MIKE RICCETTI
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  • The best of Houston dining
    • Bakeries for bread
    • Banh mi
    • Best Values
    • Breakfast
    • Breakfast tacos
    • Cajun and Creole
    • Chicken Fried Steak
    • Cocktails
    • Crawfish
    • Downtown Dining
    • EaDo and East End Dining
    • Fajitas
    • French
    • French Fries
    • Fried Chicken
    • Galleria Area Dining
    • Greek
    • Guinness pours
    • Houston-centric
    • Italian
    • Italian-American
    • Japanese
    • Kolaches
    • Mexican
    • Middle Eastern
    • Midtown Dining
    • Montrose Dining
    • Pizzerias
    • Pizza at Non-Pizzerias
    • Raw Bars
    • Rice Village Dining
    • Sandwiches
    • Seafood
    • Splurge-Worthy
    • Steakhouses
    • Sushi
    • To Take Visitors
    • Tex-Mex
    • Thai
    • Tough Tables
    • Wine Bars
    • Wine Lists
  • The margherita pizza project
  • The martini project
  • Musings on Houston Dining
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2022
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2021
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2019
    • The top 10 new restaurants of 2018
    • The dozen best Inner Loop values
    • Dining recommendations for visitors to Houston
  • Italian restaurant history
  • Italian & Italian-American
  • Entertaining tips
    • Booze basics
    • Styles of Cheeses
    • Handling Those Disruptive Guests
  • Wine
  • Beer
  • Cocktails and Spirits
  • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
MIKE RICCETTI

Mostly food and drink...

...and mostly set in Houston

When you are going out for Italian, you usually are not going out for Italian

9/28/2016

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Penned a little ago, this is still true​ even as Italian restaurants here became more Italian.

According to a much quoted truism from playwright Neil Simon, “there are two laws in the universe: the law of gravity and everyone likes Italian food.”  A meal at restaurants like Il Mulino in Greenwich Village, Tony’s in St. Louis, Rosebud in Chicago (any of them), Damian’s in Houston, or Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood is likely to reinforce that. 
 
But, Simon’s Italian food is not what is served at the refined ristoranti of Rome or Florence, or anywhere in Italy.  What he was referring to – and what we typically think of as Italian food – is not Italian.  It is Italian-American.
 
Most of what is called Italian food here comes from the immigrants from southern Italy and Sicily who arrived from 1880 to 1924.  They made up about 80% of all Italian immigrants.  Interestingly, about half of the dishes that would become Italian staples in America originated in Naples.  Pizza, pasta with clams, and spaghetti with marinara sauce are just three of the many.  Though very few immigrants actually came from Naples itself, that city had long dominated the culture and cuisine of the Italian south.  It was easily the largest in Italy at the time, was a busy port, and had long been the capital of an independent country that covered the south and Sicily.  So, “what is described abroad as ‘Italian’ cooking is really Neapolitan cooking,” opined Waverly Root in The Food of Italy in 1971. 
 
Italian food in America is largely based on the foods the immigrants had eaten during religious holidays and other celebrations – in and around Naples and elsewhere – much less on what they ate daily.  That was often a dreary array of vegetable soups, greens, beans and poor-quality bread.  In Italy, they seldom ate pasta, as it was too expensive.  They rarely ate meat.  They only ate seafood if they lived near the coast. 
 
But, with American wages, commercially made pasta and meat were easily affordable and became regular parts of their diet.  Like nearly all immigrants before and afterwards, the Italians quickly grew to include American beef-steak and the crisp, German-born lager beer.
 
They ate far better than they had in Italy.  But, many of the ingredients were not available or not as good quality, so these immigrants had to adapt.  Vegetables became less important over the years, reflecting trends in the broader American landscape.  Their food was necessarily different than that of Italy.  A national Italian-American cuisine emerged before the Second World War and became widely embraced.  It had developed on its own, and continued to do so with the occasional dish from a restaurant in Italy added to the repertoire - like fettuccine Alfredo, saltimbocca, insalata Caprese, and tiramisu. 
 
Food today in Italy is similar, but is something else.  The often significant differences between Italian and Italian-American cooking can be described as harmony versus abundance.  Italian-American cooking uses far more garlic, more sauce, much more cheese and meat.  Fewer vegetables are used.  The food is also “more cooked,” like the popular baked pasta dishes here such as baked ziti and manicotti.  Pasta is an entrée, which is almost never seen in Italy; it is typically the first course (after the antipasti that is).  Fewer seasonal and fresh ingredients are used here. The long-cooked and copious tomato sauces, along with the large amount of cheese, help to mask this fact.  Overall, the food is much more robust here.  Another difference is the vast array of distinct regional and local cuisines and traditions that endure throughout Italy that are not really found here.
 
