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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.

1224 Articles

Feature|
January 21, 2013

A Big Splash

The biggest blue catfish ever caught in Texas—121.5 pounds—was hauled flipping and flopping out of Lake Texoma on January 16, 2004, by Howe resident Cody Mullennix. Contrary to iron-clad tradition, Mullennix did not eat the critter, stuff it, or hang its head on a rural fence post. He donated it,

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Where to Eat Now 2011

Jalapeño sausage–stuffed quail, lemon-pepper-marinated fried chicken: The trend for most of the best new restaurants last year was comfort food with pizzazz. But then along came Uchiko to wow us with its mouthwatering take on Japanese fusion. Who says you can’t buck a trend?

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Where to Eat Now 2010

You had to be brave to open a restaurant last year. Or you had to be a genius. Or, like Robert Del Grande, whose revamped Houston eatery tops our list of the ten best gastronomical debuts of 2009, you had to be both.

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Let’s Have Mex-Tex

Where’s the best place to get a perfect plate of enchiladas? A chile relleno to die for? A salsa you’ll never forget? Come along on our tour of the fifty greatest Mexican restaurants in Texas, from Hugo’s, in Houston, to Tacos Santa Cecilia, in El Paso. This is not your

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Round and Round

Tortillas have been with us since the heyday of the Maya and the Aztecs. Now these simple small cakes are big business-but some are still made the old fashioned way. Includes extra tortilleria listings.

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Some Like It Picante

Actually, most of us do, which is why we’ve visited Mexican restaurants and taquerías all over the state in search of the best enchiladas, guacamole, cabrito, and other classic dishes; pilfered three great restaurant recipes for you to make in your own cocina; answered every frequently asked question we could

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Libations|
January 20, 2013

¡Viva Tequila!

How it’s made, the secret of cooking with it, the truth about the worm, and everything else you ever wanted to know about Mexico’s favorite drink—and ours.

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: Natura Cafe’s Pancakes and Oatmeal Pudding

Shakespeare deemed music the food of love. We beg to differ. For a romantic Valentine’s Day breakfast in bed, the true food of love is a stack of pancakes with raspberry-maple syrup and a lavish helping of oatmeal pudding doused with fragrant vanilla sauce. These normally humdrum breakfast staples have

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Top of the Morning

Recipes for the state’s best breakfasts, including empanadas from Joe T. Garcia’s Bakery in Fort Worth, smoked-salmon omelets from benjy’s in Houston, and gingerbread pancakes from Austin’s Magnolia Cafe.

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Books|
January 20, 2013

Hot Plates!

Recipe for a great new cookbook: Combine a celebrated chef, a veteran food writer, and an innovative approach to contemporary Tex-Mex; serve.

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Feature|
January 20, 2013

How We Did It

Our 31 researchers were given rigorous training and dispatched to the field with packets of wet ones, bottles of Tums, and a scientific score sheet (the one pictured at right is from the Cove, in San Antonio, whose Texas Burger ranked number five on our list).As soon as the burger

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Travel & Outdoors|
January 20, 2013

Vineyard Hopping

Location: Hill CountryWhat You’ll Need: Road map, spittoonTexas runneth over with wineries; more than 160 are scattered from the Panhandle to the Piney Woods. But for a doable weekend that blends good wine and well-run tasting rooms with wonderful scenery, side trips, varied shopping, and restaurants both

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Where to Eat Now 2009

How perfect is this: The best new restaurant to open during the Year of Financial Meltdown is located in the lobby of an old Houston bank. What better place to invest your money than in the soul-nourishing flavor combos of chef Michael Kramer’s beautifully composed plates?

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: Greco-Roman Salad and Cannellini Bean Capriata

Even without fancy dressing, this showy Mediterranean-style salad makes a spectacle of itself. Chef Timothy Keating of the Omni Houston Hotel’s La Rèserve restaurant (4 Riverway), created the “intense” salad, as he calls it, for a fundraiser last year on a Hollywood soundstage, where he was “elbow-deep in roasted vegetables,

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

State Fare

Salads, they do get weary, wearing that same shabby dressing. And when they get weary, Thai Spice says, try a little tenderloin.

