It was almost exactly twenty years ago today, in July of 1999, that I started work on the first edition of Houston Dining on the Cheap and began to become a professional food writer.  The local restaurant scene was much different then than it is today.  In a forlorn bookshelf at home I spotted a copy of Zagat’s 1999 guide to Houston, which can help provide some perspective.  Zagat’s top restaurant was Deville, a French concept in the Four Seasons, followed by Rotisserie for Beef & Bird, Chez Nous, Café Annie, La Reserve that was in the Omni, Mark’s and Brennan’s.  Four of the top seven were French-themed; I am not sure if Houston was ever a great city for French food.  Another top-rated one was unapologetically Continental, a description that no longer applies to any local restaurant.  The best Mexican and Tex-Mex options were deemed to be Otilia’s and Pico’s and, quite oddly, Little Pappasito’s.  The top Chinese restaurants included Empress up in Champions Village, Hunan and Shanghai River, though laudably, Fung’s Kitchen, too.  Chinatown was much smaller and terra incognito for nearly all Houston diners back then.  And hardly any of the Italian restaurants listed actually served Italian food.
 
In those two decades, the dining landscape of Houston has changed quite a bit, nearly all for the better.  In short, the Houston restaurant scene has improved in every regard than how it was twenty years ago: the food is better and usually more interesting at restaurants, there are many more enticing dining establishments, with a good deal more worthwhile choices in a greater range of cuisines and concepts, and with much wider and better beverage options.  I can’t think of any type of restaurant that’s not as good as it was a couple of decades ago.  Many of these trends are national; a fair number of them are designed to increase the size of the check.  Caviar service, anyone?  With all the changes, a few things have stayed pretty much the same: a level of casualness continues, more so than other top restaurant cities, most likely because the frequent heat and humidity; the level of service remains functional at best at the vast majority of restaurants; and Houstonians still love, love, love steak.
 
Below are the most notable changes to me since I’ve been writing about Houston restaurants.
 
On the plates

• Diversity – Houston chefs have much more fully embraced the diversity of the local dining scene, incorporating a range of influences, cuisines and ingredients found in the Houston area.  This trend is seemingly found at nearly every restaurant that does not have a defined cuisine.  Looking at a recent menu from Riel, a restaurant I like, you’ll find chimichurri sauce, Chinese sausage, kimchi, soba noodles, béarnaise sauce, and mascarpone among the components shown.
• Small plates – The advent of small-plate and sharable dining in recent years, for better or worse.  Though not unusual across the country, it stood out in contrast with New Orleans, where I went for a couple eating trips in the past year or so.
• Local foods – There has been a much greater emphasis on local and regional food sourcing, usually resulting in tastier items on the plates.  The names of nearby farms and ranches are often displayed on menus proudly asserting provenance.
• Humanely raised meats – Along with the more locally sourced products, the meats are often from animals raised without hormones and without constrained quarters.
• Better burgers – The past decade has witnessed the appearance of often-excellent burgers at nice restaurants.  This time has also seen the advent of quality counter-service national chains.  Both welcome occurrences, if not for my cholesterol level and waistline.

 
On the menus

• More and better wine – Wine lists have gotten much longer and much more interesting, with best wine lists having a mostly European in focus.
• Craft cocktails – Cocktails have become a lot more serious, and a lot better. 
• Better beer, too – Well, at least more beer options, mostly from local small breweries.
• More booze – Hand-in-hand with growth in cocktails, the range of spirits have gotten much broader, with much more expensive choices.
• More steak options –There is now a larger – and much pricier – range of steak options including American Wagyu, the famed Japanese breed and steaks from true Kobe beef, and even the most-prized and expensive grade, A5.  To give just one example from an upscale steakhouse, B+B Butchers sells a cut of steak from Hyogo Prefecture in Japan from “100% Tajima cattle, the rarest and most exclusive beef in the world” it proclaims.  Four ounces will set you back $220.
• More crawfish – Crawfish is far more widely found than it once was.  I was part of a group that held the very first crawfish boil at the West Alabama Ice House in the mid-1990s, which was deemed as rather exotic.  Now, there seems to be one there every weekend during crawfish season along with about every low-key bar with a substantial patio.  Then there is even Vietnamese crawfish that has drawn national attention.
• And, more money needed to order from the menu – Dining is generally more expensive, even factoring in the effects of inflation.  Two give a couple of examples, a burger and fries at a non-fast-food restaurant twenty years ago cost me $6.60 on average and a plate of brisket at a barbecue joint was just $7.60.  If the prices had followed the annual rate of inflation since then, I should have expected to pay $10 and $11.50, respectively.  Those same meals in the past year have cost me an average of $14.30 for the burger and fries and $17.50 for the barbecue.  Beef has gotten much pricier since then, especially brisket, but also it’s gotten considerably more expensive to operate a restaurant inside the Loop.

 
On the town

• It’s just better eating – As I mentioned above, the restaurant scene has gotten better in nearly every regard than it was twenty years ago.  There are better restaurants in every category now than compared with twenty years ago and what is on the plate is typically tastier because of the ingredients that are better and the greater skill and imagination of the kitchen staffs involved.
• Gotten noticed – Houston has received deserved national attention for its dining.  One indicator of that is now each year at least one Houston restaurant will be listed among the best new restaurants in the country.  And Chris Shepherd was recently proclaimed the best chef in the world by one publication.
• Chefs as the reason to visit – Who is the kitchen has been why many people decide to visit a particular restaurant.  A Chris Shepherd, Manabu Horiuchi or Bryan Caswell or that a new executive chef who worked for them now heading a kitchen is a how many people choose where to dine.  In that Zagat guide from last year of the last century, the phrase ‘celebrity chef’ hadn’t been coined.  There was probably only a few who would have earned that accolade back then, and Robert Del Grande and Mark Cox were about the only two who drew diners.  They still do today, sort of.
• Captivating ‘cue – Barbecue has gotten a lot better since the opening of Killen’s Barbecue in Pearland in early 2014.  Now the list of terrific barbecue includes Pinkerton’s, The Pit Room, Truth, Blood Bros., and Roegels to name just the best ones.
• Close-in Chinese – Authentic Chinese food has become available inside the Loop, most notably with Pepper Twins and Mala Sichuan, but also Wanna Bao and Spicy Girl.  Though I’m most concerned about inside the Loop, where I live and work, high-quality and truly Chinese food can be found in many parts of the city now, including Sugar Land and in Humble, near the airport, where my boss from China has raved about the a place there that serves the best Peking duck in the area, a recommendation the Chronicle recently seconded.
• Upscale Mexican – Mexican food has found nicer, more authentic and proficient outposts, led by Hugo Ortega and his team’s trio of Hugo’s, Caracol and Xochi.  Pico’s – which is better than it ever was in the years it was on Bellaire Boulevard – Saltillo and Cuchara are three more, plus several nicely affordable counter-service spots, 100% Taquito, Mexico’s Deli and Polanquito, to name a few.
• Truly Italian today – Italian, more truly Italian, has become much more widespread, if not widespread.
• Superior fare from the sub-continent – Better and more upscale Indian options like Kiran’s and Surya and the more casual but immensely enjoyable Pondicheri; and then there’s the even the much more casual Himalaya.
• Heights on the rise – The rise of interesting dining options in the Heights has been very welcome.  Squable, Better Luck Tomorrow, Calle Onze, Fields and Tides, and Eight Row Flint are places that are worth the drive.  I’m still bummed about the failure of Hunky Dory, Bernadine’s and Foreign Correspondents, though.
• Chinatown expanded – Chinatown has expanded and with a good deal more options than there were in the past, and now includes various regional Chinese cuisines, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Korean, Japanese and savory, sweet, full-service, counter-service to name an incomplete list of them.
• Valets – Valet-parking at nice restaurants has become the norm, not the exception, as the city’s center has become much more populated.

 
On the minds (and at the fingertips) of the diners

• Smarter patrons – Diners have become more knowledgeable about food, wine and dining in general.  This has made them more demanding and the Houston restaurant scene even better.
• Smart phones and social media – Social media and smart phones have helped to popularize restaurants and dishes that can beautifully photographed here, there and everywhere.
• Weaponized diners – Diners have a weapon against restaurants that don’t live up to their expectations with Yelp and other platforms.
• More tipping – The expected amount of tipping has increased from 15% to 20%, all while restaurants typically pay there wait staff just $2.13 an hour, a wage that has not changed in years.

 
I’m sure that I’ve forgotten more than one significant item, like delivery services and ride-sharing services, but this article is already long enough.

One of the artful presentations at Shun, on Shepherd.

​The gin-and-tonic is so very well-suited to Houston’s often hot and humid weather, which lasts for nearly half the year here.  It’s cool with plentiful ice and refreshing with the crisp-tasting and effervescent tonic water – engendering a relaxed feeling because of the complementary, smooth- and usually dry-tasting London-bred booze – and nicely bolstered by a bit of fresh citrus, is easy to drink when even not-so-well-made.
 
The cocktail has the added benefit that the recipe is pretty much in its name if sans lime.  Along with the rum-and-Coke and Jack-and-Coke, it’s the about simplest drink to concoct at home.
 
And gin-and-tonics have gotten better in recent years, part of the advent of the craft cocktail movement that began here a decade ago.  The biggest reason has gotten much tastier is because of the availability of high-quality commercial tonic water, most notably the Fever Tree brand, which is found in most even somewhat serious bars serving cocktails these days.  As Justin Vann, a proprietor of the excellent Public Services downtown mentioned to me after I complemented him on the tastiness of their gin-and-tonic that it’s mostly in the quality of the tonic water, as the drink is mostly tonic water, after all.
 
But, the best gin-and-tonics I’ve ever had have been at BCN, the upscale Spanish restaurant in Montrose.  The offer about twenty different versions these days, half seasonal, using various gins and tonic waters, all of which I’ve had or sampled have been terrific, including a few recently.  The Spanish have done wonders in advancing the range and palatability of the gin-and-tonic.  This seems to have begun around fifteen years ago or so, possibly in reaction to the influx of British tourists to Spain.  I don’t really know, but I certainly enjoy the result.  Aromatics in the form of herbs and citrus play a big role in BCN’s creations like prominent sprigs of rosemary and strips or pieces of lemon or another citrus.  On my last visit I had a summer offering made with blood oranges that had a red hue and drank quickly coming in from the hot sun, another with Fever Tree Elderflower tonic water, lavender grapes, lemon and thyme, and the Mediterranean featuring Gin Mare, Fever Tree Mediterranean tonic water, rosemary, olives, and sea salt.  BCN pours only part of the small bottle of the tonic water into the glass to start and you can add more along the way.  This actually makes the drink more enjoyable as you consume more of it, even as the percent of alcohol in each sip diminishes. 
 
Though the gin-and-tonics taste very good no matter where you sit at BCN, if you can grab one of the nine seats at the bar, you can interact with an excellent bartender, which can add to the visit.  They do an exceptional job.
 
