Super Bowl Blast!
Want to party with Michael Phelps, James Brolin and Common? Here’s your VIP ticket inside one of Super Bowl 51’s best bashes, the CityBook-sponsored Big Game Big Give blowout!
Feb. 6, 2017
GET YOUR SUMMER fix of family fun, Japanese delicacies, Houston hot sauce and local produce at these eclectic pop-ups!
Summer Jam event
Break away to Summer Jam July 20, from 12-5pm at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. This family-friendly event offers an indoor farmers market, art activities, games, music from DJ Perez and complimentary drinks from Saint Arnold Brewery. The Moody has activated both floors of the cool building and the theater, in addition to the gallery spaces, allowing guests to see the current exhibition Resonant Earth. Stay the whole day for an interactive planetarium, local food vendors, face-painting, and a scavenger hunt. The event is free and $6 parking will be available in West Lot 4. A schedule of events can be found here.
Oheya by Uchi
Back by popular demand, Uchiba, Uchi’s dynamic izakaya- inspired cocktail bar and restaurant, will pop-up at omakase spot Oheya, July 22-23. Indulge in nine courses of top tastings, exclusive cocktails and local beers. A peek of the menu reveals shrimp katsu skewer, pho wagyu dumpling and “watermelon perfect pair” with goat cheese and fig chutney.
Hope Farms entrance
Who makes the best hot sauce in Houston? Get ready for some fiery competition Aug. 3 as Recipe for Success presents its inaugural “Comin’ In Hot” Pro-Am Hot Sauce Competition.
The event takes place at Hope Farms from 11am-1pm. Five Houston chefs will battle it out along with daring Houstonians who can enter the competition via registration (amateur spots are limited to 10). A $5 donation, which you can make online, will give you a taste of all the entries and chance to judge the best hot sauces from among all the contestants. Sip free beer from Saint Arnold Brewing, savor Hope Farms botanical beverages, groove to the music, and play yard games. Don’t miss out on this spicy showdown – click here to get your tickets!
Chef Tristen Epps
Chef Tristen Epps, a 2024 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef South, has moved back to Houston ten years after leaving his post as sous chef of the Four Seasons Houston for jobs in NYC, Denver and Miami. He intends to make his mark on the Houston culinary scene with Buboy, an Afro-Caribbean tasting menu concept slated for a 2025 debut. Epps is kicking things off with a pop-up dinner series taking over the private dining space at Guard & Grace Friday and Saturday nights between July 19 and August 3. Each night, he’ll present an intimate seven-course dinner highlighting Afro-Caribbean foodways explored through the lens of modern cuisine and Houston’s global influences.
It’s official: the Michelin Guide, the authority on fine dining, is coming to Texas! Inspectors have already started scouring Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth, but plan to zoom in on San Antonio for its first edition, according to a press release. In partnership with Travel Texas, San Antonio has been touted as the Culinary Capital of Texas and one of two U.S. cities named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. The inaugural edition of The Michelin Guide Texas will be announced later this year.
THE REOPENING OF the storied River Oaks Theatre, which first began showing movies in Houston in 1939, is getting closer to reality after a long restoration process — and now an artistic director has been named.
Robert Saucedo will take the post. Saucedo is a veteran of the film programming game, having spent the last 13 years working in the field regionally. He was the programming director for Triple Tap Ventures’ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and later became senior film buyer for the company’s national team.
“As artistic director, Saucedo will oversee the daily film and programming schedule for the soon-to-be- reopened River Oaks Theatre,” said a rep for Culinary Khancepts, which acquire the historic theater two years ago. “He will ensure Houston’s historic arthouse theater will feature programming 365 days a year, including upscale arthouse films and independent cinema from around the world, repertory screenings of classic and cult favorite movies, live events and filmmaker appearances.”
The rep added some special notes about Saucedo’s innovative curatorial style: “A few career highlights include a Q&A screening of Rushmore with Jason Schwarzman in conjunction with the Houston Film Commission, hosting a weekly independent and foreign cinema series in Katy for the last nine years, and arranging live alligators to be at a screening of the 1980 cult favorite Alligator. In 2019, Saucedo launched the horror film festival, Graveyard Fest.”
The iconic theater, which at times in recent years seemed destined for permanent closure, will reopen in early fall as a luxurious, three-auditorium movie-watching space. There will be all-new projection and sound systems, posh seating and a private screening room.
“Guests will enjoy an enhanced cinema experience focusing on unmatched hospitality, high-quality food and beverage service, flawless presentation, and other innovative theater amenities,” Culinary Khancepts pledges. The firm knows its way around great dining and moviegoing; it also owns and operates State Fare Kitchen & Bar, Liberty Kitchen, Star Cinema Grill, Hollywood Palms Cinema, Reel Luxury Cinemas, Audrey Restaurant & Bar and Leo’s River Oaks.