I honestly forget that tiny boxwoods exists past brunch

swimmerbabe11 said:

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I honestly forget that tiny boxwoods exists past brunch

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You must not be a full fledged member of The Ladies Who Lunch.

We went to State of Grace yesterday for brunch and thought it was very good. Not on the list so maybe it is played out and not hip enough or OG enough to muster a mention?

Haven't been in a number of years but i agree that i thought it very good. Was a bit surprised as well that it was missing.

Ragoo said:

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We went to State of Grace yesterday for brunch and thought it was very good. Not on the list so maybe it is played out and not hip enough or OG enough to muster a mention?

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State of Grace is a great place. Reality of these lists is places come and go and being the "it" or "trendy" place plays a part. Especially if you aren't a place constantly updating your menu.

Places like Mark's or Tony's and Mocking Bird Cafe just aren't the norm.

AgLA06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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We went to State of Grace yesterday for brunch and thought it was very good. Not on the list so maybe it is played out and not hip enough or OG enough to muster a mention?

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State of Grace is a great place. Reality of these lists is places come and go and being the "it" or "trendy" place plays a part. Especially if you aren't a place constantly updating your menu.

Places like Mark's or Tony's and Mocking Bird Cafe just aren't the norm.

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Man, I loved Mockingbird cafe.

AgLA06 said:

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swimmerbabe11 said:

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I honestly forget that tiny boxwoods exists past brunch

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You must not be a full fledged member of The Ladies Who Lunch.

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The Ladies went 0-fer in this one. No B19, Tiny's, SoG, Relish, A'Bouzy, or Ousie's.

AgLA06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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Bludorn is entirely too low. Criminally low.

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They're in the old Pass and Provisions space, correct?

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Yes.

ChipFTAC01 said:

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AgLA06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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We went to State of Grace yesterday for brunch and thought it was very good. Not on the list so maybe it is played out and not hip enough or OG enough to muster a mention?

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State of Grace is a great place. Reality of these lists is places come and go and being the "it" or "trendy" place plays a part. Especially if you aren't a place constantly updating your menu.

Places like Mark's or Tony's and Mocking Bird Cafe just aren't the norm.

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Man, I loved Mockingbird cafe.

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It and Mark's were probably 2 of my top 5 all time places to dine. Unique atmosphere and always great.

has one of the best bars in town. Love that place.

Ragoo said:

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We went to State of Grace yesterday for brunch and thought it was very good. Not on the list so maybe it is played out and not hip enough or OG enough to muster a mention?

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I think there are a few factors... not 'new' is one and the other Ford restaurants in the Heights seem to get the love. Plus, there is a huge push back on just listing a ton of expensive places as the best, which, frankly, they usually are, but the Beard awards and others try to recognize less formal places, too.

Further, outside of expensive, hard to really pinpoint a story or theme to their menu. They hit a lot of food areas and if you go it is fairly neighborhood focused (River Oaks crowd).

I think State of Grace is excellent, but not surprised they aren't included.

AgLA06 said:

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jja79 said:

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Gatlin's being on the list invalidates it to me. They seem like nice people but it's ordinary in its best day.

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It was quite good back in the days of a shed on 19th before the barbecue craze and moving to a brick and mortar.

I'm not sure how they're tied into things, but they get an exorbitant amount of love and publicity for the quality of their products and service. F&F is no different. Hell, they have a "chef" on the food network all the time.

I don't get it and I'm a sucker for backing local GOOF joints.

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you wonder when the last time she stepped foot in these places was.

Obviously, she isn't visiting all 100 restaurants every year, but it seems clear that she hasn't gone to either of these in a long while.

As mentioned, Gatlin's was really good on 19th, then they moved. Quality dropped while competition increased.

Fege's was really great in the early days of Greenway. I didn't dislike it that last couple times I went, but it's nowhere near the level of places like Truth, Pit Room, Corkscrew, Roegel's, etc.

Diggity said:

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AgLA06 said:

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jja79 said:

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Gatlin's being on the list invalidates it to me. They seem like nice people but it's ordinary in its best day.

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It was quite good back in the days of a shed on 19th before the barbecue craze and moving to a brick and mortar.

I'm not sure how they're tied into things, but they get an exorbitant amount of love and publicity for the quality of their products and service. F&F is no different. Hell, they have a "chef" on the food network all the time.

I don't get it and I'm a sucker for backing local GOOF joints.

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you wonder when the last time she stepped foot in these places was.

Obviously, she isn't visiting all 100 restaurants every year, but it seems clear that she hasn't gone to either of these in a long while.

As mentioned, Gatlin's was really good on 19th, then they moved. Quality dropped while competition increased.

Fege's was really great in the early days of Greenway. I didn't dislike it that last couple times I went, but it's nowhere near the level of places like Truth, Pit Room, Corkscrew, Roegel's, etc.

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Curious why you say this. This is her job. I can easily see her eating at 200 or so restaurants a year. And this is a yearly top 100 so even if it's a holdover from prior years, I would think she would revisit to reconfirm. Now, I don't know if she does that, but it doesn't seem outlandish.

how many restaurants would she have to visit on a yearly basis in order to come up with a "Top 100"?

she also claims to visit new restaurants several times. It's just not realistic or practical to think she visits every one of these restaurants every year.

Diggity said:

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how many restaurants would she have to visit on a yearly basis in order to come up with a "Top 100"?

she also claims to visit new restaurants several times. It's just not realistic or practical to think she visits every one of these restaurants every year.

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I doubt she's paying out of her own pocket at this point . At least not for a decent chunk. I imagine it's industry sponsors and Chronicle funded by a good bit. As much crap as we like to give her, the 100 list and restaurant week took the Houston food scene to a new level. And as much love as Houston gets, I still think it's underrated nationally.