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Make Way for Duck

Tired of talking turkey? ‘Tis the season to feast on a bird that’s all it’s quacked up to be—and other dishes created by five of the state’s hottest chefs.

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Feature|
January 20, 2013

If you’re hungry . . .

Panhandle Cope’s Coney Island, CanyonAt Cope’s, the lunch counter with swivel stools will make you nostalgic for the fifties. All-American eats include chicken-fried steak, one-third-pound burgers, barbecue, grilled steaks, and, of course, hot dogs. On Saturdays, chow down on fried catfish and shrimp. 2201 Fourth Avenue, 806-655-1184. Lunch and dinner

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Feature|
January 20, 2013

The Best of the Rest

• Tell me if this idea is not totally Dallas: a restaurant with a conjoined clothing boutique. At Cretia’s on McKinney, both sexes can peruse trendy garb while the kitchen whips up their food. To be honest, I prefer lunches here because the damage to my pocketbook is less if

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Where to Eat Now 2005

What’s on the menu this year? Not the best new restaurants of all time, perhaps—but you’ll still love the veal shank at 17, the Texas quail at T’afia, the Guinness stout cake at George, and the fusion of French and Mexican cooking at Lanny’s Alta Cocina Mexicana. And don’t forget

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Feature|
January 20, 2013

Directory

• Beso, – Closed• Cretia’s on McKinney, 4438 McKinney Avenue, Dallas, 214-252-9300• El Chile Cafe y Cantina, 1809 Manor Road, Austin, 512-457-9900• Fireside Pies, 2820 N. Henderson Avenue, Dallas, 214-370-3916• George, – Closed• Hector’s on Henderson, 2929 N. Henderson Avenue, Dallas, 214-821-0432• Julia’s Bistro, 3722 Main, Houston, 713-807-0090• Lanny’s Alta

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

PITS: The Encyclopedia Entry

The traditional way to prepare Texas barbecue is in a pit, the more smoke-infused and grease-encrusted the better. The word “pit” harks back to the days when meats were cooked over smoldering coals in an earthen pit or trench, especially for large gatherings. Nowadays, such buried ovens are extremely rare,

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Food & Drink|
January 20, 2013

Lockhart: Smitty’s Market

Don’t bother going in the front door. You’ll end up in the parking lot behind the boxy brick building anyway, doing the Smitty’s shuffle: At peak hours, the lines invariably stretch out the back door. Patiently, you inch your way forward, passing the waist-high brick pits and perusing the list

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bread

Former San Antonio paralegal Debra Auden is a law unto herself when it comes to baking—she learned by trial and very little error. Three years ago, she made her first loaf of Italian peasant bread. It turned out so well that she started selling bread to friends before opening a

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: 1015 Stuffed Onion

The lowly onion gets glamour lessons from Davasha Stalarow, the executive chef at Houston’s new 8.0 restaurant (3745 Greenbriar, Houston). The Dallas-based 8.0 has long prided itself on being a bastion of home cooking away from home, specializing in healthful food to nourish both body and soul.The Houston outpost keeps

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: Mick Vann’s Tamale-Stuffed Game Hens

At Austin’s Majestic Diner, co-owner and chef Mick Vann gives the royal treatment to even the simplest entrée. Vann has been cooking for twenty years (the last seven at Clarksville Cafe in Austin), and he still has a knack for the unexpected: whole leaves of spinach in spanakopita and a

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Recipes|
January 20, 2013

State Fare: EZ’s Four-Cheese Pizza

This vigorous melding of ricotta, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses with assertive herbs epitomizes the free-and-easy style of EZ’s, Cappy Lawton’s newest San Antonio restaurant. The Lawtons’ dinnertime joke was, “Let’s go someplace easy,” but few nearby restaurants fit that description. So when the Waitz Model Market relocated, Cappy nabbed

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State Fare|
January 20, 2013

State Fare

Stephan Pyles’ sweet mascarpone polenta has a corn-ucopia of flavor.

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