If you need any further reason to consume also drink gin-and-tonics, think about your health.  You surely don’t want to get malaria; the quinine in the tonic water has prophylactic properties against malaria, which is why the British created the cocktail in the first place.  And the cheap gin tasted much better mixed with the tonic water and chilled in the very tropical climate of southern India.  We can believe that the cocktail tastes far better today with much better gin and, more so, much better tonic water.  Add to that inspired creations like you find at BCN, it’s a reason for celebration.
 
BCN
4210 Roseland (near the intersection of Montrose and Richmond), 77006, (832) 834-3411
bcnhouston.com

​By the end of my first trip to Italy many years ago and what proved true in a few subsequent trips, especially in the inexpensive trattorie and osterie that I was visiting, is that with the complimentary bread on the table that’s the custom there, the better the bread, the better the restaurant.  This also proved very true here in Houston during the past week. 
 
In the last several days, for some reason, I’ve had a few meals in Italian-themed restaurants.  First, the new, self-proclaimed Italian-American B.B. Italia in the former longtime home of Carmelo’s on the west side, then the original Carrabba’s on Kirby, which I hadn’t visited in at least a couple of years, and yesterday, Nundini Chef’s Table that is set gloomily in the midst of a windowless retail space.  The bread at B.B. Italia, a small, noticeably fresh, somewhat spherical boule, was fairly mediocre, not nearly as good as the breads later at the original Carrabba’s and Nundini.  And, the food, too, at B.B. Italia was not nearly as tasty, which is an understatement.
 
It’s not surprising that the bread at Carrabba’s was better than at B.B. Italia.  Proprietor Johnny Carrabba bought Common Bond, the city’s best commercial baker, back in 2016.  At lunch at Carrabba’s, the basket of very crusty white bread – that tasted like it was probably even leftover from the previous night’s service – and a brown roll both did excellent work sopping up the olive oil and dipping sauce and then leftover tomato sauce from my pasta dish. The soft squares of the pre-pranzo focaccia at Nundini, if not tasting of coming from Common Bond, was also enjoyable, and better.
 
Though the bread at B.B. Italia might have been disappointing, I didn’t realize right away that it would be a harbinger for the rest of the meal.  That was quick to prove true with the simple Caesar salad that was basically just cut up romaine lettuce, heavily white and pale green, in a straightforward dressing dotted with lame, unevenly and often barely cooked croutons – not helped by the bread, of course.  It wasn’t bad, but measured up poorly to about any version of the salad I’ve had in memory.  The pasta dish I ordered was necessarily better, but also below-par of what you would expect at a restaurant, at least what I would expect.
 
It was the Grandma’s Ravioli, ravioli filled oddly with short rib stuffing, and served with what is described as mushroom Marsala ragù.  Though the pasta shell was actually pretty decent, the filling of minced beef and, more so, the sauce, a thin bit of Marsala wine with mushrooms about, not a ragù at all, tasted discordant to me and made the dish much less than the sum of its parts.  Plentiful grated Parmesan (or maybe it was Parmigiano) could not help too much.  The sauce tasted to be, basically, just quickly cooked cheap Marsala.  My dining companion also had a pasta dish, ravioli topped with a pesto.  That pesto was an overly liquid-y version that tasted almost solely of basil; the pine nuts and taste of cheese was entirely missing.  We agreed that their pesto tasted nothing like that made in its home of Liguria or in the neighboring regions where it is also found; also, a far cry than what I make at home with a mortar and pestle.  It was also not nearly well-done as the version I just had with similarly properly prepared potato gnocchi Nundini, which was appropriately more viscous and richer, more flavorful with evident pine nuts and cheese in the mix.
 
B.B. Italia seems to be playing at Italian-American food.  Both the dishes and the concept seemed to be artifice to me.  What I experienced there was the antithesis of soulful food.  None of this would have mattered too much at B.B. Italia if the food was very good, or good, but it was not.  It was a far cry that the food that I had at Carrabba’s on Kirby the other day.  Maybe it’s not surprising, given that Carrabba’s on Kirby and Voss – not the chain outposts, of course – have long been judicious and often eminently enjoyable destinations for well-made, sometimes upscale Italian-American cooking with a local bent.  I had ravioli at Carrabba’s, too.  It was far better.
 
I have to state that I found the name of Grandma’s Ravioli for what I ordered at B.B. Italia as rather ridiculous, even pandering, as it alludes to the fact that it might have been something a typical Italian-American matriarch might have regularly cooked for the Sunday lunch.  Not so.  The ravioli dishes cooked by the Italian-Americans here were ricotta-stuffed and served in a tomato sauce.  No one cooked ravioli that with minced beef short ribs.  This is just made up.  Then came the ravioli filled with ground meat that were long a staple at Italian-American restaurants.  A well-made version of this, featuring distinctively large rectangle of pasta, is what I had at Carrabba’s.
 
And there were other disconcerting signs at B.B. Italia, in addition to the not-so-great food.  Service, though friendly, was not terribly professional.  The service specifically at the bar, we had wine sold to us as 9-ounces that looked and drank very suspiciously like 6-ounce pours in every other establishment in the city – I usually order a few glasses of wine out each week.  Thinking wine, the restaurant sports a very limited and largely uninteresting wine list for wine list, but which of the three of the wines we ordered were out that night.  I can’t recall that I’ve ever been to a restaurant where a trio of the wines were not available; a very high percentage for B.B. Italia.
 
As disappointing as the visit to B.B. Italia was, I feel the need to give it at least another try.  It had only been open for a month or so, and drawing a final judgement so quickly is not fair and possibly not accurate.  And, with as the owners also have a steakhouse, I have hope that the meat preparations are much better than the couple of dishes that I had.
 
Carrabba’s, The Original
3115 Kirby (between W. Alabama and Richmond), 77098, (713) 522-3131
1399 S. Voss (at Woodway), 77057, (713) 468-0868
carrabbasoriginal.com
 
Nundini Chef’s Table
500 N. Shepherd (north of I-10), 77007, (713) 861-6331
chefstable.nundini.com

A tasty version of ravioli, at Carrabba's on Kirby, showered with plentiful Parmigiano.

I was reminded to revisit this after having a desultory version of the margherita pizza the other day at Laurenzo’s, a place I generally like.  It just confirmed that the most important thing that I learned after eating close to one hundred margherita pizzas mostly in Houston for my more fatuous than fun Margherita Pizza Project over the past three years is that if you see “margherita pizza” on a menu, don’t order it.  The Project was illuminating, if ultimately quite disappointing. 
 
Most margherita pizzas to found in the Houston area, the vast majority in fact, are lousy: tasteless at best, and exposing cardboard-tasting crusts and cheap, worthless slices of tomatoes at worst, with far too many featuring cheap, industrial-quality mozzarella that adds very little to the enjoyment of the pizza.
 
The margherita pizza is very simple – it’s just tomato sauce that’s usually uncooked, mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves atop a pizza crust that has been quickly baked – but that simplicity is a big obstacle for most restaurants to overcome in making a good margherita pizza.  A margherita puts a premium on the quality of the few ingredients, which have no place to hide, and the crust, which should be fairly soft and tasty, playing a bigger role than in most pizzas as there are fewer components.  And most local versions are lacking a taste of freshness, a vibrancy, that a good margherita pizza should have.
 
Some other things I’ve learned:

• Definitely do not order one if it is spelled “margarita” on the menu, a sure sign that the restaurant does not know what it is doing with this pizza.  You'd be surprised how often margarita finds its way from the drinks section.
• Be very way if you see tomatoes as one of the ingredients.  A proper margherita uses tomato sauce, which will seep into the crust and complement the cheese.  Tomato slices don’t have enough moisture to do that, and most tomatoes used in inexpensive and moderately priced Houston restaurants are terrible.  There are exceptions like the ones at Amalfi, which leads to another important takeaway:
• Restaurants serving Italian-themed food, especially those with roots in or inclinations to the Naples area, the birthplace of pizza and the margherita, are about the only places you should order a margherita pizza.

 
If you are thinking about ordering a margherita pizza in the future, you’ve now been warned.

Dolce Vita actually has a margherita pizza that you should order.

​Fried chicken and champagne make for a wonderful combination, especially when the “champagne” is actually champagne.  I recently had Camille Saves Carte Blanche with a few pieces of Original Recipe picked up from the Colonel that helped make for an enjoyable meal.  Beginning this Sunday, June 23, for just $50 Punk’s Simple Southern Food in the Rice Village will be serving all-you-can-eat fried chicken and all-you-can-drink – within reason, I imagine – Veuve Cliquot Brut.  That’s the famous yellow labeled champagne that is medium-bodied with a welcome fresh taste featuring brioche and fruit notes, and which is always crowd-pleaser. 
 
For me, Punk’s serves the most satisfying food of the several Clark Cooper Concepts restaurants.  Their fried chicken is well-regarded, even if it might not be the best fried chicken in America or the best fried chicken in the world that I heard an overly aggressive (and intrusive) waiter exclaim in quick succession there the other day.  It’s quite good, though.  And will likely be even better with a glass or several more of a fine champagne.  Along with the fried chicken and bubbles, these meals include mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and banana pudding to finish.
 
Reservations are required for these dinners, which will be every Sunday from 4:00 to 9:00.  Also, it will end up being more than $50 before tax and gratuity as the champagne refills will be charged a cent per refill, likely due to one of the strange TABC rules.  It’s still quite a deal as Veuve Clicquot is not only a very good champagne but typically retails between $45 and $55 per bottle.  The only real downside to this meal is that your champagne glass will necessarily a bit sticky when accompanying fried chicken.  A minor drawback, I believe.
 
Punk’s Simple Southern Food
5212 Morningside (between Dunstan and Rice), 77005, (713) 524-7865
punkssimplesouthernfood.com

​Though dining in Houston is more expensive than ever, especially inside the Loop where rents and property taxes have increased along with the increased population and business density in recent years, there are still some very good dining values to be found.  The best values don’t mean the cheapest joints, but are those that provide the best food for a fair price, while often times cheap is just cheap. 
 