These days, though, the delineation between Italian and Italian-American can often be tough.  More contemporary Italian dishes and a more truly Italian ethos have been found here during the past couple of decades as chefs have traveled more frequently to Italy, excellent Italian food products have been more readily available, and locally sourced substitutes have improved dramatically.  But, still, nearly all of the time, when you are going out for Italian, you are going out for Italian-American. 
 
That’s certainly not a bad thing at all, though.
 
An earlier version of this article previously appeared in The Galveston County Daily News.
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I hadn’t known that Sonoma serves food….I wish I still didn’t

9/25/2016

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As part of my fun, ongoing research into local margherita pizzas, I discovered that the two Sonoma wine bars serve them.  I hadn’t been to Sonoma in years.  An old girlfriend liked the place, but I never did, with its emphasis on fruit-forward, often obscure New World wines at the time that were served in a setting I found kind of cheesy.  At least that is what I had remembered about the original Richmond location.
 
Checking the website, I found that the wine list had expanded from what I recalled that was far more interesting, too.  And, their food options had gone well beyond just cheese and crackers and the like.  The newer Heights location was open for lunch, with margherita pizzas on the menu, so I went the other day.
 
Unfortunately, it proved to be just the second bad margherita pizza I have had from a restaurant since my “project” has begun – Trader Joe’s frozen version excepted.  Sonoma’s thin crust was like a flatbread, a lame flatbread that was too often reminiscent of cardboard.  I did not want to, nor did I, finish all of the crust, unlike all of the other versions I have eaten apart from the disaster that was Frank’s Pizza.  The deep garnet-colored cooked tomato sauce slathered above the hopeless base at Sonoma had a clear and unpleasant industrial quality to it.  There were sliced tomatoes, too, which were tasteless, but less offensive than the sauce and the as cheap-tasting mozzarella, which was the worst cheese I have had thus far.  A lot of grated (Parmigiano?) cheese helped as did red pepper flakes, but not nearly enough.  Plentiful mediocre toppings do not make for a good margherita pizza. 
 
As bad as this version was, it was expensive at $16.  Even bad pizza is usually good enough, but this wasn’t.
 

Do not order this pizza at Sonoma.  It was even worse than it looks.  It is probably much safer sticking with wine while you are there.
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When FLAVOR FLAV HELPed ME EXPLAIN THE ORIGINS OF CABERNET SAUVIGNON

9/25/2016

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With the passing of Radio Raheem who walked around streets of Spike Lee's Bed-Stuy Brooklyn blaring Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" from his boombox in "Do the Right Thing," I thought it was appropriate to re-post how Flavor Flav helped me explain the origin of Cabernet Sauvignon to other food and wine writers during a gastronomic trip to Italy.  Occurring after a decent amount of wine, of course.

I was fortunate to travel a few years to the Marche region of central Italy as part of a trip organized by the Gruppo Ristoranti Italiani, a longstanding New York-based organization dedicated to promoting authentic Italian cuisine.   During dinner our second night, which was in a hall of an ancient college in the beautiful Renaissance town of Urbino, the wine flowed freely and the food – disappointingly and unexpectedly – stopped after the antipasti and a first course, a version of a simple soup cooked for Michelangelo and his team while working on the Sistine Chapel.  It was delicious, by the way, and not tasting ancient, in any sense of the word.
 
At our lively table of eight, after the soup was finished, the discussion turned to the broad topic of wine.  One of the several journalists on the trip – one of our country’s leading wine and spirits writers, Anthony Dias Blue – mentioned that Cabernet Sauvignon is actually derived from a cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.  That was a surprise to most of the others: a red and a white grape creating a red grape.
 
I chimed in that this was to be expected in nature.  In fact, it was well articulated by Public Enemy (in “Fear of a Black Planet” from their seminal 1990 album of the same name), who certainly remembered Mendel's laws of inheritance that we all learned as kids when they used these lines:
 
Black man, black woman, black baby
White man, white woman, white baby
Black man, white woman, black baby
White man, black woman, black baby
 
Anthony laughed, along the rest of the table.  It was a good day…well, night. 
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The Margherita pizzas so far

9/19/2016

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Below is an update on the Margherita Pizza Project.  Employing the terms used by the New York Times in their restaurant reviews, from best to worst (Extraordinary, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Fair, Poor), here are ratings of the margherita pizzas I have eaten through today, the ones since last time are in red:
 
B&B – Good
Bollo – Fair
Brandi (Naples) - Extraordinary
Cane Rosso – Satisfactory
Coppa – Good
Crisp – Satisfactory
Dolce Vita – Very Good
Enoteca Rossa – Fair
Frank’s Pizza – Poor
La Grazie (Sorrento) – Excellent
Luna Pizzeria – Fair
Mazcalzone (Shepherd) – Satisfactory
North Italia – Good
Nundini – Satisfactory
Piola – Satisfactory
Pizaro’s (Memorial) – Good
Pizaro’s (Montrose) – Satisfactory
Solario – Good
Taverna – Satisfactory

Dolce Vita remains the local champ so far followed by Solario.

