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?
As we head into the most critical legislative session in decades—maybe ever—the question is not just, Who are the people with the most clout at the Capitol? It’s also, What do they want?
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.
It's the question on everyone's mind now that the former attorney general is suddenly running for governor. The answer could determine whether his political prospects go up in smoke.
Rites of passage dot the path to becoming a true Texan—riding a horse, having your picture taken with Big Tex—but few are as iconic as learning to fire a rifle. Although there are a variety of types, beginners often train with a .22-caliber. “That’s because there’s minimal recoil, and the
In the years before anyone had heard of Woodstock or Altamont, teenagers across Texas started bands in their parents’ garages, banging out earnest rock songs on cheap equipment and hoping to hit it big at the local skating rink or VFW post. For some, those dreams won’t fade away.
It was a year of appalling analogies, bare-naked Badu, collapsing Cowboys, dim-witted Daughters of the Republic of Texas, egregious Ethics Commission, felonious fishermen (not to mention frisky firefighters), G-rated (not) guards, hilarious headlines, imperial incumbents, jackass judges (as always!), klutzy kat rescuers, legendarily lame and losing Longhorns, mind-boggling menus, noncompliant
The Coen brothers deliver a truer, grittier True Grit.
The athlete shows us what she carries along on the road and to the gym.
On his new novel, Kings of Colorado, and more.
It’s time to halt executions in Texas.
A tidy look back at 25 years of “Don’t Mess With Texas”— the most successful anti-littering campaign in world history.
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
A Mexican beer pairing guide.
Comparing Rick Perry's 2010 campaign to George W. Bush's 1998 reelection campaign.
A new album by Elizabeth McQueen.
Is Friday Night Lights the best TV show ever made about Texas? Or just the first one (sorry, J.R.! Sorry, Hank!) that’s tried so hard to get the details right?
Lance Armstrong tops our list of the dreamers and doers leading the way in science, sports, politics, music, art, food, education, and, of course, Dallas shopping.
TEXAS MONTHLY is proud to be a sponsor of the Texas Book Festival, which is held in Austin on October 16 and 17. For a complete listing of events, check out the official schedule. To see which sessions TEXAS MONTHLY editors and writers are participating in, see the schedule
Dim the Lights.
John Spong talks about unearthing the history of TV’s portrayal of Texas through the ages and how Friday Night Lights changed it all.
We used to be known for running backs, but all of a sudden, we’re famous for producing some of the country’s best passers, from Drew Brees to Colt McCoy. What turned our high school football programs into quarterback factories?
The Kinky-for-governor circus pulls into Galveston.
Will this be the year that the University of Texas Longhorns—the most talented college football team in the country—win their first national title since 1970? Yes. Hook ’em.
“We were wrong about the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. That’s far different from saying that we purposely manipulated or intentionally lied to the American people.”
Yes, the setting is ritzy and the food remarkable. But what really makes the state’s best new restaurant sizzle is something less tangible: the (Dean) Fearing factor.
Hollywood loses the Iraq war.
In the late sixties, the Capital City was just as thrilling, drug-addled, pompous, and aimless as you’ve heard. Especially if you came from the provinces.
Austin
Temple
Conspiring minds want to know …
Does the country’s most popular conspiracy talk radio host really believe that 9/11 was an inside job? That global warming is a plot cooked up by the World Bank? That an elite cabal wants to kill most of the people on the planet (including you)? Two million listeners think so—and
Country, jazz, blues, R&B, polka, and conjunto—the late, great Doug Sahm was a walking encyclopedia of Texas music. An exclusive excerpt from a new biography explores how he stirred it all together and found his own sound in his first great song.
On our first-ever quest for the state’s best burgers, we covered more than 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and gained, collectively, more than 40 pounds. Our dauntless determination (and fearless fat intake) was rewarded with a list of 50 transcendent burgers—and you’ll never guess which one ended
How the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals mistakes toughness for fairness—and gives the state a black eye.
Sure, sure, the newspaper business is dying, and this is bad for freedom, accountability, and democracy itself. But worst of all is what’s happened to sportswriting.
Last week, I caught up with Steve Bett, the editor of the Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society and moderator of a discussion group on Foolswisdom. Bett is a retired professor living in Austin who joined the 99-year-old international organization in the late eighties believing, as most simplified
Kinky Friedman, Andi Beierman, and Brent Humphreys.
Whatever else you could say about him, he was who he was. He enjoyed a drink or three in daylight hours and had a tendency to grope first and ask questions later. But he was as revered as any pol before or since.
A quiltmaker’s musings on yards of fabric, windmill patterns, and the stories behind the quilts.
Thirty years after he took his first photograph for us—of charming kook Stanley Marsh 3—contributing photographer Wyatt McSpadden looks back on his extraordinary career and tells the stories behind some of our favorite images.
Ten years ago I was shot in Mexico City by a street thug who wanted to kill me. Since then, I’ve endured unbelievable pain and learned how to walk again, and I’m thankful for what I have: a new outlook on life, time with my family, and a chance to
The Texas State Cemetery, home to the final resting places of the celebrated and the notorious, is a walk through time, revealing all that is great, courageous, tragic, pompous, and absurd about Texas.
Salads, they do get weary, wearing that same shabby dressing. And when they get weary, Thai Spice says, try a little tenderloin.
My best friend from high school is no longer the uncool, baseball-card-collecting goofball he once was. He’s a Navy surgeon and commander, and for two horrific weeks I got to watch him calmly and bravely save lives in wartime—not just Americans’ and not just soldiers’—in one of the most dangerous
Second Street District, Austin.
Man makes the clothes.
A cake that gets to the heart of the batter from Austin’s Rather Sweet Bakery.
Unless you’re Susana Trilling, who taught me how to prepare traditional Oaxacan dishes at her cooking school in Mexico. This month she’ll teach you too—right here in Texas.
Eight years ago, the closest presidential election ever was settled in a political street fight. In this oral history of the Florida recount, the victors recall the unbelievable twists and turns that put George W. Bush in the White House.