Aladdin – Picking up a tray and gazing across the partition into an expanse of enticing, mostly vegetarian preparations – roughly 30 items most lunchtimes well beyond the two types of creamy and delectable hummus and baba ganoush – is just a preface to an enjoyable and very affordable meal, as the dishes often taste even better than they look.  A well-cooked meat like chicken shawarma, lamb gyro or one of the day’s stews, comes with three sides on filling platter for just $12.99 and usually a dollar cheaper during lunch.  Not only the best value Middle Eastern restaurant, Aladdin is also one of the best Middle Eastern restaurants in Houston (at least those without One Fifth in the name).  912 Westheimer (at Montrose), 77006, (713) 942-2321
 
Café TH – Set in a humble, tiny strip center in EaDo, the neighborhood has changed into a destination in the dozen years since Café TH has been around.  The restaurant has grown, too, but continues to serve well-made and flavorful, familiar Vietnamese fare and a little more with some personality and noticeable friendliness.  And along with prices that are more than reasonable for the quality of the fare.  The inexpensive banh mi – a large is $4 for lunch and $5 at dinnertime – can be considered among the best in town.  There is no alcohol served, but BYOB is welcome and the corkage fee is just $5, helping make for an even more enjoyable dinner, or even lunch.  2108 Pease (between St. Emmanuel and Hutchins) 77003, (713) 225-4766

Giacomo’s – This comfortable and eminently enjoyable River Oaks spot is a casual Italian restaurant done right, or an appealing neighborhood restaurant of any stripe done right.  The well-executed fare is vibrant, light on its feet, and properly evoking Italy, often with dishes inspired from proprietor Lynette Hawkins’s days growing up in Rome and Tuscany.  There are not too many items over $20 and there are plenty of preparations that are meant to share.  And, its list of nearly all-Italian wines – interesting, well-selected and very affordable – is the best value wine list in the city, and one of the best places in which to indulge.  It’s tough to leave here without a smile on your face.  3215 Westheimer (at Bammel Lane), 77098, (713) 522-1934

Istanbul Grill – Essentially next door to The Ginger Man, this is yet another reason to brave the traffic and parking travails in the Village with its interesting, well-prepared Turkish food in a pleasant, informal setting, often lively atmosphere, and noticeably friendly and eager service.  Many of their traditional Turkish items are baked in a traditional brick oven that is evident in the somewhat open kitchen, including the distinctive Turkish pizzas that can provide a filling meal for $10-$13.  The kabob platters are a great value here, easily worth the $12.90 tariff for the beef and lamb doner kabob and $14.90 for the lash shish kabob.  The portions are generous and served with a large amount of moist rice and grilled tomatoes and bell peppers.  Warm, house-made pide bread nicely complements every table that didn’t order a sandwich.  And these sandwiches are fine values, running from $7.50 to $8.50 in eight different decent-sized versions, with meat or falafel between two pieces of the pide.  5613 Morningside (just north of University), 77005, (713) 526-2800

La Guadalupana – Though not much to look at, and really not much at all in terms of size, La Guadalupana Bakery & Café on Dunlavy is nonetheless an excellent neighborhood place for a pleasing Mexican meal, or to grab some attractive and scrumptious pastries that are well beyond the typical local panaderia and some coffee to go with them. The dumpy and nearly always messy little dining room has become more crowded in the past few years as the the increasing number of nearby residents have discovered the considerable charms of the inexpensive breakfast and lunch spot.  These include lighter-than-typical enchiladas verdes or poblano enchiladas – with a proprietor from Puebla, the mole poblano are worth ordering – or the terrific stewed pork slathered in a verdant spicy salsa, asado de puerco.  For the mornings or weekends, their breakfast tacos are among the best in the area.  2100 Dunlavy (between Fairview and West Gray) 77019, (713) 522-2301

Laredo Taqueria – The lines running out the door of this air conditioned taco stand on Washington Avenue from about 11AM to 1PM and often beyond, are a testament to its popularity which derives in large part because of healthy-sized tacos on fresh flour tortillas that are just $2.50 after another price increase.  Three is enough for most, and four for a gluttonous meal.  Never mind the occasional piece of cartilage or gristle, as these are never enough to ruin a taco.  The locations on the near north side are more consistent, especially the one on Patton, but this location is far more convenient for most.  915 Snover (on Washington east of Shepherd), 77007, (713) 861-7279; 311 Patton (at Fulton), 77009, (713) 695-0504; 115 Cavalcade (just east of I-45), 77009, (713) 213-9087
 
Pappa Geno’s – Easily the best of the local cheesesteak options, including an outpost of Tony Luke’s, regarded by some as the best purveyor in the City of Brotherly Love.  The sandwiches at Pappa Geno’s, a small local chain, are large and feature fresh, soft rolls; good bread a necessity for a good sandwich, after all.  The thinly sliced seasoned beef is tender and flavorful and well complemented by the plentiful melted provolone and nearly caramelized onions that come with it in their basic Pappa Geno’s Steak & Cheese sandwich.  The ingredients might not have the provenance of those on many upscale restaurants here, but they are more than good enough and work wonderfully together.  A cheesesteak sandwich here is a nearly glorious, very messy and caloric indulgence that is far from artful in appearance or construction but tastes better than most of the much fancier sandwiches around, not just its cheesesteak competitors.  In all, Pappa Geno’s has seven versions of the Philly cheesesteak sandwich plus five others with the less flavorful chicken. 515 Westheimer (between Taft and Montrose), 77006, (281) 501-3664; 1801 Ella (at TC Jester), 77008, (713) 863-1222
 
Pepper Twins – Now a mini-chain with a half-dozen locations serving authentic Sichuan cooking, which is seemingly China’s favorite regional cuisine, and a favorite of Houston diners in recent years.  The W. Gray and Kirby spots are the best locations and feature better ingredients than the typical local Chinese eatery, including many organic; the chicken is antibiotic-free and humanely raised from Springer Mountain Farms, the pork is from heritage Berkshire stock.  This makes a discernible difference in the dishes.  There are even lamb preparations among the nearly fifty items, many feature chiles or Sichuan peppercorns, the latter of which are used judiciously.  Service here is Chinese style: the dishes come to the table with no fuss and nearly everything is meant to be shared.  Popular since its opening, the dining rooms are often filled with Chinese nationals and those who just enjoy top-notch Sichuan fare for reasonable prices. 1915 W Gray (just west of Dunlavy), 77019, (346) 204-5644; 3915 Kirby (just off the Southwest Freeway feeder), 77098, (346) 444-6493; 315 Fairview (just west of Taft), 77006, (832) 649-7175

Thien An – The familiar local Vietnamese menu including spring and fried egg rolls, banh mi, rice plates, vermicelli bowls, and pho is provided here.  It’s just done noticeably better than most other places, and not just budget options.  The banh mi are one highlight, especially for the local favorite, the char-grilled pork (all the way to $3.75 now), since the restaurant is more generous than most with the pork, which is nicely cooked, tender and richly flavorful, nestled along with the expected fresh, texture-providing accompaniments in a local-standard short Vietnamese baguette that is properly crusty and airy.  The no-nonsense setting is usually deservedly packed during the lunchtime hours and provides an appropriate place for a tasty and cheap meal.  2611 San Jacinto (just south of McGowen), 77004, (713) 522-7007

Uberrito – The former Mission Burritos is down to just one location inside the loop, but their build-it-yourself burritos on giant 13” tortillas featuring a choice among now eight proteins or vegetables as a centerpiece are also much tastier than the similar competitors as are the “Ten Tasty Tacos,” which really are quite tasty, too.  A bit of the creamy Serrano Ranch salsa seems to help with most burritos and tacos.  The burritos are still large here, though maybe not as protein-packed as the in past, which is probably a good thing for most.  These are still cheap, too, starting at under $8, and even cheaper on Mondays when the chicken burritos are just $5.  They also serve burrito bowls and salads, too, so your more calorically conscious co-workers can also dine here without too much fret.  1609 Durham (just south of I-10), 77007, (713) 426-6634 
​
The Döner or Gyro Sandwich at Istanbul Grill today

​Reef has just reopened after the damage it suffered from Hurricane Harvey, if not quite completely.  There is service in the bar area for dinner and, beginning today, lunch.  The main dining room still needs to be furnished and I was told that that should be ready in a couple of weeks for patrons.  I’m very happy that the Gulf seafood-centric Reef is finally open again, as it had been one of my favorite local restaurants.  Given the recent and sudden closings of Pass & Provisions and Canopy and the announcement that Indika will be shuttering at the end of June, it’s nice to have former top eatery – with one of the city’s top chefs working in the kitchen, Bryan Caswell – getting back into the game.
 
I visited the other night and necessarily having to sit in the bar on a Friday night, it seemed appropriate to have a Martini to start.  Among the several cocktails on the relatively short beverage list, each for the short price of just $8, was the Gin Martini, which I ordered.  No questions were asked about type of gin or garnish and a few minutes later a familiar, long-stemmed Martini glass was placed in front of me, dripping with condensation that was filled just with a clear liquid punctuated by some small pieces of ice floating top but unmarred by any garnish.
 
Though missing a cocktail olive or two (or three) skewered by a toothpick, this was the Martini you would have received at any decent establishment in Houston over the years until the advent of the craft cocktail movement and discovery of the qualities of quality and unspoiled vermouth in less than the past decade.  This was gin, pure and simple, served straight-up in a Martini glass.  At Reef it was very readily consumable Bombay Sapphire Gin that was shaken until very cold and poured alone into a frozen Martini glass.  No vermouth.  Certainly not a single dash of bitters.  I like vermouth to be a part of my Martinis, but this drink was very enjoyable, and refreshing coming in on a warm and muggy evening.  It was tough not to consume it too quickly, and I still had to look at the food menu.  The palatability of the Bombay Sapphire was the biggest reason why this Martini went down so easily, but being served into a glass pulled from a freezer was another significant reason.  Very cold gin tastes better than just cold gin, after all.
 
Reef
2600 Travis (at McGowen), 77006, (713) 526-8282
reefhouston.com

​American in this case means North American, and the beer is La Fin du Monde from Quebec’s Unibroue brewery.  I was reminded about the beer last night as it caught my eye on the list of bottled beers.  After pouring most of the contents of into the tulip-shaped glass, its wonderful aroma, redolent of hops with pleasant citrus notes, was hard to miss.  Though the beer had obviously been sitting around for a while and its flavors were quite dulled, the reminder of what it had been was quite strong.
 
La Fin du Monde is a Belgian-style tripel ale that I believe is one of the top beers brewed either here and by our neighbors to the north, and in the same league as the very best beers of this type from Belgium.  The tripel refers to a strong, pale yellow-colored beer that’s generally dry-tasting brewed in the style of the Tripel of the famed Westmalle Trappist brewery in Flemish Belgium, which originated the style in the early 1930s.
 
Described by the brewer, fairly accurately – though necessarily corrected to the more proper U.S. American grammar:
 
“La Fin du Monde is…a deluxe beer made by triple fermentation and a unique way of straining the yeast. This method produces an unexpectedly subtle flavor. With its champagne-like effervescence, it has a vigorous presence in the mouth, which accentuates its strong personality. Slightly tart, with the balanced flavors of wild spices, malt and hops….”
 
My former next-door neighbor, a well-traveled Belgian beer aficionado, certified beer judge, and unrepentant hop-head, introduced this brewery and this beer to me years ago, claiming it as one of the highest quality versions of this style made in the world.  He was absolutely right, as he usually is about Belgian-style beers, and La Fin du Monde has stood up very well in at least a couple of tastings with numerous Belgian and Belgian-style beers that I’ve helped to coordinate. 
 
Though complex and a very serious beer, it is probably more approachable than many other high alcohol beers.  La Fin du Monde is 9% alcohol by volume.  This is due to its subtle hop characteristics and slight sweetness.  Medium-bodied, it is a nicely well-balanced and flavorful beer that is obviously extremely well-made.  And, with its refinement, it can be a gateway beer for those uninitiated to the wonders of strong Belgian-style beers.  
 
