Date Nights in Houston: Oxheart

Last month an article came out in the NY Times: "The 46 Places to Go in 2013." We were pretty excited, because Houston was #7, but then we looked closer and realized that the new museums they were talking about as the major selling points for Houston making the list? And the new restaurants? Yeah, we hadn't been to any of them. Oops.

When I'm home, we tend to be anti-social hermits, holing up in our house surrounded by cats and cozy blankets. We don't get out much.

I'd like to change that. I'm gone so much that it's hard to remember what the city has to offer outside the walls of our home, but Houston is a great city, and not only because of its low, low, very low cost of living.

So, I'm launching a new feature: Date Nights in Houston, in which CM and I try new things or rediscover our old favorites.

First up, one of those hot new restaurants mentioned in the Times: Oxheart. The dining room only has 30 seats, so early reservations are a must (they start taking reservations on the 1st of the month for the following month, so if you wanted a table in April you'd try on March 1st). Oxheart is in the Warehouse District, East of downtown in a historic factory space.

The menus are seasonal, focusing on local ingredients. There are 3 tasting menus to choose from—a 4-course vegetarian option, a 4-course option with meat, and a 7-course menu. We chose the 4-course "Winter Menu" (meat included) with wine pairings. Everything we ate was delicious, and Justin Vann, the sommelier who was also our waiter for the evening, did a fantastic job explaining what he brought to the table.

Including sunflower seed soup:

And housemade English muffins with lard:

And a fish course we ate too fast to photograph. And chicken cooked 3 ways:

And a delicious dessert:

And housemade marshmallows with our coffee, just because:




For such a trendy restaurant, farm-to-table mission statements and filament bulbs galore, Oxheart does not have an ounce of pretention. Every member of the staff we encountered was friendly and knowledgeable, each dish was served up with care and pride, and we felt immediately comfortable. We'll be back.

Houstonians, where else should we go for date night?

Faking fall

In other parts of the world I hear it's autumn. Here in Houston we're having highs in the 80s with humidity to match. And the fall foliage? Non-existent for the moment—we usually catch a few leaves mid-December for about a week.

But I adore fall; it's my favorite season. So we're faking it around here. Here's how.

I'm lighting fires in the fireplace in the morning. Completely worth the higher electricity bills (from cranking the A/C up).

I'm eating seasonally (ish). Make this immediately. Throw some brussels sprouts on the side if you're feeling healthy.

I'm wearing fall clothes. I just bought this skirt and wore it today. With bare legs and pink flats, true, but still, it's flannel and autumnal!

I'm drinking hot drinks. And I'm grinding this on top. Perfection.

I'm slowing down. I'm giving into my cravings for quiet time with books and movies and snuggly kitties.

I'm making plans. And to-do lists. And resolutions. Fall seems like the right time for big ideas.



Is it truly autumnal where you are? What are you doing to celebrate?

Free days in Houston

I don't think I can overstate the effect that the Sundays in New York project had on my attitude and overall happiness this fall. It forced me out of the apartment on my free days, helped me to explore new neighborhoods in the city, gave me built-in activities for social time with adventurous friends, and generally made me realize how fantastic NYC can be.

So I was jazzed about trying something similar in Houston this month—exploring the city, trying new restaurants, visiting museums and parks, seeing the Symphony and the Ballet, maybe taking a day trip or two.

I don't think it's going to happen. It is almost impossible to entice us to leave the house on a free day. Here's what Saturday looked like for us. We were going to take a long bike ride, but instead we took a very short ride to Revival Market for Bacon Saturday (need I say more?) and then biked home. We looked up movie times but didn't go. We made and then canceled a dinner reservation. We DID manage to get to Trader Joe's, but our resulting full fridge made us even less likely to leave again. We did some work. We drank coffee. We lazed around the house. The end.

This is not a bad way to spend a free day, let me tell you, and whatever it lacks in culture it certainly makes up for in pure relaxation. And I've decided to embrace Free Day Laziness, at least for the month. The key, it seems, is to make sure the house is the most comfortable, relaxing place it can be. Get organized. Run your errands on other days so you don't have to think about them on the free day. Keep the place relatively clean. Get a cuddly kitten (check). Make sure the fridge and pantry are fully stocked and the Hulu and Netflix queues are fully loaded. Keep the to-do list short. Create a truly free day.

How are you spending your free days, wherever you are?