Pales, By Comparison
This season, men’s looks get breezy and laidback, with deconstructed designs and a palette of pale neutrals. It’s time to take it easy.
Feb. 16, 2017
THE STANDARD BEARER FOR LUXURY
We built The Village communities to exemplify sophisticated retirement living in Houston, surrounded by the heritage neighborhood of River Oaks, Tanglewood and Southampton. Each offers impeccable designer finishes and Aspenwood service detail with dining and resortstyle amenities making them premier locations for discerning Houstonians and their families. Impressive, spacious residential floor plans, generous natural light, and expansive terraces allow a new level of indoor-outdoor living. Beautiful spaces are designed for entertaining, fitness, and relaxation with a dedicated team to provide a secure lock and leave lifestyle for our members.
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
We feel that our locations are ideally positioned so that residents can take advantage of familiar retail and restaurants, healthcare providers, private clubs, cultural activities, places of worship and the many walking trails, parks and green spaces that make our city so vibrant. Footsteps from the newly renovated River Oaks Theatre, elevated dining at Autry Park and minutes from downtown and the Theatre District and the 160-acre Buffalo Bayou Park at The Village of River Oaks. Nestled in gracious, shaded tree-lined residential neighborhoods close to Uptown and Memorial Park and popular shopping and dining at The Village of Tanglewood. To sweeping views across the treetops towards Rice University to the Museum District and the Medical Center at The Village of Southampton.
WELLNESS & CARE
All of our communities provide access to outdoor activities and connectivity to the area. So vital for wellness. We also offer a wide variety of group exercise and fitness activities daily from Tai Chi, Aerobics and Water Aquatics. Activities are plentiful – and you can take in as many or few as you wish. Including speaker events, book club, card games, Mahjong and lively happy hours. The Village communities have partnered with a premier home health company to provide physical therapy, occupational therapy, and palliative care, onsite in the building. Members whether Independent Living, Assisted Living or Memory Care are welcome to use their services for as little or as much as they may require. The Village of River Oaks is also unique in providing Optimized Care, our focused, extra needs Assisted Living which enables our members to recover onsite or receive care that might otherwise require a hospital-like setting. Our Memory Care program, SOAR® by Aspenwood, was developed in consultation with industry experts and neuroscientists at Rice University to ensure our residents live purposefully while still retaining activities of comfort and stimulation in a safe and secure environment. The SOAR® program is offered at River Oaks and Southampton.
DINE IN OUR RESTAURANTS AND ENJOY CHEF-INSPIRED MEALS. FROM FRESH SALADS, FISH, PASTA, COMFORT FOOD TO SEASONAL SPECIALS AND HEALTHY OPTIONS – YOU WILL FIND AN ABUNDANCE OF CHOICES DAILY.
NATURAL GAS GENERATORS – Uninterrupted Power
A unique feature of The Village communities is our Enchanted Rock Natural Gas Generators that provide full, uninterrupted electrical service to the building during a power outage. All building electrical systems including lights, air conditioning, elevators, communications, and the kitchen are served by the generators.
THE VILLAGE LIFE
When you visit our communities, you will see first-hand what makes them so appealing. From locations that allow you to live in the most desirable neighborhoods in the area to services and well-planned social activities – there is much to contribute to your way of living.
Explore The Village of River Oaks here or call 713-952-7600.
THOUGH IT'S BEEN in Houston less than a decade, Sof Hospitality has made major inroads with foodies and critics alike. Its concepts include Doris Metropolitan, Hamsa and Badolina Bakery, all of which deliver the rich flavors of Israeli cuisine in complex, photogenic and delicious dishes. Its newest, Októ, opened earlier this year, one of several energetic restaurants to bow in the Montrose Collective, just in time for the holidays.