As for the name, which means “the end of the world” in French; “This beer is brewed to honor of the great explorers, who believed they had reached the end of the world when they discovered America.”  For what that’s worth.  More so, “La Fin du Monde” sounds cool to pronounce, especially after a beer or two, even in terrible French like mine.

At a tasting the other week, I was surprised to learn that Moscato d’Asti, the naturally sparkling, agreeably sweet white wine from northwestern Italy, is actually a fairly versatile beverage.  I thought that I had known a fair amount about the wine, as my understanding and appreciation of it had grown with a trip the Asti area late last year as a guest, in part, of the Moscato d’Asti consortium.  The wine’s sweetness, up to around 130 grams of residual sugar -- which is quite a lot – makes it a natural choice in its home area to pair with desserts, fruit at the end of the meal, or just as dessert itself.  And, it can make for a very pleasant coda to an evening meal, with or without accompaniment. 
 
It was posited early in the recent tasting that Moscato d’Asti can work well as an aperitif, too.  I initially thought that it was an odd sentiment given the comparative sweetness of the wine.  Like a lot of people, I often enjoy a bit of bitterness in libations before dinner to help further whet the appetite (not that I usually need much help).  But, at the tasting the evident sugar in Moscato d’Asti helped it pair very well with the excellent salumi that had been plated for us; and prosciutto and salame that are popular picks for pre-dinner snacks, both in Italy and when I entertain.  That the Moscato d’Asti worked with the salty or piquant slices was just like the off-dry amabile version of Lambrusco is the preferred wine of the locals to drink with the cured meats in Parma and environs.  I had confirmed that this past summer while there; it seemed rude not to consume at least a half-kilo of prosciutto di Parma and culatello while in Parma.
 
The make-up of Moscato d’Asti, not only its relative sweetness but also its low amount of alcohol, just around 5%, also helps make it an appropriate starter here with our heat and humidity.  Moscato d’Asti can be light and fairly refreshing on our many, many warm days   A touch of sweetness goes well with warmth.  Though carrying a lot of sugar, Moscato d’Asti is also quite acidic. This acidity dampens the impact of that sugar while making the wines seem fresher and also work better with a big range of foods, including the prosciutto.  There is sweetness but it’s in balance with other aspects of the wine, making it more useful and enjoyable.
 
So, Moscato d’Asti really is something to consider before dinner here.  And, after dinner, too, of course.  It also has the added benefit of being quite affordable: a good bottle can easily be found for $15 to $20.
 

​The Moscato d'Asti went well with this cake, but it can work well before the cake, too.

Sandwiches, often with chips, are frequently the default lunchtime food.  They’re quick, cheap, easily portable and usually satisfying.  Not to mention, sandwich chains are a popular franchise opportunity, as you can tell from looking at nearly every busy street corner; new ones are popping up all the time.  With usually less-than-robust sizes for both the sandwiches and the accompanying chips, there is noticeable profit here.  Though the best sandwiches are from local places, and often those that are far removed from the simple sandwich shop, when in a pinch for something quick, easy and inexpensive, below are the favorites among the chains, even if I think none of the national efforts are really that great, or worse, including the one I had for lunch today (that didn't make this list).
 
Antone's Famous Po’ Boys – 3 area locations – You are better served going to the two shops sharing the Antone’s legacy, Angelo’z or Paulie’s Poboys, but these can be fine for a decent, quick lunch.  Their fresh buns – when ordered from one of the shops not picked up in a grocery store refrigerator – are distinctively a tad dry and slightly crunchy, and the pre-prepared versions are available in a handful of variations including the classic Italian-oriented Original, roast beef, tuna salad, and the unique Piggy.  Each is served, in minimalist fashion, only with thin pickle slices, and hot chow chow, a piquant mixture of pickled cabbage, onions, sweet peppers and paprika.  In addition to these legacy Houston favorites, there are also other options including hot sandwiches.
 
Brown Bag Deli – 4 area locations – This suitably casual, but bright and efficient concept for well prepared cold sandwiches is another winner from the folks who own Barnaby’s and Luna Pizzeria.  Featuring entirely a design-it-yourself concept with choices for bread, meats, cheeses, and condiments shown on brown bags cutely affixed to clipboards.  The breads are slightly sweet and always fresh, and a good starting point.  The “meats”, or rather sandwich fillings, are slightly eclectic, and top-notch, and there should be one for nearly every local palate.
 
Jason’s Deli – 7 area locations – Soups, salads, pastas and even gluten-free and vegan options these days, but the heart of the menu are the several types of warmed sandwiches including their take on the muffaletta, that New Orleans classic that pairs well with the Sicilian heritage of the founder and the tastes of many of us in southeast Texas, and the reason for a trip here.
 
Jersey Mike's – 18 area locations – Laudably using New Jersey Italian-American sub shops as their model, their classic, tidy cold sandwiches feature rolls that are advertised as being baked in house, quality cold cuts and cheeses finished with onions, tomatoes, lettuce, vinegar and olive oil.  There are also hot subs, wraps, salads, and giant-sized sandwiches available at this basic sandwich stops.
 
Lee's Sandwiches – 1 area location – This Vietnamese sandwich chain from California might not craft banh mi as tasty as the homegrown options, but this slick operation have their charms, especially the airy 10,000 square foot space in the heart of Chinatown.  Their Vietnamese sandwiches are certainly recognizable to locals, slightly different, but still enjoyable and cheap.  In addition to these, there are also sandwiches made with freshly baked, large, light and buttery croissants with a wide-array of fillings.
 
Lenny's Sub Shop – 9 area locations – Using a fairly familiar, if slightly more limited menu (just two dozen items) rooted in the East Coast sub shop model serving cold and hot sandwiches and salads.  With thick, quality rolls, an excellent hot relish, and a more generous amount of meat, these are some of the very best sandwiches of the national chains.  The roast beef is especially enjoyable.
 
Murphy’s Deli – 32 area locations – It’s not Irish heritage, but the first location on Murphy Road that lends its name to this chain best known for ubiquity and convenience.  The tastiest thing here is their signature Houston-style muffaletta.  A much softer ready-to-eat loaf, a bit of mayo, and smoked ham makes these different than those created at New Orleans’s Central Grocery.  There is also a turkey version and a large menu with gyros, wraps, hot and cold subs, and a number of salads that might have a regional or Mediterranean bent.
 
Panera Bread – 28 area locations – Baking over a dozen types of breads in-house helps to ensure some sandwich options are far from run-of-the-mill.  Served both hot and cold, most feature turkey or chicken, but there should be something for everyone.  With breakfast served early, soups and a half-dozen salads, individually sized pizzas available later in the day, plus a more welcoming environ than the typical sandwich shop helps make these appealing for more than just short lunchtime visit.
 
Potbelly Sandwich Shop – 24 area locations – One of the most appealing of the national chains, these assembly line operations with spacious interiors are set up for the lunchtime rush when a savory, modestly sized hot sandwich will hit the spot without providing much of a dent in the wallet, or in the waistline.  Made and customized to order from a dozen basic choices on top of quality, crusty bread, there are also some dessert items and shakes, malts and smoothies if more is desired.
 
Quiznos – 9 area locations – With locations in seemingly every strip center, Quizno’s subs on toasted bread have numerous fans, and were the second stage in the evolution of the sandwich chain.  Featuring several choices featuring beef, chicken, turkey and on flatbreads, there are also classic sandwiches such as the basic Italian sub, club, tuna melt and a French dip.  Settings are functional, and meant for scarfing rather than lingering.
 
Schlotzsky's – 45 area locations – This funny-named Austin ex-pat was the first hot sandwich chain that many Texans experienced.  Featuring distinctive spongy bread that grew from a limited number of Italian-oriented fillings to a wide range of combinations, small pizzas, wraps, salads and baked potatoes.  These functional stops are fine for quick lunch, but don’t satisfy as fully as in the early days, both in terms of quality and quantity.
 
Which Wich – 14 area locations – Featuring a neat mix-and-match concept with ten different meats or combinations that yield over fifty choices, these vibrant and slick, if no-frills operations are adept at turning out a tasty, small sandwich that should satisfy most tastes.  The fresh and sturdy 6” roll in white or wheat provides a proper platform that the well-trained staff can assemble nearly whatever you desire.  
 
Zoe’s Kitchen – 10 area location – Unique among sandwich chains for its Greek and Southern orientation, this Birmingham, Alabama-based fast-casual concept has the most pleasant atmosphere of any of the sandwich chains, and the food seems fresher and healthier.  Pimento cheese, egg salad, grilled chicken breast with caramelized onions, and grilled feta are among the fifteen options.  It also serves hot plates and several meals and sides to be taken home after work.
 
This is an update of something I did for My Table over a decade ago, though I thought that the Philly cheesesteak spots were something different: those sandwiches don’t travel too well back to the office. 

The Original Italian cold sub from Jersey Mike's

​I’ve got to confess that I don’t know a lot about Burgundy.  I knew more about the wines of that region back forever-ago when I was in business school taking a fun (and very well done) wine class at the Cornell’s Hotel School.  The reason for the comparative ignorance versus other wines is that I just don’t drink it that often.  Well, other than a function-at-best $9.99 white Burgundy from Costco in recent months.  I wish drank more Burgundy, much more, but the prices scare me away.  Even thought of the prices, as I often miss the wines from Burgundy on wine lists.  That’s likely even subconscious as I’ve convinced myself that I won’t want to pay that much for a wine.  Doing a look at the wine lists at a few top restaurants, I was surprised how much Burgundy there was.  I had just overlooked these when dining at these places.
 
Since my knowledge has been lacking and I do usually really enjoy the wines of Burgundy, I was looking forward to a recent tasting featuring two dozen wineries from Burgundy and the Jura.  With a schedule permitting just about an hour, I didn’t even taste any wines that were burgundy in color; I limited myself to the whites from Burgundy, even missing a number of those producers, and omitting completely the reds, even from some famed – and expensively wrought – appellations and the oft-interesting wines from Jura.  There was too much vinous goodness for me too completely squeeze in that day.
 
The white wines I was able to sample were from Antoine Olivier, Chateau de Villars Fontaine, Domaine Decelle Villa, Domaine des Malandes, Domaine Feuillat-Juillot, and Maison Henri Pion.  Most of these wineries seemed to be looking for distribution in Texas, as it usually the case with these events. The wines ranged from the basic and easily affordable Bourgogne Blanc to the bigger named appellations like Chablis, Montagny, Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault.  The tasting, and these wines, exceeded expectations in terms of quality: each of the wines I sampled were evidently very well-made, nicely acidic, pleasant and appropriate fruit notes like melon and apple, good minerality, balanced, flavorful and complex to varying degrees.  Basically, delicious throughout.  Many of these wines were aged in small oak barriques, some vinified in these, too, but the presence of oak, which was rarely new, was always in moderation and without exception worked well as a complement to the whole. 
 