Here is the somewhat different version from B&B that was still fairly enjoyable:
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The 2016 Houston filet index

9/18/2016

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Initially posted a few months ago, but now unavailable with the demise of Examiner.com, I thought it would be good to reprise this.  Houstonians still love going out for steaks, after all.

Filet mignon is the favorite steak of many, and a plump filet is often the choice as the centerpiece of a celebratory dinner.  One of three steakhouse staple cuts, along with the New York strip and ribeye, filets might make up to half of the orders at some steak places. The filet is cut from the small end of the tenderloin and typically served boneless in portions between 6- and 10-ounces.  It is the most tender, attractive and delicate of the beef steaks.  But, it is the least flavorful, which is why accompanying sauces like béarnaise are common companions.  This most feminine of steaks is the also cut that is best served rare, even more so than for the strips, ribeyes and other cuts.  This is because of its lower fat content; the higher fat allows the other fattier cuts to be cooked longer in a tasteful manner.

The amount of intramuscular fat – the marbling is the most significant component for a steaks’ USDA grade – is relatively low for filets regardless of grade, so restaurants will rarely pay the extra amount for USDA Prime for their filets.  Though there is a lot of intentional confusion sown on steakhouse menus regarding filets and prime, seemingly only two area restaurants serve USDA Prime, Killen’s and Trulucks.

​The steaks below are served unadorned unless otherwise noted.  The average price per ounce for filet at a Houston area restaurant is around $5.50.  Not cheap, but usually worth it.

  • B&B Butchers – $45 - 10-ounces; and $69 - 8-ounces, Gearhart Ranch Wagyu
  • Bistecca – $39 - 8-ounces; and $49 - 12-ounces
  • Brenner’s – $32 - 6-ounces; $37 - 8-ounces; $39 - 10-ounces; and “market price” for 14-ounces, bone-in
  • Café Annie – $49 - 8-ounces, served with a poached garlic sauce and mashed potatoes with smoked cheddar
  • Capital Grille – $45 - 10-ounces
  • Cavour – $46 - 6-ounces, served with foie gras, mashed potato and a Marsala truffle sauce
  • Damian’s – $39 - 8-ounces, served with ammoghui sauce, grilled asparagus and roasted potatoes
  • Del Frisco’s – $42 - 8-ounces; $50 -12-ounces; and $69 - 16-ounces, bone-in
  • Eddie V’s – $39 - 8-ounces; and $46 - 12-ounces
  • Fleming’s – $40 - 6-ounces, served with potatoes; $44 - 8-ounces; and $49 - 12-ounces
  • The Grove – $47 - 8-ounce, served with mashed potatoes and asparagus
  • Killen’s – $40 - 8-ounces and $50 - 12-ounces, USDA Prime, Nebraska Corn Fed, Wet Aged 28 Days; $52 - 10-ounces, Harris Ranch All-Natural Five Diamond Beef; $72  8-ounces, Strube Ranch Mishima Wagyu; and $100 - 4-ounces, Wagyu Kagoshima Prefecture
  • Kirby’s – $38 - 7-ounces; and $44 - 10-ounces
  • Lynn’s – $37 - 8-ounces; and $49 - 14-ounces
  • Masraff’s – $41 - 6-ounces, served with potato and foie gras roulade with roasted garlic, haricot vert and a horseradish demi-glaze
  • Mo’s – $48 - 12-ounces, served with soup or salad
  • The Palm – $48 - 9-ounces; and $52 - 14-ounces
  • Pappas Bros. – $46 - 8-ounces; $48 - 10-ounces; $50 - 12-ounces; $60 - 14-ounces, bone-in; and at the bar, $44 - 6-ounces, served mashed potatoes
  • Oceanaire – $50 - 10-ounces
  • Perry’s – $42 - 8-ounces; $48 - 12-ounces; and $60 - 14-ounces, bone-in
  • Quattro - $42 - 6-ounces, served with mashed and roasted cauliflower, fresh peas, and a Barolo reduction
  • Sal y Pimienta - $42 - 8-ounces, all-natural grass from Uruguay served with grilled vegetables
  • Shula’s – $40 - 6-ounces; $45 - 8-ounces; and $53 - 12-ounces
  • Smith & Wollensky’s – $46 - 10-ounces; and $58 - 16-ounces, bone-in
  • Sullivan’s – $38 - 8-ounces; and $44 - 12-ounces
  • Tango & Malbec – $98 - 24-ounces, meant for two
  • Taste of Texas – $40 - 6 ounces; $48 - 10 ounces; and $56 - 14-ounces, bone-in
  • III Forks – $36 - 6-ounces; $39 - 8-ounces; $41 - 12-ounces
  • Tony Mandola’s – $38 - 8-ounces, topped with shallot Marsala sauce served with hand-cut fries or red-skinned mashed potatoes
  • Tony’s - $49 - 8-ounces
  • Truluck’s – $39 - 7-ounces, served with a choice of Parmesan mashed potatoes; and $65 - 14-ounces, bone-in USDA Prime, served with a choice of Parmesan mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus or creamed spinach
  • Veritas – $35 - 6-ounces; $42 - 8-ounces; and $59 - 16-ounces, bone-in
  • Vallone’s – $42 – 8-ounces; and $48 - 12-ounces
  • Vic & Anthony’s – $43 - 8-ounces; $49 - 12-ounces; and “market price” - 14-ounces, bone-in