I wouldn't think it would be unheard of for her to do 2-3 lunches and 2-3 dinners a week. I mean nothing says she can't go on the weekend with friends either. I'd be surprised if she wasn't visiting 300+ restaurants a year with revisists to confirm ranking positions on the list.

Diggity said:

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how many restaurants would she have to visit on a yearly basis in order to come up with a "Top 100"?

she also claims to visit new restaurants several times. It's just not realistic or practical to think she visits every one of these restaurants every year.

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I don't have social media, but that would be a great question to ask regarding her process. It would probably be a great article for her to publish.

How many restaurants a week / month / year does she visit?
How many revisits are there?
Does she eat at every restaurant on the list each year before ranking?
How many does she eat at that aren't ranked?

I would be surprised if any meal she is eating for consideration for being mentioned in the Chronicle isn't 100% expensed.

I'm sure most of her meals are comped by the restaurants...whether she's "working" or not. If they're not, they're off the list.

not even talking about the money, which (as mentioned) isn't her own.

just the logistics of doing multiple trips to the new restaurants would be a full time job.

as far as re-visits, I'm sure she spot checks some places, but how many of these places would she have to actually eat at every year in order to put together a comprehensive list? 300? 500? I'm just not seeing it.

MAS444 said:

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I'm sure most of her meals are comped by the restaurants...whether she's "working" or not. If they're not, they're off the list.

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It's the full Chronicle staff that visits the restaurants, several people and their names are mentioned in the Chronicle articles. So between all of them they can visit lots of places annually. They pay cash (obviously expensed) in order to try and be anonymous, though I'm sure the higher end places would all recognize Cook. At least this is the information that they've published before.

Okay - I still bet she gets a lot of stuff comped. Most of them know who she is and kiss her ass.

that makes sense...didn't realize she had a staff of folks going on these visits.

Does bring up the question of how the Chronicle has the budget to pay for this department, when they're hemorrhaging money everywhere else it seems.

Diggity said:

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not even talking about the money, which (as mentioned) isn't her own.

just the logistics of doing multiple trips to the new restaurants would be a full time job.

as far as re-visits, I'm sure she spot checks some places, but how many of these places would she have to actually eat at every year in order to put together a comprehensive list? 300? 500? I'm just not seeing it.

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I think part of it is you're only thinking about it regarding her only eating there for dinner. 3 dinners and 3 lunches a week is 312 visits a year. I'm sure it would be like having a part time job if we still worked our normal jobs. But we'd all kill to have a second paying job that purely worked with our current schedule and comped our lunches and dinners at really nice places.

Looking at her profile for a second it appears she's a full time journalist. Which I imagine means she works from home and isn't working a normal 9-5 like most of us. Food critic is just her niche in addition to reporting on politics and other things. I imagine food critic started out a hobby that she grew into making a name for herself while trying to make it to politics. She posts about 1-2 restaurant review articles a week which is probably the core of her 100 list anyway.

I wrote all the above before I found this. fom 2019.

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Top-100-suburban-restaurants-for-2019-Alison-Cook-14571327.php

"Cook visited 371 restaurants, tried 25 different types of cuisine, tried 30 different salsas and ordered 26 pounds of barbecue. (The Chronicle pays for every meal during the creation of the list.)"

Diggity said:

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that makes sense...didn't realize she had a staff of folks going on these visits.

Does bring up the question of how the Chronicle has the budget to pay for this department, when they're hemorrhaging money everywhere else it seems.

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you seen what they're paying newspaper staff these days!

Diggity said:

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not even talking about the money, which (as mentioned) isn't her own.

just the logistics of doing multiple trips to the new restaurants would be a full time job.

as far as re-visits, I'm sure she spot checks some places, but how many of these places would she have to actually eat at every year in order to put together a comprehensive list? 300? 500? I'm just not seeing it.

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I don't think she has to start from scratch and literally try every restaurant in town. Between the people involved, nature of the restaurant, buzz about it, reviews by other diners, etc., there's probably only a couple hundred places that can make a legit argument to be included. Wouldn't be too hard to try all of those. Does this mean a place never falls through the cracks? No. But I think this would get you most of the way there and is credible.

well there you go.

guess she just has bad taste in BBQ

I would imagine this list is a big driver of traffic for them

Diggity said:

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well there you go.

guess she just has bad taste in BBQ

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To be fair, that's not unusual. Chalk it up as her doing you a favor and steering the masses to other places on your behalf.

Hell, in the barbecue circuit itself judges have a very wide diversity of thought on what is good and bad barbecue. At this point many people that have made a name for themselves winning lots of money and trophies won't participate in all the big competitions because they know their style has no chance of winning.

And as much as that drives some people crazy, I've come to peace with it and don't think it's a bad thing. The point is for people to eat what they like and cook how they want. Not for some self appointed experts to decide for us.

schmendeler said:

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I would imagine this list is a big driver of traffic for them

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Maybe I'm the outlier, but come restaurant week I'd be lying if I didn't admit I'll pull out the top 100 list and see if any have an interesting menu during the month of August to hit up for lunch or a less expensive dinner for a night out.

STREET TO KITCHEN

Is road kill their specialty?

chico said:

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Biz Ag said:

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STREET TO KITCHEN

Is road kill their specialty?

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it's really good. I've been several times, chef awarded best chef in Texas by James Beard awards earlier this year. They're moving from a super-obscure location next to a gas station under the RR tracks to a nicer locale. Thai food.

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Thanks for the info - will have to check it out.

Interesting name for a restaurant.

Food is great.

Mandatory 20% "service charge", which they insist is separate from the tip, is obnoxious.

Everything about the experience feels "mom and pop", except for the bill at the end.