As much as I enjoyed tasting each, these wines are generally better, often much better, with food.  Comté seems to be preferred pairing among the representatives I queried, at least among cheeses, for many of the wines I tried.  Scallops were popular, oysters for Chablis, roasted chicken, and even lamb for the rich 2006 Le Rouard Hautes Côtes de Nuits from Chateau de Vellars Fontaine. Not sure about that, but Mathieu Piecourt from the winery was enthusiastic about it, and his wines were a very enjoyable treat.
 
The Wine Folly site that I visit from time to time puts it: “Once you’re hooked on white Burgundy, there’s no going back.” That sentiment rings very true with me.  These wines are best expression of Chardonnay, and some of the very best white wines in the world, both for most wine aficionados and for me, too.  I would certainly drink much more Chardonnay if I could convince myself to spend the money on the white wines from Burgundy.  Maybe I will now.

​A passeggiata is the traditional evening promenade in Italian towns and villages. Though Italian food and restaurants in our area might have a rather undistinguished history in national terms, a meandering, somewhat selective, chronological stroll – or passeggiata – of 100-plus of its significant or interesting particulars can be entertaining, and even informative, especially since Houston is now a top restaurant city. This is due, in part, to substantial contributions from Italians and Italian-Americans. I penned an earlier version of this for My Table magazine back in 2011.
 
1884 – The Houston Directory published for 1884-1885 lists grocers with names like Fenno, Manno, Maretti and Roco. Alexander Bergamini – the owner of the Casino saloon at 72 Congress – is, appropriately, a New Orleans native. There is also a restaurant named Delmonico; it’s not Italian, but rather named after the famous New York establishment.
 
1890s – Veal, popular with Italians and also central Europeans, is a fairly common item in Houston’s many German-owned meat markets in the late 19th century, but eventually became scarce. Years later, restaurateurs Johnny Carrabba and Frankie Mandola don’t recall ever having it at home while growing up here.
 
1905 – Carrabba’s Chicken “Bryan Texas” is the most popular dish across the entire chain, and named after Bryan, 100 miles north of Houston. An Italian emigration official, Adolfo Rossi, reported that 2,500 Sicilian immigrants are working the land there in 1905. Along with two in New Jersey, it is “perhaps the largest Italian agricultural community in the United States” according to a later government report. Initially, Sicilians from different villages settled on either sides of the Brazos River, an example of campanilismo – the extreme provincialism – of most Italians at the time.
 
1906 – A restaurant called IWW French and Italian Restaurant opens downtown at 702 Preston.
 
1911 – Galveston’s oldest restaurant, Gaido’s, opens in 1911. It is named after the founding Sicilian family that still owns and operates it. It is not an Italian restaurant, though.
 
1913 – Houston has two pasta factories: Houston Macaroni Manufacturing Co. and Magnolia Macaroni Manufacturing & Co.
 
1915 – An immigrant from Sicily, Joe Grasso, pioneers the Galveston shrimping industry. Through the 1920s he sold most of it as bait as virtually no locals ate shrimp then.
 
1920 – Houston is home to Chinese and Japanese restaurants, but seemingly no Italian restaurant.
 
1930 – Houston’s first spaghetti house – and seemingly the first full-service, fully Italian restaurant – opens, Del Monico’s.
 
1944 – Like Gaido’s in Galveston, Massa’s in downtown Houston – whose run lasts over seventy years – is also a seafood restaurant rather than an Italian one.
 
1948 – On Park Place an inexpensive Italian restaurant called Big Humphrey’s opens. It is named after owner Joe Vitale’s professional wrestling persona. It later moves to Pearland and is open today.
 
1948 – Along with her husband Mama Ninfa – later the instigator of the nationwide fajita craze – opens a tortilla and pizza dough factory on Navigation east of downtown. The Italian dough part might not have been a surprise since her husband was an Italian-American from the northeast. Much later her offspring open Laurenzo's Italian Bar and Grille that lasts just three months and Bambolino's, a drive-through slice place, one of which still remains on Westheimer.
 
1950 – Frank Sinatra’s scandalous (i.e. adulterous) affair with Ava Gardner is confirmed for the nation in late January at Italian restaurant in Houston, Vincent’s Sorrento. Sinatra is in town for a several week gig at the Shamrock Hotel. A guest of Mayor Oscar Holcombe at the restaurant – whose proprietor is a Vallone – Sinatra accosts a photographer from the Houston Post who is about to capture the couple on film.
 
1953 – Matranga’s opens on Irvington north of downtown. It is an intimate spot with a garrulous, oft-crooning owner, Joe Matranga, who “was a character,” remembered Johnny Carrabba. It quickly becomes the favorite Italian for most Houstonians, and carries on for over 30 years, known for dishes with plenty of “simmering tomato sauce and garlic – lots of garlic” that resonated with customers. Matranga once admitted to a reporter that his sauce contained “onion and garlic and olive oil and salt, pepper and basil” along with tomato paste and was simmered for eight hours.
 
1953 – In November of that year, the Sacred Heart Society of West Little York, Roman Catholic men’s group founded by Sicilian immigrants from in and around Palermo, begins its tradition of a Thursday spaghetti lunch that is inexpensive and open to the public at its home in Whitney Hall on Airline just north of Crosstimbers. With the lunches remaining popular today, the meat balls and tomato sauce still follow the same recipes as when the lunches began. The fresh Italian sausage is made by Society members.
 
1955 – Pizza finally comes to Houston with opening of Valian’s in July. The reason it took so long is that Houston lacked a critical mass of Neapolitan immigrants that were found in New York, New Haven, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, each of which had pizza for decades. There are a couple of other contenders for the first pizza place in Houston, but it was certainly Valian’s that made it popular and is remembered as the local pizza pioneer. Near the Shamrock Hotel, the owner of Valian’s – like most new owners capitalizing on the exploding taste for pizza across the country – is not Italian. Armenian-American. The restaurant also serves barbecue and fried chicken.
 
1950s – The most popular place for imported Italian specialties – and about the only one – is Trapolino Import Co. Started by Frank Trapolino, a native of Bisaquino near Corleone in western Sicily. He had previously worked at the Houston Macaroni Co.
 
1960 – Pino’s opens at 3000 Cullen near the University of Houston. It is owned by Pino Farinola from coastal Brindisi in southwestern Italy and his wife. The restaurant is an old house and seats about 50.
 
1965 – Tony Vallone’s Tony’s opens as a casual Italian restaurant, known at the time as a spaghetti house, on Sage Road near where the Galleria would be constructed in a few years. It is later described as, “a place that was fun to visit, with good food and drink, dancing….”  Within a few years it would attract the well-to-do and 
 
1969 – Near the eastern edge of Westheimer in January, Michelangelo opens. Maybe somewhat exotic at first, it continued in business for over four decades later, known for its comfortable Italian-American fare and vaguely romantic setting.
 
1969 – The April 19 issue of Billboard reports, “Tony Bennett Spaghetti House…the first of the restaurants is scheduled to open in Houston in early August. Five additional units will open in the same city before the end of the year, with dozens more planned in other cities for early 1970.” At least one did open, briefly, in Town & Country where, “the food was…was very bland,” recalled a rare patron. Lasting longer is, “Benedetto’s, Texas State Hotel, 720 Fannin…a supper club that features an Italian feast, cheek-to-cheek dance music and name Vegas acts,”  run by the singer’s older brother, John.
 
The songs of the popular Italian-American singers interpreting the Great American Songbook after the Second World War are a requisite part of the ambiance of Italian-themed restaurants in this country. From that group, oddly, more than Tony Bennett had ties to the city. Vic Damone lived here for years after marrying an oil heiress, and two of three of Frank Sinatra’s kids were married to Houstonians (at least briefly). Nancy Sinatra married singer Tommy Sands – who attended Lanier Junior High and then Lamar – in 1960. Frank Sinatra, Jr. married a Houston-area lawyer in 1998. Plus, one of Dean Martin’s very best songs is his 1965 recording of “Houston.”
 
1970 – As the city moves westward, Pino’s follows. It moves to Hilcroft and Westheimer. Its success allows it to eventually grow to four times the capacity of the original.
 
1971 – Antonio’s Flying Pizza opens in 1971 by Sicilian immigrants serving pizza and assertive Italian-American red sauce classics, and proving that this formula with competent hands in the kitchen still works well after 40-plus years.
 
1974 – In their November issue, Texas Monthly reports that "Tony's [is]our nomination for the city's best restaurant… [with] trout Veronique… Chauteaubriand…. Souffle" as it advertises itself as serving the "Poetry of French Food."  Vallone's heart seems to remain with the vibrant culinary verse of Naples and environs, though.

1975 – Cajoled by Houston socialite Maxine Van Dusen, Sergio Ballatori, whose family had run a restaurant in Rome between the main train station and the Trevi Fountain for four decades, moves to the Bayou City to open Ballatori’s at 4215 Leeland in November in a recently occupied bank building east of downtown. Aptly aided by his wife, five children and parents, Ballatori features Roman and Italian dishes like saltimbocca alla Romana, the fresh pasta tonnarelli alla carbonara, and risotto alla Milanese along with sought-after tables set inside a spacious steel bank vault.
 
1976 – In January Star Pizza fires up its pizza oven for the first time. Its thick-crust pizzas – not really the Chicago-style deep dish as advertised – are arguably the best in the city at the time, and quickly become a favorite with the college-age customers.
 
1976 – Jason’s Deli – founded in Beaumont, Texas in 1976 by a Sicilian-American, Joe Tortorice – eventually includes over fifteen Houston area locations. A noticeable part of its success is due to its version of the muffaletta, the sandwich invented in the French Quarter in New Orleans in 1906. The mufffaletta takes its name from a somewhat unusual, dense type of loaf that originated in Piano degli Albanesi, a town about a dozen miles from Palermo and home to a large ethnic Albanian community.
 
1977 – Nash D’Amico – who had recently run an Italian restaurant in Huntsville, and helped significantly by his cousin Damian Mandola – opens “something new and exciting for Houston,” D’Amico’s at 2407 Westheimer east of Kirby. It is known for dishes like frutti di mare salad, fried calamari, and tortellini in a cream sauce. Several years later, still “one of the busiest restaurants in Houston,” Texas Monthly describes it as “the first sumptuous Italian restaurant in Texas.”
 
1977 – In a small house on W. Dallas – a few blocks west of an area once rife with Italian grocers – Vincent Mandola opens Nino’s, which will grow into a two-block compound over the years. Greatly inspired by the cooking of their mother, Grace, the three Mandola brothers, Vincent, Tony and Damian, will go on to open many of Houston’s most popular restaurants: Nino’s (Vincent), Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen (Tony), Damian’s (Damian), Carrabba’s (Damian), Vincent’s (Vincent), Pesce (Damian) and Pronto (Vincent).
 
1978 – Destined to become a favorite of astronauts and other NASA personnel, Frenchie’s in a dumpy strip center in Clear Lake opens by the Camera brothers from the island of Capri. Though misleading, the owners decide to keep the name of the previous establishment. Its counter service at lunch – and usually packed – while full service in the evening.
 