Unhelpfully, neither Morton’s nor Ruth’s Chris have their full local menus with prices readily available, though they certainly serve a lot of them.
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An early look at Arthur Ave

9/17/2016

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​Years ago, when I was working on a project in St. Louis, I went several times to the extremely popular Cunetto House of Pasta on The Hill, the Little Italy of St. Louis.  The restaurant’s popularity even mid-week often made a wait in its comfortable, homey bar requisite and the order no-nonsense martini a no-brainer.  It was a perfect preface for the lively dining room and a menu filled with big portions of gloppy, heavy and very enjoyable Italian-American fare, much of it red-sauced, that had seemingly countless regular patrons, who were largely gloppy, heavy Midwesterners. 
 
This was basic Italian-American, the food that the country still loves.  The nicest and most lauded restaurant at the time in St. Louis was Tony’s that served many of the fancier and more expensive Italian or, what were once were termed, Continental dishes including osso buco.  A restaurant like that, and somewhat like Damian’s here, could be described as upscale Italian-American.  That term applies to the lauded, knowing and cooly retro Carbone in Manhattan.  There is another type of nice, Italian-themed restaurant of which Coppa in the Village is an example, serving Americanized Italian preparations, looking to Italy and past the homegrown Italian-American items.
 
The recently opened Arthur Ave, which takes its name from the street filled with restaurants in the Italian-American Belmont section of the Bronx, is none of these types of restaurants.  It definitely does not serve Italian food as in Italy.  Subtitled as “Italian-American,” Arthur Ave might best be thought of as Americanized Italian-American.  Italian-American-themed by way of local restaurateurs who are not Italian-American set in an increasingly trendy area of a big city in 2016.  Arthur Ave grabs different items from a portion of the Italian-American canon and somewhat updates them.  For lunch there a half-dozen sandwiches, four pastas including spaghetti and meatballs and a version of the 1980s hit penne alla vodka, though made with mascarpone and cherry tomatoes, a couple salads and appetizers. Like a great many current restaurants, and different from the Italian restaurants of the past, here and in Italy, there is a pizza oven, and it has few different pizzas plus the opportunity to choose your toppings.  The dinner menu is a little larger, though still small, with more entrées including Chicken Parmesan (for an outstanding $32), a fish of the day, a “Butcher’s Cut” at market price and Sunday gravy featuring five meats and feeding several according my waiter the other day. 
 
The Sunday Gravy, that comes with sides of spaghetti, consists of a variety of meats that change based on the whim of the kitchen, but do not include braciole, the tied beef dish that is the centerpiece of most Italian-American versions of a meat-spiked long-cooked tomato sauce.  This is indicative of what I found odd about Arthur Ave: it does not seem to really understand the Italian-American restaurant or just ignores much of it.  Braciole is not found in too many restaurants as part of a Sunday gravy – that is a dish almost always made at home – but if it is going to be made and a steep tariff is charged ($42), it might be included, as a good number of patrons will expect it.  Strangely, the restaurant does serve a cut called braciole as a filling in a lunchtime sandwich.
 
