Houston, October 28-November 1
Beers 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺
Cocktails 🍸🍸
Meats 🐄🐖🐓🦆
Seafood 🦞🦀
Breweries 🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Flights ✈️✈️
#AstroworldButNot
I made a visit to Houston late last month to visit my brother and his family; more importantly, I got to see my nephew for the first time in nearly two years! What a difference from the last time I saw him in 2019 - where he was quiet and reluctant to play with his Uncle Gary, this time around there were no issues getting him to do stuff with me. In all honesty, the kid absolutely wrecked me (but in the best way possible), wanting to play with his toys all the time. When my original flight home on Sunday was cancelled and I was rebooked for Monday, I’m sure the kid just thought that he’d get one more day to destroy me… which he did, but in the best way possible! Love the kid.
Thankfully, there were a bunch of breweries for me to find some quiet solitude when I needed a break. If I had to pick a favorite among the six I visited, I’d go with Urban South - HTX. They had an absurd number of beers available to pour and it wasn’t all IPAs either as they had a variety of sours to choose from. I’ll also give Brash Brewing a shout as they had decent beers on tap but probably the best physical space, indoors and outdoors, of the breweries I visited this time. I mean, how often do you get to have a beer with a skeleton as your drinking buddy?
No trip to Texas would be complete without barbecue and with Truth BBQ, I had some damned good barbecue. As I did in Dallas, I made sure to try the turkey if it was on the menu, reasoning if you’re gonna make turkey at a barbecue joint, it’s gotta be good - and it was! Another standout meal was at Rosie Cannonball - great food, stellar cocktails, and excellent service.
I’d really gotten into Japanese Breakfast (Michelle Zauner) after she’d released her memoir, Crying in H Mart, earlier in the year. Then they released their next album, Jubilee, and I really got into them - one of my favorite albums of the year. When I saw that they’d be in Houston when I was, I made sure to block out Saturday night so I could see them at White Oak Music Hall.
And what a show it was. Zauner’s voice was ethereal, light, and airy, yet still strongly soaring above a phalanx of instrumentation. Zauner also has a command of the stage and, consequently, the audience as she energetically bounded about throughout their performance. This was my first show in a GA pit since the pandemic and it felt cathartic to just be on the floor of a medium-sized venue, just soaking it all in.
Japanese Breakfast at White Oak Music Hall
The List
Restaurants
Southern Yankee Crafthouse
Truth BBQ
Hai Cang Harbor
Pho Ben
Rosie Cannonball
Golden Dim Sum
Breweries
Southern Yankee Crafthouse
Urban South - HTX
Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co
Eureka Heights Brew Co
New Magnolia Brewing Co
Brash Brewing
Coffee
Agnes
Bars
The Raven Tower
Concert Venues
White Oak Music Hall