Spinning in its own distinctive orbit, Austin’s Mars has created a stylishly multicultural menu, with Middle Eastern, Pacific Rim, and Mediterranean cooking styles all getting their due. This grilled salmon in a velvety sauce punched up with Japanese horseradish demonstrates how the small, trendy restaurant makes culinary worlds collide. Owner
With the Four Seasons Hotel’s sweeping view of one of Austin’s most unusual vistas—nightly bat flights snake out from under the Congress Avenue bridge and push east along Town Lake—dinners at the hotel’s Riverside Cafe (98 San Jacinto) are a double feature that’s hard to top. But the food here
October in Texas doesn’t always mean cool weather, but it does mean the beginning of quail season. At Anthony’s in Houston, chef Bruce McMillian stuffs the small succulent birds with seasoned wild rice and couscous, roasts them to a turn, and finishes them with a garnet-hued blackberry sauce. Hunters may
Austin’s Mezzaluna and its San Antonio sibling, Luna Notte, are high-profile, high-tech Italian eateries where the hungry and the hungry-to-be-seen congregate. Chef Harvey Harris is a former art major who applies his creative temperament to the restaurants’ rustic southern Italian fare. How is it that Italian country food brings out
The bird on your Thanksgiving table this year should be pheasant—specifically, the savory roast pheasant with garlicky sausage jambalaya dressing from Cheryl and Bill Jamison’s new cookbook, Texas Home Cooking (Harvard Common Press). Rubbed with a pungent Tabasco seasoning, this handsome variation on the holiday menu takes an excursion through
Evan Daily wants to improve the environment; so when he opened Evan’s at 3939 Montrose in Houston the week of Earth Day 1990, he took steps beyond using recycled-paper menus and business cards. At Evan’s, organic produce and chemical-free meats are the basis of the meal, not just food for
“We thought about closing Hilltop after we bought it, but we just about had a mutiny on our hands,” says James D. Smith, Jr. He was speaking of the legendary country eating place that Madalene Hill opened 38 years ago in Cleveland, just a few miles from its present incarnation
Dean Fearing, the guitar-strumming executive chef at Dallas’ swanky Mansion on Turtle Creek, hits all the right notes when he’s in the kitchen.The Eastern Kentucky native and graduate of New York’s Culinary Institute came to Texas in 1979 to explore new frontiers in cooking and ended up pioneering Southwestern cuisine.
When Bruce Pike was 16, he was doing chateaubriand and baked Alaska at the University Club in San Antonio. Now at 31—having migrated through some of that city’s fancier restaurants (including La Buca and Biga)—he is doing his own thing at Luna Notte (6402 N. New Braunfels).“I’m going for a
Fans of Greater Tuna and A Tuna Christmas no longer need to wonder how Aunt Pearl, Bertha Bumiller, waitress Inita Goodwin, Petey Fisk, and the other residents of Tuna, Texas, keep their figures. Aunt Pearl’s Cookbook: A Man’s Cooking (Pearl Productions, $14.95), a new book by Tuna co-creator Joe Sears,
Autumn along San Antonio’s Paseo del Rio is truly a season of change—especially at the Zuni Grill (511 River Walk), where chef David James’s revamped menu creates a casual and innovative bill of fare with an intentional nod to the Southwest. But don’t expect a run-of-the-mill chile relleno at Zuni.James
The cooking of Northern Mexico got its spark from ranching culture, in which food was prepared with indigenous ingredients and cooked over a wood fire; it has long been overshadowed by the more glamorous and complex cuisine of the South. But former restaurateur James W. Peyton of San Antonio redresses
Grains, greens, and wild game form a partnership in this power lunch from Dakota’s (600 N. Akard), an urban enclave deep in the heart of downtown Dallas. Dakota’s bills itself as a new American grill, its menu running the gamut from homey to nouvelle.Executive chef Jim Severson is particularly fond
Sweetbreads are a rarity at most restaurants, but executive chef Raymond Tatum has made the rich organ meat his signature dish at Austin’s talked-about 612 West (612 W. Sixth). “People tell me that I make the best sweetbreads,” Tatum says. “And personally I really like them. It’s only human instinct
Don’t judge Cuisine Actuelle by its pictures. The glamorous cookbook, written by Victor Gielisse, the chef at Dallas restaurant Actuelle (the Crescent, 500 Crescent Court), might well daunt the quotidian cook. But, in fact, most of its 150 recipes are as easy as pie. Rich, heavy sauces are conspicuous by
Austin is buzzing about Brio, the latest showcase for the considerable talents of chefs Raymond Tatum and Robert Mayberry. Building on Texans’ love of barbecue, Mexican food, and home cooking, the two have blazed a culinary trail that not only respects the basics but gives them a cosmopolitan twist. This
March is the month for lamb—especially the delectable variety served at Monte Carlo in the Grand Kempinski Hotel Dallas. With a solarium, pale peach walls, and trees and potted palms scattered throughout, this light and airy place captures the ambience of restaurants in Italy and the South of France. The
Opposites attract in this fetching dish from Houston’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. A dusting of cajun seasoning and split-second blackening forthrightly support the lamb’s delicate flavor, and an opulent creamy sauce emboldened with jalapeños positions this creation by executive sous-chef Kevin Dimond squarely in the Southwest.Dimond’s mix-and-match technique has found a champion
Food fads have their ups and downs. Today’s trend is tall, as chefs vie to see who can construct the most architectonic appetizers and elevated entrées. Houston’s Backstreet Cafe (1103 S. Shepherd) has its own entry in the culinary sweepstakes: the aptly named Meatloaf Tower. In designing the dish, chefs
Paella—Spain’s saffron-hued rice and seafood dish—comes in infinite, subtle variations. The savory version served at San Antonio’s Babylon Grill (910 S. Alamo) is not only quite handsome, with red bell peppers and green peas set against the golden rice, but also delicious. Restaurant co-owner Veronica Prida keeps the recipe light
Why are the UT regents letting Galveston’s only hospital die?
