Texas – Page 8 – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Food October 2, 2013

Houston Food + Drink Awards

Alison Cook just published her Top 100 Restaurants of 2013, and I was inspired to post my own “awards” of such. I came up with my own categories and picked winners (listed below). I’ve still got a few places that I’m dying to go to in the city, but these are my favorites to date. We are so blessed in this amazing foodie city (speaking of, read this article).

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Best Happy Hour: Anvil

Best Mimosas: Backstreet Cafe

Best Ladies-Who-Lunch: Tiny Boxwood

Best Girls Night: Canopy

Best Guys Night: Beavers

Best Lunch-to-Go: Relish (salad pictured above) and Zoe’s Kitchen

Best Dinner Atmosphere: Sparrow and Underbelly

Best Intimate (and Hipster) Vibe: Roost

Best Healthy Options: Harvest Grille

Best “Skinny” Cocktails: Cyclone Anaya’s

Best Sunday Brunch: Buffalo Grille and Rainbow Lodge

Best Farm-to-Market: Haven

Best Views: The Grove Rooftop and Brenner’s on the Bayou

Best Porch Area: Cedar Creek

Best BYOB: Jonathan’s The Rub and La Vista

Best Romantic Date Night: Mockingbird Bistro or Glass Wall

Best Asian: Uchi

Best Indian: Indika and Pondicheri

Best Italian: Coppa, Dolce Vita, and Giacomo’s

Best American: Benjy’s

Best Mexican: El Tiempo

Best Mediterranean: Island Grill

Best Middle Eastern: Maryz

Best French: Phillipe

Best Southern Cooking: Lucille’s

Best Bar Food: The Tasting Room

Best Bar(s): Anvil, Bar Boheme and Mongoose vs. Cobra

Best Coffee: Antidote and Catalina

Best Frozen Yogurt: Pinkberry

Best Vegetarian Options: Baba Yega and Field of Greens

Best Tofu Dish: Ruggles Green

Best Quinoa Dish: Latin Bites and Relish

Best Falafel: Brasil and Barnabys

Best Veggie Burger: Adair Kitchen

Best Brussels Sprouts: Benjy’s and Uchi

Notable missing from the list (and high on my list of places to go): Oxheart, Triniti, Revival Market, Radical Eats, RDG, Ouisie’s Table, Da Marco, Hugo’s, and Irma’s. Anyone up for dinner?

Bon appetit!

Food September 23, 2013

Weekend Food Adventures

I love trying new restaurants. I got to knock out three that I’ve been dying to try for ages this weekend – Mockingbird Bistro, Underbelly, and Latin Bites. My thoughts on each place are below!

I met two of my good friends, Paola and Guillermo, at Mockingbird Bistro on Thursday to celebrate their recent engagement. I ordered the Organic Beet Salad, which was great. As a beet lover, I will always order a beet dish if it’s on a menu. This one definitely did not fail to deliver. The spicy walnuts were the perfect touch to the dish. The service was amazing – our waiter brought a Congratulations dessert plate without any of us even mentioning the occasion! He must have been very attentive!

I’ve been to Underbelly for drinks before, but not for a meal. The menu is not super conducive to vegetarians, but the atmosphere makes up for the slim pickings. We ordered the eggplant appetizer (amazing), and then I got the Crispy Market Vegetables, which was a bowl of green beans (slightly strange, although they tasted great). The best parts about the evening were meeting Chris Shepherd (Executive Chef) and bragging on one of my good friends, Bryan, who did some of the art work on the wine menu (illustration and Bryan’s bio on page 10 here).

At Latin Bites on Saturday, I ordered the Quinoa Salad. It was heaven on earth. The ingredients include crispy quinoa, poached quinoa, carmelized cashews, mint, mozzarella, choclo, fava beans, avocados, tomatoes confit and passion fruit dressing. It came with baby iceberg lettuce wraps – one of my favorite dishes in Houston. See their dinner menu here. My only complaint about this amazing Memorial gem is the logo. As a typography nerd, it kills me.

Houston September 19, 2013

The Book of Mormon

This past Saturday, Sasha and I headed to The Book of Mormon at the Hobby Center in Houston, and it was a million times better than I even anticipated (and my expectations were high).

To start, the cast could not possibly have been more character appropriate. You believed that Elder Price really is predestined to be the best Mormon missionary ever, and that Elder Cunningham really is just a Star Wars loving slob. The singing and dancing was spot-on, with catchy tunes like Hello! and Hasa Diga Ebowai (disagree with the translation!!!). The plot was slightly predictable, but I’m willing to bet people go to The Book of Mormon for the laughs vs. plot twists. It is honestly hilarious. Sasha and I were in hysterics at some points, and had our jaws wide open at others (definitely not appropriate for young children).

While it is certainly not intended for Mormon audiences, it was very informative about the religion. I learned a ton of history during the play, and while a conversion is 100% not in my future, it is helping to educate people about the Mormon beliefs.

While on the topic of plays, I’m going to see Kinky Boots while in NYC in a month and a half. I’m so excited.

This nine-time Tony winner is currently touring the US – see the schedule here. It is most definitely worth it to buy a ticket!

Image via

ASP Wedding September 16, 2013

Our Wedding Stationery: Papellerie

As I’ve mentioned many times before, we worked with Papellerie on our entire stationery suite (save the dates, invitations, programs, custom napkins, etc.). I loved working with Riley and Amy so much – they were incredibly good at understanding exactly what we (probably more I) wanted. Every single piece of our stationery was better than I could have ever imagined. The only missing photos were all of the goodies they made for our guest boxes! I’m upset that I didn’t think to have Ryan to take any pictures of the final product (my very unprofessional iPhone pictures below). The only faux-pas we had was that our seating assignment board – a corkboard with pins and personalized wine tags for guest’s glass with their name and table number – was setup vertically instead of horizontally (as planned), which made the tags fall kind of… off? You’ll see below. It’s definitely not a big deal though. As an FYI, the calligrapher that Papellerie uses is Meant To Be Calligraphy and the map artist was Katie Gastley. Everyone was amazing.

Our Save-the-Dates

Our Invitation Set

Our Programs

Our Placemats and Menus

Our Table Numbers

Our Reserved Signs

Our Table Assignments – a slight deviation from plan, as it was set up vertically instead of horizontally so the personalized wine tags don’t hang quite right! You win some, you lose some!

Our Custom Drink Bar Sign

Our Cupcake Flavor Labels

Our “Write your favorite memory” Postcards (A + S were gifted by my sweet little cousin!)

#ASPWedding Instagram Sign and Taxi Vouchers

Grand Exit Sign (Noisemakers here)

My iPhone Pictures of Guest Box Assembly + Seating Assignments

Houston September 10, 2013

I Love Roost

This beautiful, bright wall welcomes you to the intimate Montrose restaurant, Roost. I went two weeks ago to meet one of my good friends, Joy, after having it high on my places to eat forever, and I was not disappointed at all (in fact, we headed back on Saturday for Bryan’s birthday meal!). Joy and I arrived in time for Happy Hour drinks, so got some champagne for an incredible price. I ordered the Brussels Sprout dish (of course), and Joy got the crab cakes. When we went this weekend, everyone raved about how good these two dishes were. While dining with Joy, the Executive Chef, Kevin Naderi, came over to say hello – I hadn’t realized that him and Joy knew each other before, but he was so friendly. The food was seriously phenomenal – I never wanted my dish to end. The place was very crowded when we left around 8:30, and I cannot wait to head back. Roost definitely earned a spot on my Best of Houston list.

Featured image and Kevin Naderi photo via Houston Chronicle // Roost pictures via website