Milk Mustache's six-ounce cookies can be shipped nationwide.
Madame Zéro Champagne
Houstonian Matthew Massey’s Madame Zéro Champagne, known for its low sugar content and transparent nutrition information, has launched its first rosé Champagne and gift sets. The single set comes embossed in a black lacquered gift box holding premier cru blanc de blancs or rosé encased in velvet, along with a Modern Madame Champagne stopper — an essential tool for Champagne lovers (starting at $100). The luxury trio gift includes bottles of your choosing (starting at $250). Peruse the Champagne gift options and consider yourself prepared for New Year’s Eve!
Hope Farms & Recipe for Success
Recipe for Success Foundation offers natural bath products and food-inspired gifts for everyone, whether it be fresh vegetables and herbs to cook with, or beautiful flowers. “Let’s Cook!” includes Hope Farms’ signature chambray blue apron and Cook the Harvest gift certificate for one cooking class ($109.00 + delivery). Hope Farms’ “Culinary Adventure” includes a Taste of Hope Farms produce presentation, Cook the Harvest Class, and signature apron ($149.00 + delivery). And the “Pickled Produce” package sports one jar each of pickled okra and pickled peppers ($29.00 + delivery). Check out options and purchase here.
Feges BBQ
From sauces to rubs and fresh smoked meats, this new-generation family-run barbecue joint has gifts galore for the pit master or wannabe. Consider the Texas Trinity: a whole rack of glistening pork ribs, two pounds of sliced brisket, and one link of juicy German style sausage ($100). Order here.
Montrose Cheese & Wine
Photo by Julie Soefer
Peruse the food and wine gifts online, or stop by the adorable shop to place an order. A few good ideas for any foodie: Small cheese and charcuterie box (feeds 4-8, $85) with three cheeses, a quarter pound each of prosciutto di Parma and schiacciata picante, house lemon almond-hazelnut mix, cornichons, grapes, and Bee2bee local honey (must be ordered 24 hours in advance). Also available are large cheese-and-charcuterie and other combo boxes, select wines, and custom gift packs.
Goode Company Restaurants
Don’t forget about our local fave for pies, smoked meats, barbeque and gift sets! Its Hall of Flame online store is ready to ship Goode’s Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie, packed and shipped in custom keepsake wooden boxes fire-branded with “MADE IN TEXAS” and the Goode Co. motto, “You might give some serious thought to thanking your lucky stars you’re in Texas.” Price is $54 per pie, which can be shipped nationwide for $5; optionally, purchase in a sturdy cardboard box (+$45, free shipping).
Xochi
Gift a box of unique Xocolatl Oaxacan-inspired chocolates — eight handmade delicacies that start with cacao beans roasted in-house, and blended with sugar and cinnamon to make a truly great chocolate. Flavors of the individual artisan chocolates are Rompope, Café de Olla, Peppermint-Oreo, Cranberry-Orange ($24 plus shipping).
Brennan's of Houston
That wonderful praline that you receive gratis after your meal at Brennan’s of Houston can be ordered online and shipped nationwide. These world-class pralines come in a decorative box that will be great for any sweet tooth. Gift boxes are carefully packed with 12 handmade pralines ($25 plus shipping).
Houston Dairymaids
Hop online and order the Holiday Cheese Bag ($60). The five incredible cheese selections from Texas, California and beyond will impress even the pickiest fromage connoisseur. Hoja Santa, creamy fresh goat cheese wrapped Hoja Santa leaves; Trillium, award-winning triple cream brie from Tulip Tree Dairy, Ind.; and Original Blue flagship blue from Pt. Reyes Farmstead, Calif., are a few of the gems.
Messina Hof
Searching for a last-minute gift or New Year’s inspiration? Consider Messina Hof’s wine bundles. Order online or stop by the new Richmond winery tasting room and café on Harvest Green, just 45 minutes from Houston. Options include the Sparkling Wine Trio ($85) with brut, rosé and almond Texas bubbles, or the Red & White Wine Duo ($40) featuring private reserve tempranillo and viognier, perfect for family dinners and celebrations. For the Aggie fan, its Aggie Network Gift Set ($85) is a no-brainer. The Association of Former Students has partnered with Messina Hof to select a limited offering of great Texas wines. The set includes Midnight Yell chardonnay and Gig 'Em Red.
Milk Mustache
We couldn’t leave without something sweet. This cute new cookie shop from Mom-turned-baker-entrepreneur Tracy Jones touts giant, soft, gooey goodness right on time for the indulgent season. You can’t miss with dreamy cookie flavors like Campfire Bliss with a melted-marshmallow center, Nutella Dream, sea-salt-caramel-pecan, and red velvet filled with cream cheese. Pick up a box or ship nationwide. Details here.
Kingsley Kofi Deffor's 'Pretty Lady' and 'Go and Ask the Boss' (photos by Chris Becker)
Inside the cozy vibe of Janice Bond’s ground-level, sunlit gallery space, Deffor’s portraits of Ghanaian street life reveal layers of detail and range of emotional content, though the overall mood is one of pride and positivity. More than a few of his subjects are smiling or laughing.
Born in 1985 in Accra, Ghana, Deffor endured a tough childhood. His commitment to and passion for making art was more often than not met with derision, and even physical violence. A child of hip-hop music, fashion, and culture, including graffiti, which all found its way to Ghana in the mid-1990s, Deffor went on to formally study visual arts and design, and now manages a career as both a painter and street muralist. He’s created art for companies and institutions, including Adidas Ghana, Harley Davidson Accra, and the Embassy of Mexico, and participated as a graffiti artist in street festivals across Accra.
Heard and Seen showcases Deffor’s most recent figurative work, with Harlem Renaissance master Herbert Gentry and Jean-Michel Basquiat namechecked in the press release as influences. But whereas Basquiat’s depictions of the human form are often frightening, with veins, inner organs, and skeletons exposed, and his mostly male subjects looking as if they were in the process of being X-rayed, electrocuted, or vaporized, the individuals in Deffor’s portraits are translucent, but never appear to be in distress or discombobulated. These are rugged, dignified people, each painted on a canvas layered with multilingual newspaper copy, cartoons, and advertisements, a collaging technique used in surrealism and cubism and to paper the walls of Afro American and White Appalachian cabins throughout the slave- and Depression-era deep south. In his research into West African art and spirituality in the Americas, Robert Farris Thompson identifies this “interrupted patterning” as a very old method for disorienting and warding off evil spirits. Interestingly, in a recent live-streamed conversation with Bond, Deffor described a strange dream he had in which an unidentified adversary sternly told him to put down the newspaper he was attempting to read and get back to painting.
Sprits and artspeak aside, Deffor’s portraits are engaging, sometimes mysterious, but always firmly grounded in the street. Heard and Seen is a welcome opportunity for Houstonians of all ethnicities and skin tones to experience just a bit of what is emerging artistically and culturally out of Accra, and revel in Deffor’s genuine enthusiasm and love for the everyday people of his hometown.
Detail of 'Go and Ask the Boss' (photo by Chris Becker)
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