food

Just in Time for Spring, North Italia Expands to CityCentre with Pizza, Pasta and Perfect Patios

Just in Time for Spring, North Italia Expands to CityCentre with Pizza, Pasta and Perfect Patios

IT SEEMS THE groundhog was right, and spring has come early to Houston! Perfect timing for a prime patio spot to arrive in CityCentre: North Italia, the casual hotspot for pizza and wine on Post Oak, just bowed in the former Tasting Room location, boasting two outdoor spaces, complete with greenery and fireplaces.

The laidback but cool environs — think artful graffiti, and bold red accents throughout — are home to North Italia’s modern twists on Italian staples. The chef’s board offers three types of cheese, house pickled veggies, olives, a fig spread and grilled bread. (The grilled bread makes another appearance, alongside garlic-and-truffle-infused ricotta… Yes, please.) It all pairs perfectly with one of the fun Italian-inspired cocktails, like the Julietta with ginger and vanilla vodka, elderflower and prosecco.

For the mains, there’s a handful of pizzas like the wildcard Chef’s Daily Choice, The Pig (with every type of pepperoni, sausage and salami imaginable), or the veggie-friendly Funghi pizza with mushrooms and onions. The pasta is made in house — it’s delicious, but substitute for vegetable noodles and save around 400 calories — and paired with traditional toppings like meatballs or the more adventurous jumbo lump crab, tiger shrimp and pepperoncino.

It's bound to be a new Sunday Funday destination for westsiders, with decadent menu items Banana Coffee Cake with dark-rum butterscotch and caramelized banana, or the Breakfast Carbonara Pasta with poached egg and crispy pancetta.


The patio at North Italia

Breakfast Carbonara

Brunch Cocktails

Inside North Italia

Pollo Frito

A mural on the patio at North Italis

From Your Site Articles
Food
art

Reflecting on Losses from the Winter Street Studios Fire, Erika Alonso Pops Up with New Paintings

Alonso, inset, and her acrylic-on-canvas painting 'Birds'

BASED IN HOUSTON, Cuban-American painter Erika Alonso is a self-taught, self-described “painterly painter,” with a playful and very idiosyncratic take on abstract expressionism, mark making, and automatism, where the artist works quickly and intuitively, relying upon the subconscious to guide the artistic process. Her work can be found in numerous private collections across the United States and Europe, including that of beloved Houston collector and art fanatic Lester Marks. On Friday, Sept 8., from 7-9pm at Lanecia Rouse Tinsley Gallery, Alise Art Group's Art House presents Alonso’s solo exhibition Birds Are People Too (And Other Thoughts . . . ).

Keep Reading Show less
music

This Weekend: Bayou City Funk and Popular Austin Group Join Forces for Spirited Show at Heights Theater

Nik Parr and The Selfless Lovers

THE WORD “FUNK” has been around a long, long time. In the mid-1950s, New Orleans drummer Earl Palmer popularized the word as a musical term when he instructed musicians on recording dates to “play a little funkier.” In his book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy, historian Robert Farris Thompson goes back even further, and traces the origin of the word “funky” to the Ki-Kongo word lu-fuki, meaning “positive sweat,” an olfactory term used to praise an individual for the integrity of their art.

Keep Reading Show less