After four years in Afghanistan and Iraq, I’m finally a civilian again. I thought that was what I wanted.
Rita, the forgotten hurricane.
Here comes the story of the hurricane.
Is the secret to good healthy actually “Crazy Water”? Illustration by Jack UnruhQ: I am a Texan of advanced age who is hearing all the clamor surrounding health care. I grew up in Mineral Wells, drinking the famed water they merchandise, and I enjoy great health
As the Eighty-third Legislature gears up at the Capitol this month, will lawmakers be penny-wise and pound-foolish? Or just plain foolish?
My husband wants to taxidermy our dog when he goes to that big yard in the sky. I don’t. Can I convince him this is wrong? Illustration by Jack UnruhQ: Our family dog is getting on in age, and my husband and I have begun to
An Eagle Scout wrestles with what’s happened to the organization he loved.
What’s the etiquette of political yard signs? Illustration by Jack UnruhQ: My housemate and I have very different political leanings, but we’ve never let this get in the way of our friendship. We have an agree-to-disagree policy. Then, without any discussion, she put a yard
The battle over public housing in Galveston.
The Texanist on tailgating, winterizing grass, and beer cocktails.
Hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have given us a natural gas boom—and a whole lot of questions.
On tomboys, spiciness, and the end of the UT-A&M rivalry.
Welcome to the new Texas Monthly.
Before Robert Scott stepped down as the state’s education commissioner in July, he told anyone who would listen that high-stakes standardized exams were ruining the public schools. But is it too late to learn from his lesson?
Stray dogs, baby-blue guayaberas, matters of pigskin loyalty, and the proper disposal of beer cans at the beach.
The grand opening of a new H-E-B in McAllen drew crowds—including several who showed up to hear a native son read from his collection of locally set short stories.
Former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Tom Stehn didn’t want to get involved in a lawsuit against the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. But when a U.S. marshal showed up in his driveway, he realized he had one more chance to help out his beloved, endangered whooping cranes.
In Republican-dominated Texas, the May 29 primary might as well have been the general election. And what it revealed is a party perfectly capable of doing battle with itself, no Democrats required.
Unwelcome shotgun blasts, unwanted mustaches, uncouth behavior, and the un-bare-able truth about going sockless in your cowboy boots.
When Dallas’s very own Marvin Lee Aday—that’s Meat Loaf to you—optioned one of my screenplays, he didn’t just offer me a glimpse of paradise by the dashboard lights. He also helped me write a novel.
Flamboyant Houston millionaire John Goodman’s trial for vehicular manslaughter was a circus. Somewhere in the middle of it, the guy I used to know was thinking . . . what exactly?
Violent mockingbirds, farm-to-market roads, football versus lacrosse, and the incredible nerve of storekeepers who charge for spit cups.
You might think they’re invincible, but Texas Republicans could soon find themselves in peril. At least that’s what Steve Munisteri says. And he should know.
My mother-in-law knew how to sew, keep an immaculate house, and dress stylishly. In short, she was nothing like the unpolished young woman who married her son. Perhaps that’s why we loved each other so much.
Boot-scooting in the right direction, leaving New York, wondering about the yardman, and trying out the cowgirl look when you’re no longer 25.
Dear Jim Crane, new owner of the Houston Astros: Please don’t screw things up as badly as the last guy did.
Will Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin help the U.S. Supreme Court decide affirmative action once and for all? Not likely, which is why it's time to let public universities make their own decision about which students to accept.
For more than 75 years, rice farmers in Matagorda County and elsewhere along the Gulf have shared the waters of the Colorado River with urban residents in the Hill Country. But with city centers booming and an almost-certain drought ahead, the state is being forced to choose between a water-intensive
How to respond to those weird bumper testicles, pledge allegiance to the flag, ask to see the top of someone’s boots, and decide between sweet and dill.