The lack of a braciole is a minor quibble, as it is rarely found at restaurants, but some other things like not having veal on the menu, the classic Italian restaurant protein, is very disappointing.  No veal Parmesan.  No veal Marsala.  No veal al limone. No saltimbocca.  No veal Milanese.  Veal preparations, a treat when dining out, have always been a big attraction for me at Italian restaurants.  The main meat here is chicken which is found in just two items, a grilled chicken Marsala joining the Parm.  None of full chicken classics like chicken scarpariello, lemon chicken or Chicago’s chicken Vesuivio.  There is not much at all in the way of seafood, the New York Italian classic Lobster Fra Diavolo has shrunk to shrimp diavolo, and no trendy branzino flow in the from the Mediterranean.  The menu is limited.
 
I have eaten at Arthur Ave twice now.  The first time was the Chicken Parm sandwich, which would have been forgettable at $8, but it was priced at nearly double that.  The properly cooked and moist chicken breast was under-seasoned and not helped by a bland tomato sauce that I thought could have come out of a jar and a scarce amount of mozzarella.  It was all right, but expensive for what it was.  The side of polenta fries did not help much.  Polenta is often fairly flavorless and even fried, and it was not as tasty as the polenta I had had recently at Kris Jakob’s new restaurant, Brasserie 1895.  French fries would be a better option.  French fries are invariably better, and also what you would find where you would order a Chicken Parm sandwich (or better yet a veal Parm sandwich).

The Fusilli Alfredo I had on the next visit was more satisfying.  Heavy, straightforward and simple, the creamy concoction had a hint of lemon smothering the soft corkscrew-shaped noodles making for a hearty and enjoyable lunch.  The dried pasta is from the excellent producer Martelli from outside Pisa, a brand that is used by many top restaurants elsewhere in the country.  Though it kept its shape very well, it was cooked past al dente and a little softer than I cook at home.  Probably done like most customers enjoy pasta, its softness obscured the taste of the pasta.  A cheaper brand would not have detracted from the dish. 
 
The well-stocked bar, impossible to ignore as it right near the entrance, serves contemporary cocktails and has a number of amari, the bitter disgestif that has become popular in bars and restaurant in the past decade, though I am not sure about the old school Sambuca or even older school anisette.  The wine list features mostly Italian producers and, nicely, a Verdicchio by the glass and even one from the top-notch Chianti Classico producer Isola e Elena, plus some from California including a few Zinfandels with Italian last names and the excellent Mayacamas Cabernet.  It’s a good list that should serve most needs, if not quite divino or Dolce Vita, or even Giacomo’s for its value and breadth. 
 
From the same folks at Helen Greek Food and Wine in the Village, which managed to create a terrific vibe and inviting setting in the small thin small was amazingly Kahn’s Deli for year, the space at Arthur Ave is not nearly as engaging.  Dark, with only windows near the entrance and brick-accentuated walls, past the bar are banquettes on the side, small tables in the center, and a separate room in back that can be used for events.  Several cool vintage Italian liquor posters adorn the walls along with a couple placards in back each with trite phrases you have seen on countless Italian restaurant menus over the years.  It all feels a bit forced, much like the menu, and not overly comfortable.
 
Cobbled together clichés, just-decent execution and with a small range of dishes, Arthur Ave is just not that interesting for someone well-versed or passionate about Italian (or Italian-American) food.  But, it seems that it can work well as a neighborhood restaurant for the affluent Heights of recent-years.  The fact that it barely touches on the range of Italian-American dishes should not be an issue with most diners, especially if what it does, it does well.  Their version of the Insalata Caprese with house-made mozzarella and ripe heirloom tomatoes – which they also do a good job with at Helen – has drawn raves, for example.  I found the restaurant to be a work in progress.  At the very least, it has enticing happy hour prices on food and drink from 2:30 to 5:30 from Monday through Saturday.
 
Arthur Ave
1111 Studewood (just north of 11th Street), 77008
arthuravehou.com

Penne alla vodka, albeit done elsewhere.  Looks really good, though.
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It seems that Ninfa’s has slipped….at least their tacos al carbon

9/13/2016

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​This past weekend, with my cousin was in town from the Chicago area and a trip to Ninfa’s high on his itinerary, I dined there for the first time in a few years.  It was enjoyable, but the signature tacos al carbon (or tacos al Ninfa) were disappointing.  They were all right, but not nearly as good as they were years in the past.
 
Disappointingly, there were four pieces of fajita among the two tacos that were too tough to chew and required stopping and pulling the meat of my mouth, always a little awkward when dining in a crowded restaurant.  Margaritas helped ease any possible embarrassment.  And, the pieces of fajita varied in terms of tastiness and flavor, some a pleasant hint of charcoal, some generally pleasant, while others were just bland.  None of them had very beefy flavorful that you hope for with fajitas.  Overall, they were not as flavorful as I have had there over the years, in addition to being less uniformly tender.  My brother had the same issue with a plate of fajitas.
 