With moody environs, a DJ-spun soundtrack and an olive-oil martini that will keep you at the sceney bar for a while, Októ skews more Mediterranean rather than Israeli. The name means “eight” in Greek, a nod not only to the culture and cuisine of the new restaurant, but also its address: 888 Westheimer. The flavors show up in mouthwatering shareables like octopus skewers, and squid-ink linguine with crab and a buttery sambal sauce. And if you’ve eaten at any Sof concept, you know the bread service is not to be skipped. (Two words: pistachio butter.)
Elsewhere in Montrose Collective, similarly nightlife-savvy Mi Luna — which was a staple in Rice Village for decades — has been resurrected by its original owners. Fan-favorites like paella, empanadas and Gambas al Ajillo (lemon-garlic shrimp with peppers) remain; chef-kissed newcomers include whole roasted branzino, and Rabo de Toro a la Sevillana, which is braised oxtail with chickpeas. Expect flamenco performances on Friday and Saturday nights, and a sultry acoustic-guitar-accompanied brunch on Saturday and Sunday from 10am-3pm, too.
And here’s another holiday tip: Italian-style steakhouse Marmo, one of Montrose Collective’s original restaurants, has a fun happy hour every day except Saturday from 3-6pm. Think glasses of wine and bubbly for $6 a pop, a $9 charcuterie board, and deals on an impressive spread of savory bites — meatballs with whipped ricotta; little bowls of veal bolognese. Lingering in the bar-slash-lounge area for nightly live music is recommended.
In fact, a progressive evening of tapas-style treats and live performances throughout Montrose Collective sounds like a festive (and delicious!) way to celebrate the season.
Okto G&T (photo by Becca Wright)
Octopus at Okto (photo by Becca Wright)
Happy hour at Marmo
THE ARTIST WHO ushered in the expressionist movement in the early 20th century was not, in fact, Picasso or Matisse. It was Paul Gauguin, whose career spanned the decades just preceding the turn of the century. The French painter is the subject of the Museum of Fine Arts’ latest exhibit, Gauguin in the World, which was organized by Henri Loyrette (formerly of the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris). The show, just one of the museum’s diverse winter season shows, debuted in Australia in June and will be on display through Feb. 16, 2025, at the MFAH, the only U.S. venue for the survey.
Gauguin famously — and somewhat controversially, as he’s often accused of cultural appropriation — enjoyed the latter part of his life in Tahiti, where he deemed himself free from European and Western influences and norms. The art created there is among his most iconic, “returning to the questions that haunted him as an artist — the challenges that he set himself and solved in his quest for his own identity,” says Loyrette.
The MFAH’s winter season also includes 150 Years of Design, a joint project with the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). The organizations’ collaboration is the only one of its kind in the country; they’ve curated hundreds of architect-designed objects made beginning in 1880 — furniture, metalwork, ceramics, glass, lighting and industrial design. It runs through next summer.
Living with the Gods: Art, Beliefs, and Peoples, on view until Jan. 20, 2025, is another expansive exhibit, this one featuring ancient and contemporary works depicting humanity’s relationship with spirituality over the course of 4,000 years. Objects are displayed across 11 different galleries, transversing themes of the cosmos, light, water and fire; the mysteries of life and death; the divine word; and pilgrimage. Meanwhile, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery explores a specific medium as a vessel, both literally and figuratively, for indigenous narratives.
Finally, a collection of contemporary images depicts the role of photography in social and political movements in Cuba from the 1960s to the 2010s. Navigating the Waves: Contemporary Cuban Photography, on view through Aug. 3, 2025, explores “individual identity, the body and spirit, Afro-Cuban heritage, and the margins of society, all while navigating the changing prescriptions and proscriptions of official cultural policy,” says the museum.
Meanwhile, at the museum’s Glassell School of Art, Dec. 6-8, visitors can shop artworks — jewelry, prints, ceramics, paintings and more — by talented students.
‘The Offering of a Sentient Cry,’ by Tuan Andrew Nguyen, from ‘Living with the Gods’
Adjustable table lamp c. 1951, part of ‘150 Years of Design’
Alberto Korda’s ‘Guerillero Heroico,’ from ‘Navigating the Waves'