Meredith Hedemann and Travis Blaffer Johnson at Blaffer
Chef-owner Austin Waiter of The Marigold Club, now serving fried chicken and Champagne on Sunday nights.
And the drinks? They’re going big. Champagne bottles are half-off, and if you’ve ever dreamed of sipping Krug by the glass with your fried chicken, this is your moment. Feeling fancy? Add caviar service and settle in for the kind of Sunday that’s anything but sleepy.
Set inside The Marigold Club’s moody, glam dining room — think velvet, Murano chandeliers, and hand-painted murals — this new weekly tradition is giving end-of-weekend blues a very bubbly makeover.
Reservations are highly recommended. Southern comfort never looked (or tasted) so good.
Fried chicken for two, buttery mashed potatoes and half-priced Champagne are on the new Sunday menu at The Marigold Club.
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Heather Almond and Zinat Ahmed
The real star of the evening? 6,500 pounds of crawfish, served up with all the fixings — plus Gulf Coast favorites like lobster fritters, seafood fondue, boudin balls and bread pudding with a boozy twist.
Guests got competitive during the live auction, which featured everything from Caribbean escapes to helicopter hog hunts. A chocolate lab puppy named Blue Bell stole the show — and a new home — with Cotton EVP Zinat Ahmed. He’ll be trained as an emotional support pup for visitors to Taylor’s Place, a retreat for families facing terminal illness that’s set to open this fall.
Closing out the night? A crowd-pleasing performance by country star Mark Chesnutt, who brought the house (or barn) down.
In the crowd was Pete Bell, Fady Armanious, Ellie Francisco, Whitney Kuhn Lawson, Kristen Cannon and Heather Almond.
Bailey Bell Layne and Pete Bell
Opening Performance by Bayou Roux
Houstonians traveled to CrawFest at the Cotton Ranch in Katy
Stacey Lindseth, Fady Armanious, Ally Ehrman
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Crawfish
Late photographer Jhane Hoang (center) and some of her subjects, including fashion models and musicians
Jhane, who was just 50 years old, was a Vietnamese American who, as I understood it, pumped the brakes on her career as a rising star in New York’s edgy, high-end creative set, to return home to Houston in recent years to be closer to ailing family members. This must’ve been a nod to the traditions and requirements of her culture, which was a poignant counterpoint to her progressive energy. She was a daring artist, and a cherished member of the city’s LGBTQ+ community.
When another friend and sometime collaborator, Rene Garza, suggested we throw in with Jhane and assign her some photos, we took the step cautiously; it’s kind of rare that such friend-of-a-friend referrals work out. But we were immediately taken with her skills and commitment to her artistic vision. The latter wasn’t always easy to navigate, honestly, and, on any given shoot, it wasn’t unusual for me to recede into a corner wondering, who’s in charge here?
With Jhane, the answer was never really her — or me, certainly — but the project itself. The creative goals, the rich and evocative images she saw in her mind’s eye before the shutter ever started to snap. And, in service to the dreams in her head, she spent hours upon hours adjusting lights, repositioning subjects, tweaking styling.
One shoot I well remember was for our annual Sexy Issue. Jhane and I took an entire crew and four models to the Four Seasons in New Orleans. Despite that we had limited time in which to shoot racks full of runway looks sent to us from major fashion houses, Jhane lingered meticulously over a setup involving shirtless models in blue jeans writhing in the grass. She (and the gracious models) persevered until Jhane got the shot — even through a thunderstorm that snuck up on us.
As much as I loved working with Jhane on such steamy shoots — and on other fashion spreads shot on locations such as the Houston Zoo and Museum of Natural Science — I think I was most impressed with her portraits of everyday folks. You could argue it’s easier to make hot model with his shirt off look appealing than to make, say, a diminutive restaurateur or a late-career doctor look amazing. Which is why we often asked her to help with our “Leaders & Legends” and “Cool 100” collections.
Nobody could bring out the inner-sexy-model in a civilian like Jhane. It was partly her patience with and mastery of the technical demands of getting a great photo.
But it was mostly … just her. There was something she exuded that signaled that she was at once a badass, seriously artsy, cigarette-smoke-blowing fashion photographer with New York City cred, and a gentle sweetheart from H-Town who just wanted to vibe with you and make you look nice. And, if occasionally she made an editor push his print deadline as she pored over every nook and cranny of a picture in Photoshop, you just went along with it. Oh, that Jhane.
The second of Jhane’s memorial services is taking place this week, and I’m told there will be a retrospective of her work. My colleague Patrick Magee, former CityBook creative director, who worked more closely with her and her images than anyone, has gathered up some of his favorites here.
Godspeed, Jhane Hoang. Thank you for your rare depth as an artist and commitment as a friend. You are missed.
Models Luke Keogh and Marion Sealy
Lynn Wyatt and Oscar Wyatt
Olympic hopeful Jeffrey Louis
Artist David Adickes
UH Chancellor Renu Khator
Chef Alexandra Peña
Author Mimi Swartz
Entrepreneur Colby Smith
Artist Tony Paraná
Fisherman and environmentalist Raz Halili
Author Bryan Washington
Model Isabel Li
Model Joao Diniz
Musician Madeline Edwards
Musician Youth Soul Love
Pioneering cardiovascular surgeon O. H. "Bud" Frazier