1978 – The faccia di vecchia dish served at Mandola’s Deli that opens near the University of Houston takes its name from its likeness to the gnarled face of an old woman. It is a version of the sfincione, a focaccia-esque dish from the Palermo area, the progenitor of the square Sicilian pizza.
 
1981 – Carmelo’s opens on Memorial near Dairy Ashford in west Houston. Carmelo Mauro, a native of the beautiful resort town of Taormina in Sicily, brings Continental-inflected and well-executed Italian-American dishes that quickly become a hit.
 
1982 – In the March issue of Texas Monthly is an article about Italian dining in Texas. It lists D’Amico’s and Villani at 2907 West Alabama as two of the three best Italian restaurants in the state. The reviewer thought important to add that “it seems that Dallas doesn’t need any more Italian restaurants, it just needs a few good Italian cooks.”
 
1982 – Sonny Bono – an Italian-American singer like Tony Bennett, if without the talent – opens an Italian restaurant called Bono’s on Woodway between Post Oak and Sage. A branch of his West Hollywood original, it lasts for several years.
 
1982 – In the fall of this year Carlo Molinaro, a native of Verona, starts a restaurant called La Trattoria on Westheimer just east of Voss. Serving broadly northern Italian trattoria classics along with a few American-friendly items, the restaurant is maddeningly inconsistent until its close at the end of 2010. Delighting regular patrons – including many ex-pats from Italy – it is too often indifferent in terms of both cooking and service.
 
1982 – Achille Epifani, originally from Taranto in the heel of Italy’s boot, opens Achille’s on Memorial between Wilcrest and Kirkwood. Having once cooked at the famed Giambelli’s on 50th in Manhattan – the first to have broken the $10 mark for a pasta dish in the country – he brings a customer-pleasing sense to his usually full-flavored preparations. It remains a neighborhood favorite for over fifteen years before Epifani decides to down-scale to a fast-casual operation and move west (to Eldgridge).
 
1983 – In the fall, John Flowers, originally from the Chicago area, opens Kenneally’s Irish Pub on Shepherd north of Westheimer. It, surprisingly, serves pizza, excellent pizza – thin-crust and vaguely Neapolitan. This was the original type of pizza served in Chicago, well before the advent of the deep-dish. Its pizza-maker trained at Nick & Vito’s in southwestern Chicago, one of the remaining bastions of this style.
 
1984 – Tony Mandola opens the self-named Gulf Coast Kitchen, his second restaurant at 1602 Shepherd. In early 1988 it moves to the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray. Best described as a regional seafood restaurant, it does serve some unique and popular items that combine Italian-American cooking with regional ingredients and flavors.
 
1985 – In their April issue, Texas Monthly notes that, “Joe Matranga, Owner of Texas’ Best Spaghetti Joint, gives out free postcards of himself as a valiant Greek warrior impaled on a bloody spear,” in awarding it the Best Restaurant Postcard.
 
1985 – On Smith Street in what would be called Midtown, Damian, Frankie and Vincent Mandola along with Ciro Lampasas and Johnny Carrabba, Sr. open Damian’s in the fall. It is soon to become one of Houston’s best-loved restaurants.
 
1986 – Ciro Lampasas opens his eponymous restaurant, Ciro’s, on the north side of I-10 at Campbell that becomes a Spring Branch favorite.
 
1986 – Aldo Cantania opens La Strada on a dicey stretch of Westheimer in Montrose. The California-style Italian food never draws raves, but its wild Sunday brunch becomes an institution. A second location opens in 1996 in the Galleria area. A fire shutters the original in 2002. It reopens in 2004, but never regained its former popularity. Both are closed by spring 2009.
 
1986 – With proprietors Damian Mandola and his nephew Johnny Carrabba, Carrabba’s opens in the site of a former adult bookstore on Kirby north of Richmond in December. The most expensive item on the menu is $9.
 
1987 – Backstreet Café’s Tracy Vaught invests in Prego, a failing restaurant in the Rice Village. It was one of the scores of restaurants nationwide that had used Wolfgang Puck’s Spago as its inspiration. The next year it becomes Italian-themed, more competent, and a favorite of the nearby soon-to-be-booming West University and Southampton neighborhoods.
 
1988 – In January, due to the phenomenal success of its Kirby original in the past year, Carrabba’s opens a second location near Briargrove on Voss near San Felipe.
 
1988 – Augie Vasquez, a native of Argentina who had worked with Nash D’Amico, opens Augie’s at 5901 Westheimer at Fountain View. Drawing on his Italian heritage and restaurant experience, he serves dishes found infrequently in Houston, including some of the over thirty pastas and an excellent version of mozzarella in carozza dished from an open kitchen. Though the Chronicle’s review noted that “this is one of those rare Italian restaurants where the meat and fish dishes rival the pastas,” the restaurant does not last but a couple of years.
 
1988 – The November issue of Texas Monthly raves about Damian’s grilled quail on polenta and its “fettuccine in Alfredo sauce adorned with dandelions… [with] moist grilled boned chicken breast.”  It garners two stars (out of three) making it one of the top seven restaurants in the state according to the magazine.
 
1989 – Tony Vallone opens Neapolitan-spiced Grotto in January. The food is excellent; not really authentic, but the execution and ingredients are top-notch. The flavors are properly distinct and vibrant, Italian rather than typically Italian-American. The scene rivals the food. Grotto is named one of the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire magazine in 1990.
 
1991 – On Lovett just off Montrose, Lynette Hawkins opens La Mora, occupying the spot of another Italian restaurant, Villa Borghese. Hawkins had lived in Florence and La Mora is the first of the area’s first Tuscan-themed restaurants that proves to strike a welcome cord among Houston diners.
 
1991 – Pino Luongo, the New York restaurateur that helped introduce and popularize Tuscan food in this country beginning in the 1980s, opens a restaurant in the Galleria area in August. Texas Monthly wrote a few months later that, “the most sophisticated Houston Tuscan restaurant is the largely undiscovered Piccola Cucina.”  Unfortunately, it remained that way and shuttered after a not-too-long tenure.
 
1991 – Tony Vallone opens La Griglia on West Gray just east of River Oaks in the fall. Esquire names it a best new restaurant in the country soon after opening. Less Neapolitan and maybe less Italian than his Grotto, it is similarly boisterous and stylishly casual, and quickly becomes a place for socialites and politicians. The restaurant remarkably remains so, two decades, and a change of ownership later.
 
1992 – In January an unpretentious spot dedicated to well-prepared Neapolitan style pasta dishes and somewhat odd, but popular, baked casserole creations opens a corner of the Pennzoil Building downtown. Called Buca di Bacco until the chain Buca di Beppe paid owner Vittorio Preteroti, a native of Capri and related to the family that runs Frenchie’s, to change. So, it has been known as Perbacco for years.
 
1992 – The first area Romano’s Macaroni Grill from Brinker International opens at 5802 Westheimer and is a hit. The very quaffable jug wines sold on the honor is a big reason. That original location is still open today. The chain began in Leon Springs, outside of San Antonio, in 1988.
 
1992 – In December two chefs from the famed Cipriani Hotel in Venice open Torcello at 2300 Westheimer, east of Kirby. Taking the name of the island where the hotel is located, its Venetian-inspired cuisine – including Harry’s Bar classics – is some of the very best Italian food that has ever been served in Houston, and its interior wins a local design award. The restaurant lasts for about a year-and-a-half, closing in 1994. It could be the address as Armando's, Dish, Two Chefs Bistro, and Beso – to name most of the ones which followed, each having abbreviated tenures.
 
1993 – In April Outback Steakhouse purchased a 50% stake in the cash flows of the two Carrabba's restaurants and entered into a 50-50 joint venture with the founders, Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola, to develop new locations. Houston’s version of Italian-American food and hospitality is poised to spread nationally. From soon after this, as most Houston restaurant-goers know, but it bears mentioning, the first two Carrabba’s locations – now just owned by Johnny Carrabba and family – are much better than the nationwide Carrabba’s Grill outposts.
 
1993 – Del Vecchio Foods is founded in Houston and produces a line of fresh Italian sausages that can be found at Spec’s and not enough other local outlets.
 
1994 – Anthony’s reopens at 4007 Westheimer in Highland Village (where Smith & Wollensky now stands), though it is not as Italian as it once was. The oft-decadent Italian-scented veal dishes remain excellent, though.
 
1994 – Using a far cheaper and less competent designer than Anthony’s – the odd Il Dio di Vin’ opens on the 7600 block of the Katy Freeway. The stuccoed interior is meant to resemble a grotto setting, but harkens more to the caves described in Christ Stopped at Eboli. The menu is entirely in some southern Italian dialect – Neapolitan, I believe – and the food is a mix of Italian-American and Neapolitan dishes done a little differently. The wine is inexpensive; the food is moderately priced, robustly flavored and usually terrific, especially the pasta dishes.
 
1994 – Nearby, also on the Katy Freeway, Tony Mandola's Family Table. It served giant Italian-American dishes meant for several, and meant to be like “going to grandma's house for Sunday dinner,” provided she was first- or second-generation southern Italian or Sicilian. The concept did not work for Houston, and it changed into another Blue Oyster Bar, which remained until the freeway expansion chased it north.
 
1994 – If not quite new, at least renewed, Anthony’s is named a top new restaurant in the country by Esquire magazine in October.
 
1995 – In January Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola purchased Outback’s shares in the original two Carrabba’s and modified the terms of the expansion agreement. The numerous Carrabba-named outlets grow to over 230 during the next fifteen years while the two initial locations remain amazingly popular.
 
1996 – Thai-born Somchai Rapesak who had cooked for La Strada for nearly a decade opens Crostini in a small house on Shepherd north of Westheimer early in the year. It grows to incorporate the then-trendy Southwestern ingredients and Thai flavors into American Italian cooking that works quite well. The restaurant has a successful dozen year run.
 
1996 – In March, two local Italian restaurant stars, Damian Mandola (Damian’s, Carrabba’s) and Lynette Hawkins (La Mora, Giacomo’s), marry, though the union doesn’t last.
 
1996 – Deep in the heat and humidity of August Arcodoro opens. It quickly becomes regarded as one of the best Sardinian-focused restaurant in the country (not that there are too many). Its Seadas Al Miele dessert – puff pastry filled with sweetened cheese, fried and drizzled with bitter honey – is “perhaps the oldest dessert in the world” according to an Italian food authority.
 
1996 – Villa Capri in Clear Lake – run by the family that owns nearby Frenchie’s – hosts the Italian head of state, President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro.
 
1997 – In an April 11 review in the Houston Chronicle, Alex Truex writes, “Houston is blessed, but also cursed, by its plethora of upscale Italian restaurants,” proving definitively that he is no Robb Walsh or Alison Cook.
 
1997 – The restaurant with a bank vault run by a family from Rome, Ballatori’s, closes after a two decade run.
 
1998 – In April the Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” pokes fun at the name of the Houston restaurant Crapitto’s. It is the last name of the owner, by the way.
 
1998 – In the summer of 1998 Aldo El Sharif of the extravagant Aldo's – along with Marco Wiles – opens a wine bar called Osteria D'Aldo at 301 Main downtown.
 
