for details). I talked to Kerry Bexley, the owner (pictured), this morning, and he’s feeling a

By

Eat My Words|
June 3, 2008

Fast Food, Slow Food, It’s All Good

Never let it be said that I missed an opportunity to toot my own horn. Well, and the horns of my colleagues. TM has a new book out–a melting pot with our best food stories of the last decade or so. Now you don’t have to feel guilty about tossing

By

Eat My Words|
June 2, 2008

New York Times [Hearts] Texas

Well, well, well. The Texas Hill Country was the numero uno summer travel destination in the NY Times this Sunday. Specifically, they touted our wineries (this image is of Flat Creek Estate). Also, to toot our own horn some more, remember that you can

By

BBQ|
June 1, 2008

BBQ08

Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors.

By Patricia Sharpe and Patricia McConnico

Food & Drink|
May 31, 2008

Dough Pizzeria Napoletana

When you dine out for a living, you can get a bad “been there, ate that” attitude. While other people are e-mailing each other like crazy over their latest find, you’re hitting the “delete” key as fast as possible. But a few months ago, notes from readers about a San

By

Eat My Words|
May 29, 2008

This Little Piggy

Here’s something that fits right in with the local food craze: “Nose to tail eating.” I just gave it a whirl at Feast, in Houston. Granted, the idea of eating the whole critter, inside and out, may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but what they’re doing at Feast

By

Eat My Words|
April 30, 2008

A Perfect Lunch

I pity anyone who doesn’t live in Austin, because they can’t have lunch at La Traviata. Today chef-owner Marion Gillcrist did ravioli with lamb shank in ragu, a marvel of parchment-thin pasta filled with fluffy ricotta in a deeply meaty sauce swimming with fava beans, crisp green peas, and

By

Food & Drink|
March 1, 2008

The Grove

How many downtown Houston restaurants look out on real, honest-to-God trees? Whatever the number—and I suspect it’s in the single digits—you can add another to the list: the Grove. I’ll get to the food in a minute, but first let me say one word about the Grove’s setting: wow.You stroll

By

Food & Drink|
March 1, 2008

New and Noteworthy

Merchants Grand CaféSan Antonio You might wonder what this simple, white, “big box” space used to be. Then a local tells you it was a hardware store. Ah, that makes perfect sense. The Alamo Heights newcomer has a name chef at the helm (Jonathan Parker, from the River Walk’s

By

Food & Drink|
February 1, 2008

Au Petit Paris

If I close my eyes tight, I can still taste the cloudlike custard filling of Au Petit Paris’s tartelette de tomates confit, with its milky hint of mozzarella and sweet, delicate bits of tomato; the warm, flaky pastry crust is simply museum quality. On the side is a pristine salad

By

Food & Drink|
February 1, 2008

New and Noteworthy

Café CentralEl Paso What’s new at venerable Café Central? The decor, for one thing. The border stalwart has shed its animal-print upholstery and New York–bistro look in favor of a classic redo, with sleek chocolate-brown chairs, chrome sculptures, unusual art, and floor-to-ceiling beveled mirrors along the back wall. Given

By

Food & Drink|
February 1, 2008

Eat Their Words

What will dining, both out and in, be like in decades to come? We asked the state’s top chefs and food folk, from Dean Fearing and Hugo Ortega to David Bull and Charles Butt.

By

Food & Drink|
January 1, 2008

North

Bear with me—I’m trying to remember the olden days when a restaurant with more than two locations was by definition terrible. Nope, chains have changed. Sure, we’ll always have mass feeders like Chili’s and the Black-eyed Pea, but upscale chains are a different proposition altogether. And as much as I

By

Web Exclusive|
December 1, 2007

Recipe for a Perfect Cookoff

What makes for a great steak? Is it grade, aging, type of feed, breed of cow? After personally visiting twenty steakhouses and trying more than fifty steaks for my portion of our December 2007 cover story, “Meat Your Maker,” I still couldn’t decide.Often the expensive ones were the best, but

By

Web Exclusive|
December 1, 2007

Recipe for a Perfect Cookoff

What makes for a great steak? Is it grade, aging, type of feed, breed of cow? After personally visiting twenty steakhouses and trying more than fifty steaks for my portion of our December 2007 cover story, “Meat Your Maker,” I still couldn’t decide.Often the expensive ones were the best, but

By

The Filter: Dining|
December 1, 2007

New and Noteworthy

Liberty Bistro, New BraunfelsAt this patriotic spot in the former city hall, founder Darren Scroggins has concocted a brick-and-mortar civic lesson. Portraits of presidents, and a few first ladies, preside (benevolently, we hope) over the tables, and even the private dining rooms have righteous names: the House, the Senate, the

By

The Filter: Dining|
December 1, 2007

New and Noteworthy

Liberty Bistro, New BraunfelsAt this patriotic spot in the former city hall, founder Darren Scroggins has concocted a brick-and-mortar civic lesson. Portraits of presidents, and a few first ladies, preside (benevolently, we hope) over the tables, and even the private dining rooms have righteous names: the House, the Senate, the

By

Food & Drink|
December 1, 2007

Meat Your Maker

From city to country, fancy to down-home, the state’s 38 best steakhouses. Plus: the Japanese beef that everyone should be eating, our favorite butcher shops, and how to grill a ribeye that even your father-in-law will love.

By

Pat's Pick|
October 31, 2007

Trio

It was the long-ago winter when my family’s two superannuated cats expired right before the holidays that Mother issued a surprising edict: “We’re having Christmas dinner at the Four Seasons this year.” It took three days to pry the reason out of her: She couldn’t bear the thought of

By

Magazine Latest