I checked by dining notes – requisite for a food writer – and I saw that I had a mediocre meal of tacos al carbon in 2013, my last trip to Ninfa’s on Navigation: “the meat was something you might expect from a crappy place out of state.”  That lame meal must have been in the recesses of my mind as likely the reason for the nearly three year interval between visits.  
 
I mentioned my recent thoughts to a friend who has dined at Ninfa’s countless times since the 1980s.  His conjecture was the Ninfa’s is now using cheaper cuts of beef, probably not all skirt steak, and generally just cutting corners with the dish and the fajitas.  From what I experienced this time – and my previous trip – that made a lot of sense.  I really hope that these two meals were anomalies, though there were a few years apart.
 
Thankfully, there is an El Tiempo just across the street.  I had a terrific breakfast there the previous weekend.  And, not incidentally, one that was a few dollars cheaper than the cheapest one at Ninfa’s, but where there are still frozen margaritas...that are not really worth the $9 tariff, but do make you feel better.

The margaritas didn't seem quite as tasty, either, but still helpful on a hot day.
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I wonder where the Press might have got their idea to judge margherita pizzas

9/12/2016

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​An article posted on the website this morning for Houston Press rates margherita pizzas.  I wonder there they might have got a notion to do something like that.  Well, it is re-heated margherita pizzas that they were offering opinions on – along with those for what they describe as New York style.  Re-heated is little different and a quite a bit odd.  I don’t believe that you will be ordering a pizza at Pass & Provisions or Dolce Vita primarily concerned how it tastes re-heated. 
 
If you want somewhat more interesting and certainly more useful information about the subject, you’ll want to continue checking my site as it gets filled out and the research continues.  Pizaro’s had little trouble with quality control the other day, mentioning the most recent example.  Naples, it wasn’t, unfortunately.
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pete's Philly, still a great sandwich....

9/10/2016

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Market Square Bar & Grill – downtown, conveniently across from Market Square – has long been one of my favorite spots for a burger or a hot sandwich and a beer or two, especially before an Astros game, which I went to last night with a cousin in town from the Chicago area.  Not surprisingly, the 'Stros were completely shut down by a top lefthander, as they have struggled against middling lefthanders all season.

Market Square is just about a ten- to twelve-minute walk to the ballpark.  It deservedly does good business during lunch during the week; I would recommend nearly everything I have ever had there.  Even the salads are quite commendable, and a step above what you will find for a similar price elsewhere.  I rarely eat healthy there, though.
 
One of my favorite items is the Pete’s Philly, named after the former employee who invented it.  The warm sandwich features thinly shaved rib-eye cooked on the flat grill and served with grilled slices of fresh jalapeño and crumbles on blue cheese on a light, crusty small baguette.  The delicious high-quality beef meshes wonderfully with the tanginess of the mild blue cheese, which in turn complements the spice and flavor of the jalapeño.  These peppers, along with the crust of the bread, provide a nice textural contrast to the tender meat and melted cheese.  It is a terrific sandwich.
 
Despite its Philly moniker, it reflects our locality quite well.  Beef is still the preferred protein in Texas by a wide margin.  Chile peppers, especially jalapeños, are a Houston habit.  And, the baguette is a local Vietnamese version of a short French baguette; the type used for banh mi.  The blue cheese might not particularly reflect our locale, but it certainly works well in the sandwich, like the oddball that happens to mix well with those around.  It worked very well again yesterday.
 
Market Square Bar & Grill
311 Travis (between Prairie and Preston), 77002, (713) 224-0567
marketsquaregrill.com

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Found at Public Services: Chateau d’Oupia Minervois 

9/7/2016

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With its eclectic, Old World-centric offering of roughly 140 well-chosen wines, including 50 by the glass, ranging from sherries dry and sweet to ports and Madeiras to sparkling and still wines in hues of red, white and several shades of rosé along with a policy of half-price wines during happy hour Monday through Saturday, Public Services downtown can be a great place to discover new wines for the curious oenophile or regular wine drinker.
 
One such find is Chateau d’Oupia Minervois 2013 that has been on their list for several months now.  Made with 50% Carignan, 40% Syrah and 10% Grenache grown on very old vines – some reportedly over 100 years old – this is a medium- to full-bodied and deeply colored wine that is slightly aromatic, nearly elegant, pure and well-balanced with a long finish of cherry and dark fruits.  It is a very pleasant wine.  An earlier vintage was described by Robert Parker as, “produced the ideal bistro wine” rated it as a best buy.  A glass is just $9 at Public Services, at the lower end of wine bar prices these days.  With a fair amount of pleasing fruit and not overwhelming acidity or earthiness, this might also appeal to many regular New World wine drinkers. 
 
