Hear the Roar! Tiger Ball Brings in $1.3 Mil

Lynn Wyatt and Richard Flowers
Lynn Wyatt and Richard Flowers

The gorgeous springtime weather that Houston experienced this weekend was more than welcome at the Asia Society Texas Center’s annual Tiger Ball, where a pretty pink carpet and a literal truckload of Japanese cherry blossom trees and branches greeted more than 700 guests on Saturday.


Ten-thousand other blooms imported from Thailand, Holland and Oregon and artfully arranged by Richard Flowers of The Events Company set the scene for a gala celebrating the springtime beauty of Japan, all executed by chairs Kathy and Marty Goossen and Akemi and Yasuhiko Saitoh.

A cocktail hour and silent auction — a curator-led museum tour in London, anyone? — kicked off the evening, which honored none other than Lynn Wyatt. Guests, dressed in a colorful combination of black-tie and traditional Asian attire, also perused the new exhibit of ancient Chinese bronze statues and enjoyed the sounds of Japanese taiko drummers before heading into a stunning pavilion erected in the Asia Society’s parking lot. Once again, galagoers were greeted by towering cherry blossoms and origami-inspired cranes and lanterns.

Dinner was, unsurprisingly, inventive and delicious. Anokonomiyaki pancake was served with smoked duck, and the dessert spread included matcha panna cotta, and flambeed-cherry-topped ginger ice cream. After the meal concluded, the dance floor filled up and partygoers — Lynn included! — got their groove on. The evening’s total til topped $1.3 million.

Dispatches

An aerial shot of River Oaks District (photo by Shannon O'Hara)

ACROSS 610 FROM his Post Oak Hotel at Uptown, Tilman Fertitta has just purchased the 14-acre mixed-use River Oaks District development. The acquisition is his second luxury-property purchase in recent months; the Rockets owner bought the Montage Laguna Beach for $650 million in November 2022.

Keep Reading Show less
Style

WHEN HURRICANE HARVEY unleashed its wrath, Mumbai-born author Nishita Parekh and a few family members, some of whom had homes in evacuation zones, holed up in her second-story apartment, safe from the flooding — but trapped. “Five adults and two kids, crammed into this one-bedroom space,” recalls Parekh. “We ended up having a good time. But that experience planted a seed in my mind that this would make a good premise for a mystery."

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment