This Week's Food News: Burgers, Bourbon and End-of-Summer Specials

This Week's Food News: Burgers, Bourbon and End-of-Summer Specials

The 'Daiquirí Clásico,' available one night only at Julep

SCHOOL MAY BE in session — but summer ain't over for these Houston restaurants. They're still celebrating the season with frozen cocktails, live music and tons of bourbon. (But Hopdoddy's Back to School Burger does look quite tasty, too.) Read on ... and bring your appetite!


Hopdoddy Takes Over Grub Burger in The Woodlands

The Back to School Burger

Hopdoddy Burger Bar took over another Grub Burger location earlier this month, this time in The Woodlands. The Austin-based chain, which for years boasted lines wrapping around its buildings hours before opening, is also shilling a Back to School burger, topped with fried bologna, muenster cheese and a fried egg. Yum!

Cool Off with a Frozen Watermelon-Mint Cocktail at Brennan’s

Watermelon Mint Freeze

Forego the frozé and instead opt for the new Watermelon Mint Freeze at Brennan's, available through the end of the month. It's $12, and makes the restaurant's charming courtyard bearable in August. Worth it!

Feges BBQ Hosts Bourbon-Splashed Pop-Up

Feges BBQ is partnering with Treaty Oak Distilling to host a five-course dinner with cocktail pairings at the end of the month. It will be served family-style — think peach-and-feta panzanella, and smoked beef shank with cast-iron grits and Korean-braised greens — and in addition to cocktails, there will be a whiskey tasting and a party favor of Ghost Hill Texas Bourbon. Tickets are $130 per person.

Paccha Nikkei Now Open on Westheimer

Pacha Nikkei dining room (photo by Marco Torres)

Located in West Houston near the Beltway, Pacha Nikkei is a first-of-its-kind concept, melding the flavors of Peru and Japan in sharable small plates and craft cocktails boasting sake and pisco alike. Helmed by chef Masaru Fukuda and operator Sebastien Laval (an alumnus of La Table, Le Colonial and Musaafer), it opened last week, promising heaping helpings of seafood-heavy dishes like pulpo a la parrilla and Peruvian-spiced-infused sushi rolls. For more, click here.

‘World’s Best Bar’ Takes Over Julep

Julio Cabrera

On the heels of her James Beard Award win, Alba Huerta is inviting some of the best bartenders in the world to shake things up at Julep. Julio Cabrera of Miami's Cafe La Trova will be pouring some Cuban-inspired cocktails on Monday, Aug. 29, from 7-10pm. His bar came in at No. 28 on the list of the World's Best Bars in 2021, and No. 6 on the list of Best Bars in North America this year (Julep was No. 46). Expect five signature cocktails from Cabrera, who'll also have Julep's kitchen whip up some of Cafe La Trova's bar bites. Outside, find a cigar bar and live Cuban-jazz music!

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What year was your organization launched? Founded in Houston in 1947, as the Cerebral Palsy Treatment Center, the organization provided services to individuals with disabilities living in Houston and Harris County. In 1989, the organization changed its name and greatly expanded its services to meet the needs of its clientele. Today as Easter Seals Greater Houston, the organization provides multiple outstanding service programs to children, adults, veterans, and service members with all types of disabilities and their families in Harris and sixteen surrounding counties.

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John Kuykendall, Showroom Manager, Sub-Zero, Wolf and Cove

How did you get to where you are today? Growing up I had envisioned myself as a news anchor, living in NY and enthusiastically saying into the camera “Good Morning America!”. To this day, I am still a news/political junkie. My mother owned fur salons so specialty retail, luxury retail was in my blood through the family business. Eventually, mom shuttered the stores and I was recruited to a large specialty retailer. Over the next 30 years, I was in commissioned sales on the sales floor, became a department manager, worked my way up to buyer and store manager. Although I never became a newscaster, I did live in NYC for a few years. But Texas is home and with aging grandparents, I felt the pull to come back to my roots. A headhunter approached me. I never envisioned myself in the high-end appliance market, but there are so many similarities. Clients want a memorable experience; whether shopping for diamonds and fur or remodeling their kitchen.

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