Minervois (mee ner VWAH) is not a name that rolls easily off the tongue for most English speakers, which might give some a pause when spotting the name on a wine list.  Added to that, it the wine is from an appellation in France’s western Languedoc (lahn guh DOC) that is rather unheralded, if vast, wine-producing region without any famous names.  Don’t let these concerns stop you from trying this enjoyable and eminently affordable wine.  A glass might even taste better at Public Services.
 
Public Services
202 Travis (at Franklin), 77002, (713) 516-8897
publicservicesbar.com

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A Good Sports Weekend

9/6/2016

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The long Labor Day weekend proved to be surprisingly good weekend of sports for me, certainly the outcomes.  My alma mater, The University of Texas, outlasted Notre Dame in very dramatic fashion on Sunday night as a decided underdog at home while relying on a true freshman quarterback.  It the first to start the opener for the Horns since the legendary Bobby Layne during the wars, in 1944, not a bad portent.  The day earlier, the hometown Coogs beat number three-ranked OU at NRG in a very entertaining game, which made me and a lot of other locals happy.  The enjoyable football weekend began with my old high school, Strake Jesuit, finally beating their rival St. Thomas on Friday night in Chinatown after four straight years of dramatic, last-second losses.  

And, the 'Stros remained in wildcard contention by not getting swept by the Rangers -- I'll take one out of three the way they have dominated the 'Stros this year -- and beating the high-flying Indians last night (even if that was interminably slow-paced game and a reminder why I still don't like the AL).  

​With the weekend results and the Texans kicking off on Sunday, with J.J. Watt back in the lineup, it could be a fun September for me as a fan.
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A first impression of Midtown Barbecue

9/5/2016

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​Having driven by it countless times, and just a twenty-minute walk from my place in the Fourth Ward, I finally visited Midtown Barbecue (in Midtown) the other day.  Along with a barbecue-crazed co-worker, I sampled the lean beef brisket, the moist, the pulled pork, sausages and a side of the Green Chili Creamed Corn Casserole.  For some extremely odd reason, they don’t offer sampler plates (two-meat with two sides, etc.) that seemingly every barbecue joint does, so we ordered by the half-pound. 
 
The food was generally good, but inconsistent including one significant problem: much of the brisket was too dry, including the interior of the moist brisket and most of the lean brisket.  Nearly bone dry, which was disconcerting and not something that you would find at top barbecue place.  Those pieces were not very enjoyable, even though had a pretty good and balanced smoke character from the oak, and eaten with a decent amount of their mild house-made sauce.
 
In contrast, the fatty exterior was excellent, but there just was not enough of it.  That gives me hope for future visits, especially when eschewing an order of the lean brisket.  The Central Texas-style sausage was solid, the pulled pork was decent, but without the flavor or most other local versions.  The chile-spiked corn casserole was quite satisfying and not overly heavy.  Alas, the bread was of the super-processed Mrs. Baird’s variety.  I find it odd that barbecue joints take such care in their smoking and some now even the provenance of their beef and other ingredients, but then serve garbage chemical bread.  Traditional, but stupid.
 
Though there is hope for the brisket given the tastiness of the bark and the attractively and appropriately rendered pink smoke rings on the brisket (even when overly dry), a couple of other things gave me pause about a quick return visit.  Midtown Barbecue has a setup like a sports bar; it could be a very good place to catch a game.  It’s a bar, and has a full bar, too.  Given its location in Midtown, it is wise to serve the needs of the nighttime visitors to the area.  But, that ensures that the focus is not entirely on the barbecue.  Their website also has a prominent link to their merchandise, another quibble indicating to me that the restaurant’s attention might be divided.  
 
I’ll be back at some point, as I’m rooting for places within walking distance.  My co-worker – rightly smitten with Killen’s Barbecue and the top places in central Texas – said he won’t be returning anytime soon, though.
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Margherita Pizza Reviews Thus far

9/4/2016

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The Margherita Pizza Project is progressing rather enjoyably so far, with only one bad pizza so far, though it was really bad.  Copying the verbiage used by the New York Times in their restaurant reviews, from best to worst (Extraordinary, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Satisfactory, Fair, Poor), here are ratings of the margherita pizzas I have eaten through last night:
 
Bollo – Fair
Brandi (Naples) - Extraordinary
Cane Rosso – Satisfactory
Coppa – Good
Dolce Vita – Very Good
Enoteca Rossa – Fair
Frank’s Pizza – Poor
La Grazie (Sorrento) – Excellent
Luna Pizzeria – Fair
Mazcalzone (Shepherd) – Satisfactory
North Italia – Good
Piola – Satisfactory
Pizaro’s (Memorial) – Good
Solario – Good
 
My old favorite Dolce Vita, which I had not eaten at in a while until the other evening, has been the best of the local versions so far.  It’s such a good place, with other enticing small plates and pastas plus a terrific, interesting wine list to complement their top-notch Italianate pizzas.  Solario has been the second best, and an improvement over their early days when I last visited.
 