1998 – With talented Alberto Baffoni a native of the Marche in central Italy manning the kitchen, Simposio opens on Richmond and Chimney Rock. It is named as one of the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire that fall, being praised by bringing to Houston “authentic Italian cooking.”
 
1999 – In July of 1999 the Houston Chronicle lauds La Griglia in a review, as “Marco Wiles brings glory back to the kitchen.” It is planned as a short time gig.
 
1999 – Arcodoro is awarded three stars out of four by famed Italian journalist Luigi Veronelli and his team in the The Best Italian Restaurants in America. Barely more than twenty other Italian restaurants in the country were rated as high.
 
1999 – Also that year, another Italian publication, the magazine La Cucina Italiana has a feature article about Tony Vallone citing him as one of the Southwest's best-known Italian-food gurus.
 
2000 –In January divino on West Alabama near Dunlavy opens. Though as much a wine bar at first – and a place with intelligently chosen and well-priced wines – it can probably lay claim to being Houston’s first trattoria. It serves basic, proficient cooking that aims for true Italian sensibilities, inspired from Emilia-Romagna.
 
2000 – In March Marco Wiles – who had worked locally for Tony Vallone, Antonio Mingalone and Aldo El Sharif – opens Da Marco, which sports an unusual all-Italian wine list, and is to become the most lauded Italian restaurant in Houston’s dining history.
 
2000 – Both Tony Vallone for Tony’s, and Alberto Baffoni of Simposio have recipes featured in John Mariani’s The Italian-American Cookbook published in 2000 that highlighted Italian-American standards and broadly Italian dishes from chefs like Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud and Ming Tsai. Vallone’s recipe is Capellini with Calamari and Shrimp (page 146); Baffoni’s is Potato Gnocchi with Wild Mushroom Ragù (page 196), “one of his masterful dishes” according to the author. Future Houston restaurateur Piero Selvaggio also has a recipe, Risotto with Corn (page 217).
 
2001 – In January the restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel downtown with talented Tim Keating heading the kitchen is rechristened Quattro, a contemporary Italian restaurant. Keating’s recent turn at the Four Seasons property in Milan makes this one of the most authentic Italian kitchens in the city.
 
2001 – Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba were asked to host the fourth season of the nationally syndicated PBS series “Cucina Amore.”   It spawns the cookbook, Ciao Y’All, possibly the closest tome that describes the Italian-themed cooking here. The hosts’ ebullient and irreverent style are such a hit they film two additional series featuring the cooking of Sicily and Tuscany – and companion cookbooks – in 2003 and 2004.
 
2001 – Just a year after it opens, talented sommelier Antonio Gianola joins Da Marco. He expands and greatly improves the all-Italian wine list to include a diverse, complementary and intriguing array of finds that help make the restaurant even more commendable. Gianola later goes on to Catalan as one of the opening partners helping to turn that into one of the city’s most exciting restaurants.
 
2001 – Nino’s (and Vincent’s, Grappino di Nino and later Pronto) Vincent Mandola is featured preparing his Veal Vincent on “Food Finds” on the Food Network.
 
2002 – Arcodoro’s Ravioli Arcodoro wins an international ravioli competition. Remaining on the menu throughout the restaurant’s tenure, these are good-sized ravioli filled with minced shrimps and scallops and wine must and finished with a flavorful seafood reduction.
 
2003 – Formerly just a wholesaler and a gelato maker to area restaurants, Nundini’s on N. Shepherd become known also as a retail import shop, sandwich purveyor and Houston’s first notable outlet for gelato and sorbetto.
 
2003 – In November Tilman Fertitta’s Landry Group purchases La Griglia and the two Grotto restaurants from Tony Vallone. That deal seems to stipulate that Vallone divest himself all but one restaurant. The Landry organization subsequently preserves these once interesting spots into amber, but these remain popular, if with a likely less discriminating group of patrons.
 
2004 – Distribution Amici Olive Oil – produced in Tuscany and owned by a Houstonian – begins from here. It is found at outlets like Spec’s and Leibman’s plus on-line.
 
2004 – Damian’s caters the All Star game held in Houston providing Italian food for Joe Torre and others while serving Caribbean-style food to the numerous Latin ballplayers on the American League roster.
 
2005 – Appropriately relocated to the former site of Maxim’s (once “the secure haven of the River Oaks plutocracy”) and featuring contemporary artwork from likes of the acclaimed Texas-bred artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jesus Moroles, Tony’s is named among the top new restaurants in the country by Esquire magazine. The French executive chef with the tough-to-pronounce Polish last name, Olivier Ciesielski, directs a kitchen staff that is capable of creating excellent Italian food.
 
2006 – In January Marco Wiles’ Dolce Vita opens on lower Westheimer. Seemingly using Mario Batali’s Otto in Manhattan as a template, Wiles goes far beyond that with his Italian-style pizzas fired in a wood-burning oven using a range of toppings inspired throughout the peninsula. It is easily the best pizzeria in Houston and encounters no serious contenders for years, if ever.
 
2006 – In Damian Mandola founds Mandola Family Winery south of Austin focusing on Italian varietals like Vermentino, Dolcetto and Montepulciano. TABC issues arising because of his ownership in dining or retail establishments – or a fallout with his partners according to another source – cause him to sell out to his partners. He still owns the attractive Trattoria Lisina next door.
 
2006 – Gourmet Sardina, an outlet for high quality Sardinian food products, is launched by Arcodoro’s owners Efisio and Lori Farris. The online shop offers artisanal products from Farris’ homeland that are quite different than those found in the typical Italian-American pantry. Bottarga, bitter honey and saba are a few of the high-end items that also include wine and olive oils.
 
2006 – The October edition of Gourmet listed Da Marco at number 29 among their list of top 50 restaurants in the country. Only three other Italians are placed higher – Babbo in New York, Vetri in Philadelphia, and Bartolotta di Mare in Las Vegas – not bad company, at all.
 
2007 – Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia from Efisio Farris of Arcodoro is published. It is likely the first Sardinian cookbook published in English. The New York Times listed it among “25 noteworthy cookbooks published in 2007.’’
 
2007 – Late in the year Ristorante Cavour opens in developer Giorgio Borlenghi’s posh Hotel Granduca. The executive chef is a Frenchman, David Denis. He infuses the flavors similar to his native Provence and Liguria to create a broadly northern Italian array of very well-crafted dishes. He proves that the French culinary tradition of stock-making marries well with Milanese-style risotto. For those that don’t know much about Italian history, the restaurant takes its moniker from Baron Cavour, one of the principal architects of Italian unification in 1861; the conquest of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and its incorporation into the Turin-based Kingdom of Sardinia.
 
2008 – In an article entitled “The Best U.S. Italian Restaurants” in the April issue of Forbes Traveler, John Mariani names Tony’s among the top dozen or so Italian eateries in the country. He writes, “in its new location, Tony's plays to a younger crowd that comes for rigorously authentic Italian regional cuisine and great wines.”
 
2008 – Also in April, Andrea Pintus, the longtime chef at lower Heights-area Patrenalla’s, and a native of Sardinia, opens his own restaurant with business partner, Luigi Campioni, on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford. Called Andrea’s is serves approachable Italian and Italian-American dishes that are a very good value.
 
2008 – In the heat of the summer, Russo’s Coal-Fired Pizzeria from the folks at the local New York Pizzeria chain opens in northwest Houston. Houstonians can get a taste of more pizzas cooked in the more traditional early New York and New Haven fashion.
 
2009 – Sicilian Village located in Friendswood begins distributing packaged olives from Sicily. These are available at Spec’s, Amazon.com and SicilianVillage.com.
 
2009 – Marco Wiles opens his third truly Italian restaurant along a short stretch of Westheimer, Poscol, in March. It takes its name from the term in dialect used for a main thoroughfare (Via Poscolle) in the northeastern Italian city of Udine, the hometown of Wiles’ family. Featuring small plates and inspiration largely from Veneto and Friuli, it sports another well-chosen all-Italian wine list. Texas Monthly names it and Valentino on its list of best restaurants to open in the state that year.
 
2009 – In September Houston hosts its first Italian Expo produced to highlight products from Italy. It is a boon to wine lovers, maybe too much so. Chicago is the only other city to host a similar event.
 
2009 – Lynette Hawkins gets back into the game in September with her Tuscan- and  Venetian-inspired small plate spot Giacomo’s on Westheimer west of Kirby. From the start, it features a very well-chosen and well-priced all-Italian wine list that seems to cover every corner of that country. It evolves to become one of the city's most reliable and best-value dining destinations, regardless of cuisine.
 
2009 – Legendary Piero Selvaggio – whose Santa Monica eatery Valentino was long regarded as the best Italian restaurant in the country – opens his third branch in Houston’s modern Hotel Derek near the Galleria. The restaurant is a new concept for Houston, an Italian ambition and credibility previously found elsewhere in this country just in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas and one spot in Philadelphia. A veteran of Valentino’s Las Vegas operation, the talented Cunninghame West heads the kitchen here, doing an excellent job with an approachable version of Selvaggio’s inspired takes on alta cucina. James Beard Award-winning chef Luciano Pellegrini occasionally comes to town from Sin City to aid with special dinners for some added culinary power.
 
2009 – Stella Sola by one of the city’s top toques, Bryan Caswell, along with partner Bill Floyd opens in the Heights in November 2009. Influenced by the meaty robustness of some northern Italian cooking, its name translates to “Lone Star” (or “Lonely Star”) in English. One of Caswell’s early cooking stints was at Damian’s. He later cooked with the talented Rocco DiSpirito well before DiSpirito’s televised Italian-American restaurant nightmare, “The Restaurant” in 2003.
 
2010 – In April, Tuscan Renato De Pirro, an alumnus of Pierro Selvaggio’s Las Vegas restaurants and previously the Executive Chef at Osteria del Circo, the Maccioni’s family refined and well-regarded trattoria in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, takes over the kitchen at Ristorante Cavour, bringing a more properly Italian taste to the menu at this upscale establishment.
 
2010 – Ciao Bello, another Vallone enterprise that had opened a year earlier in a space once occupied by La Strada, is named among “11 More Restaurants You Don't Want to Miss” by Esquire in 2010. It will become known for its zesty flavors among Roman-style thin-crust pizzas, pastas, Gulf-oriented seafood and meaty Italian-American-inflected preparations in an attractively casual and comfortable but very stylish setting that has long been a Vallone signature. Also in 2010, Vallone’s Caffe Bello takes over the original address of La Strada in Montrose, but struggles for traction in an evolving neighborhood.
 
2010 – In December Amici in Sugar Land closes. It seems competition from a recently opened Olive Garden nearby might have played a factor. This does not reflect well on Fort Bend residents.

2011 – Pizaro's opens in a strip center on Memorial in west Houston serving Neapolitan style pizza, the most truly Neapolitan that Houston has thus seen. Proprietor Bill Hutchinson puts his “Verace Pizza Napoletana” certification as a  Pizzaiolo to good use, and the bare-bones spots draws customers from around the area including a number of Italian ex-pats.  
 
2011 – In an area deficient in quality fresh Italian sausage, you can purchase it at the two Carrabba's owned by the family, though you will likely have to call ahead. The piquant, flavorful sausage is made by Johnny Carrabba, Sr., and unusual for Italian sausage elsewhere, but consistent with Texas, it contains a fair portion of beef.
 
2012 – Valentino, the best Italian restaurant that ever was in Houston, cannot overcome the very difficult location in the Hotel Derek and shutters. A shame, as proprietor Piero Selvaggio never got to do all he wanted to with the restaurant including becoming more adventurous with the offerings and expanding its wine list to at least a substantial of his Santa Monica original that has one of top handful of wine lists in the country
 
2014 – Inspired by the Italian heritage of executive chef Ryan Pera, Coltivare opens in January on White Oak in the Heights offering seasonal American-Italian fare including distinctively bready pizzas along with pastas and larger preparations in a casual, no reservations setting that seduces most local food critics.
 
2014 – Giancarlo Ferrara, the executive chef at Arcodoro for over a decade, opens Amalfi on Westheimer west of the Galleria in the same strip center as The Palm. Highlighting the dishes and flavors of his native Salerno, down the coast from Naples, that should be familiar to most American diners along with some items and techniques from his stops in the Veneto and at a French restaurant bearing two Michelin stars, the restaurant quickly becomes one of the top Italians in the city.
 
2015 – Now sporting the descriptive phrase, “Naples Influenced. Milan Inspired. Houston Cherished,” Tony’s celebrates its fiftieth year in business.
 
2015 – Pizaro's opens a second location on Montrose and West Gray. It later expands its menu to include New York style and Detroit style pizzas. The latter, a version of the Sicilian pan pizza created in Detroit soon after the Second World War, has been trendy addition to pizza joint menus across the country.

2017 – Across the street from the ballpark, Astros owner opens Potente, an upscale, expensive Italian-themed restaurant that eventually gets the skilled Danny Trace who was the executive chef at Brennan’s, and at the estimable Commander's Palace in New Orleans before that, as its top toque.
 
2017 – Chef Mark Cox of Mark's fame begins consulting at Fratelli's, an Italian-American restaurant in Spring Branch that began as a franchised offshoot of the original Fratelli's on 290. His work improves the food and the restaurant's profile, which becomes a favorite of an older set of west Houston customers.

2017 – After 36 years in business, Carmelo’s closes after Christmas brunch. Owner Carmelo Mauro, a steadfast member of the Houston restaurant community was both the former president of both the Texas Restaurant Association and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association.
 
2018 – Arcodoro, the upscale Sardinian restaurant in the Galleria that drew loyal patronage from ex-pat Italians and other Europeans closes in February after nearly two decades in business.
 
2018 – In April, the Italian wine and food publication Gambero Rosso names Amalfi as the best fine dining Italian restaurant in Houston, Sud Italia, with Maurizio Ferrarese in the kitchen, as tops for traditional cuisine, the Dallas-based chain Cane Rosso for pizza (quite surprisingly, and maybe a bit grudgingly according to the person I spoke with from Gambero Rosso), and Poscol for having the best wine program among local Italian restaurants.
 
2018 – In July, J.J. Watt asked his 5 million-plus followers on Twitter for the best Italian restaurant in Houston. The clear favorite of the 2,000 or so respondents was, very oddly and depressingly, Olive Garden, of which there are over twenty locations in the Houston area, which is also depressing to learn.
 
2018 – Tanglewood’s neighborhood Italian restaurant from Tony Vallone, Ciao Bello, closes rather suddenly in August, a couple of weeks after sibling steakhouse Vallone’s does so in Spring Branch.
 
2018 – In November, chef Maurizio Ferrarese, who won deserved plaudits at Quattro and Sud Italia, is hired to take over the kitchen at Ristorante Cavour.


I’ve got to write that through a coincidence of fate, I was born in the Italian North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and afterwards belonged to the same parish in Bergen County, New Jersey as the mother of Frank Sinatra, whom I was told reliably purchased kegs for church functions. I was the local editor for the Zagat Survey for several years until Google did away with those positions and, possibly more pertinently, is the author of the ebook From the Antipasto to the Zabaglione: The Story of Italian Restaurants in America that is available on Amazon.

An artistic creation from Ristorante Cavour

​Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn of a resolutely green cocktail that touted was touted to me the other day at McGonigel’s Mucky Duck.  McGonigel’s, and it was less than a couple of weeks from St. Patrick’s Day, which looms rather large on the calendar at this long-running showcase music club and restaurant-bar in the Upper Kirby District.  The owners and staff had come across the drink at a cocktail bar in San Diego the previous week and were quite impressed.
 
Being a huge from of The Clash, the name immediately made me think of one of the many enjoyable songs on the iconic, proto-punk first album.  Its name, from an ancient nursery rhyme about the Great Fire of London of 1666, has the opening lines:
 
All across the town, all across the night
Everybody's driving with full headlights
Black or white, you turn it on, you face the new religion
Everybody's sitting 'round watching television
London's burning with boredom now
London's burning dial nine-nine-nine-nine-nine
 
It turns out that this song has, unquestionably, no connection to the cocktail.  Or any cocktail, or any food-related item, at all.  Even so, exhorted by Rusty and Teresa, the owners of The Duck whom I’ve gotten to know in recent years, and knowing that the bar does a very good job with cocktails, I ordered it.  Just reading the list of ingredients, I could tell that it had absolutely nothing to do with the song nor London, nor any place near London.  It begins in the kitchen with a puree of jalapeños, that have been seeded and roasted, along with avocado, cilantro and lime juice.  Then at the bar when ordered, some of the puree on hand is mixed with some syrup and lemon juice.  The result is green with flecks of dark cilantro scattered about.  I would never consider ordering a drink that looked like that if I hadn’t been strongly touted on it.  Avocado in cocktail, too.  I don’t believe that I’ve ever had a drink featuring an avocado.
 
When it arrived in front of me, I thought it looked like the product of an aggressive cleanse recipe from a juicer.  I loved it.  The taste of the roasted jalapeños shown through providing a bit of smoke and spice that was nicely muted and complemented by the avocado and sugar.  It wasn’t a sweet drink, more on the piquant side, but balanced, with the gin working well in a subtle alcoholic concert with the verdant ingredients for very pleasant long taste and was easily drinkable.  Maybe too easily.
 
Teresa told me that the name comes, in part, from the London Dry gin that gives it is alcoholic interest.  The ‘Burning’ from the jalapeños, I assume.  OK, the moniker does actually make some sense.  The name could change in the near future as she mentioned they are thinking about replacing the London dry gin with Hendrick’s.  Its prominent cucumber notes could make this different-looking cocktail even more enjoyable in the future. 
 
McGonigel’s Mucky Duck
2425 Norfolk (a couple of blocks east of Kirby), 77098, (713) 528-5999
mcgonigels.com

​I finally made it Segari’s the other day.  Segari’s, in its current on Shepherd between I-10 and Washington and in previous incarnations, has been serving its brand of regional Gulf Coast seafood and more since 1971.  The esteemed Robb Walsh rang high praises about Segari’s shrimp and gumbo for years, giving some credence to the restaurant’s tagline of “World Famous Gumbo and Fried Shrimp.”
 
I’m sorry I waited so long.  The Grilled Bacon Wrapped Shrimp preparation I had featured absolutely terrific shrimp, impeccably high quality, large and perfectly cooked.  These were moist, and with an excellent texture that was tender enough – properly not soft and definitely no hint of toughness that might indicate too much time on the heat – and nicely assembled with the thin pieces of the affixed bacon, that stayed affixed, nicely complementing rather overwhelming the flavor of the shrimp. These were best grilled shrimp I’ve had in memory and it was one of the top shrimp dishes I’ve had in quite a while, up there with the barbecue shrimp at Mr. B’s in New Orleans earlier this year.
 
Unfortunately, there were only five shrimp to my order.  I could have eaten several more, as delicious as they were.  Also unfortunately, the shrimp came with an order of the worst onion rings I might have ever had and the worst garlic bread I’ve ever had.  The onion rings had an odd and odd-tasting breading.  A friend thought it looked like breading that was old.  It didn’t seem like that to me.  Rather, it was just dull-looking, not flavorful and bland, at best.  An odd complement of horseradish-spiked cocktail sauce was necessary with them.  Next time, I’ll go for the fries or Rosemary New Potatoes as my choice of a side.  The very dry garlic bread that prefaced my order seemed like two length-wise halves of what appeared to be supermarket-purchased bolillo bread without much in the way of discernible butter or olive oil, nor garlic, and that was left in the oven to affect the consistency of two misshapen croutons. 
 
And annoyingly, there are no prices on the menu.  Your bill’s total seems to be dependent on the price of the seafood and the whim of the restaurant.  My order which didn’t feature a ton of food was $27.95, quite expensive for me for lunch.  There’s not a lunch menu.  But I’ll be back to this quirky, homey little bungalow-set spot – just nine tables and about the same number of seats at the bar – for some of its succulent shrimp, at the very least.
 
Segari’s
1503 Shepherd (between I-10 and the railroad tracks), 77007, (713) 880-2470
segarisrestaurant.com

​I finished a terrific meal this summer at Parizzi, the only Michelin-starred restaurant in Parma, with three ages of Parmesan, well, Parmigiano-Reggiano: 24, 30 and 36 months.  Each version was quite enjoyable, each with a distinct flavor and textures.  Moving from the more familiar and nuttier to saltier, more intense, more complex, drier and so more crumbly and crunchier as I moved to the 30- and 36-month pieces.  I found I a very appropriate way to end a rich dinner in Parma, one that had included grated Parmigiano to great effect atop a couple of previous dishes. 
 
A booth at the Taste of Italy event a couple of weeks ago reminded of that dinner, the conclusion, at least.  Cantarelli, a cheese producer in the province of Reggia Emilia in operation since 1876, had samples of their Parmigiano-Reggiano aged 24, 30 and 36 months, which I greedily devoured.  The representative explained the differences among the ages and how 36 months might be the peak of aged Parmigiano as the flavors considerably break down by 48 months in his opinion.
 
In addition to the quality of the cheeses I sampled, I was impressed with the packaging.  The company sells these three ages along with a few others including Parmigiano made from the milk of the famed red cows, Vacche Rosse, and another from the Bruna Alpina breed, in opaque 3-ply aluminum packets that helps the cheese retain its proper flavor after opening and guarantee a shelf life of one year.  It certainly seems much better than the shrink-wrapped plastic used by Costco, Spec’s and Murray’s Cheeses, the places where I usually pick up Parmigiano and its brethren.  Cantarelli, being an Italian company, also made its packets much more attractive than the typical domestic packaging. 
 
I don’t believe that Cantarelli is available in Texas, or even in the US, but it is certainly worth keeping an eye out for it if you are a fan of Italian food and might enjoy an occasional deeply savory coda to dinner.