Many more to go.  Please check back.

Here is Dolce Vita's version of the margherita:
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A lot of martinis at Café Annie; vermouth is another story

9/3/2016

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Sitting at the bar at Café Annie yesterday evening, it was hard not to notice the parade of hefty and attractive martinis being assembled and sent to guests around the restaurant.  That helped entice my friend to switch from wine – and ensure that his wife, not he, would have driving responsibility later.  When he was ordering, I asked our bartender what type of vermouth is typically used in their martinis.  He said none.
 
When you order a martini at Café Annie, you will get a glass of shaken gin (or vodka, if you must) featuring flickering slivers of ice garnished with olives, unless you have specific instructions.  Wanting the aid of vermouth, and spying a bottle of Dolin which I had been praising, my friend ordered a 3-to-1 martini, which he greatly enjoyed.  Surprisingly, it was the Dolin Blanc vermouth, which is sweeter than the standard dry vermouth, which I have at home.  Not traditional, but a sip made me think that the Blanc (or Bianco or white) vermouth can make for a tasty and even thirst-quenching martini, if used properly.
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Antone’s Import Co. is the Antone’s to visit

9/2/2016

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​There was news the other week that the once ubiquitous is Antone’s is expanding; Antone’s Famous Po’ Boys, which has a couple restaurants and po boy sandwiches residing wrapped in white paper in refrigerator cases in supermarkets across the area, will be opening other locations.  There is actually another Antone’s operation with two restaurants that also serves po boys in wrapped in white paper, and sports a similar logo, that is not expanding.  But, that one, Antone’s Import Co., is far more interesting and their similar signature po boys are far tastier.  Plus, there are nine appealing po boy combinations rather the four more basic, and somewhat bland ones at the other place.
 
Since its inception as a single grocery store on the edge of the Fourth Ward, Antone’s Import Co. was for many years, into the 1990s, the standard in Houston for cheap and tasty prepared sandwiches.  A family originally from the Levant bought the first Antone’s many years ago (now the site of The Pass & Provisions) and successfully expanded the concept into a good number of branches throughout the city before retrenching.  In the 1990s during the settlement of the estate of the founder’s widow, Antone’s became two separate companies, Antone’s Import Co. and Antone’s Po’Boys & Deli, now called Antone’s Famous Po’ Boys, the slicker and larger operation.  Though each chain has broadly similar menus, Antone’s Import Co. more closely the original concept of a food import company specializing in items from around the Mediterranean and a deli and is clearly the one to visit.
 
Usually enjoyably crusty unlike the smooth, malleable bread of the other concern, the bread at Antone’s Import Co. is much better of the two.  Bread is a rather significant part of a sandwich, after all.  These fresh buns are distinctively a tad dry and slightly crunchy, and help to distinguish these classic Houston sandwiches.  The crusty small loafs, which were similar among the local Lebanese-run po boy purveyors, might be a legacy of the French influence in Lebanon and Syria in the last century or so.  All come affixed with pickle slices, and many with Antone’s popular and unique Hot Chow Chow, a fairly spicy mixture of pickled cabbage, onions, sweet green peppers and paprika.  One providing a nice textural contrast and the other some pleasant piquancy.
 
The current po boys at Antone’s Import Co. are the Regular featuring slices of Italian cold cuts and provolone, the similar but more so, Super, Turkey, Smoked Turkey, Tuna, Roast Beef, Chicken Salad, Club, and the love-it-or-you-don’t Piggy, a salty concoction that might not be for the overly squeamish or health conscious.  These po boys are made in each of the two locations while the po boys at Antone’s Famous Po’ Boys will taste like what you will find at a supermarket – all of their po boys are made at a central commissary according to a cashier during a visit last week.  You can certainly tell.
 
Both operations also serve other sandwiches.  The Antone’s Import Co. does a creditable job with a Cuban sandwich, for example.  But, you might want to visit Antone’s Import Co. for a po boy.  At the other one, one of the other sandwiches will likely be the wiser choice.
 
Antone's Import Co.
3823 Bellaire (between Buffalo Speedway and Weslayan) 77025, (713) 218-8383
8057 Kirby (between OST and La Concha), 77054 (713) 667-3400
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    Mike Riccetti is a longtime Houston-based food writer and former editor for Zagat, and not incidentally the author of three editions of Houston Dining on the Cheap.

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