Fearless Critic: Houston
Food Lovers' Guide to Houston
They will also get the following guide to Houston's Best Dive Bars:
They have two weeks from the last Dinner Club outing to make a choice as to where our Dinner Club will go next. July was the first month that we implemented this new idea.
Our friend, Alonso, was given the task of organizing our first outing. He has been a faithful reader of Houston Culture Maps, an internet source for finding local restaurants, entertainment, and news. It is where he found out about the Houston Food Trucks Festival back in May (which was AWESOME)! In his endeavor to be an informed Houstonian, he learned of a musical named Avenue Q which was being presented at the Country Playhouse.
He flipped Dinner Club on its head (which was not a bad thing, I might add) by making this month's focus the musical instead of the food (and the food was great, by the way). He decided to find a restaurant near the playhouse. The restaurant he chose was Brio Tuscan Grille, which was literally across the street.
Brio Tuscan Grille
We bought a bottle of wine and ordered an appetizer to share. The appetizer was bruschetta. It might be the best bruschetta I've ever had in my life. If I've had better, I just don't remember.
Bruschetta
I ordered the grilled salmon. It was topped with stalks of asparagus and a heaping mound of crispy shoestring potatoes. The salmon was extremely tender and cooked perfectly. I hate when you get a fish that was overcooked or cooked too fast on high heat. It was really very good.
Grilled Salmon
We quickly finished our first bottle of wine and ordered a second. Yes, we're that kind of Dinner Club. And we also ordered our dessert. My husband and I had the Tiramisu. It wasn't the best tiramisu I've ever had but it was still very good.
Tiramisu
After we finished our bottle of wine and desserts, we quickly hurried over to the playhouse. By the time we got there, the ushers were already seating guests. Perfect timing!
Before our outing, I had never even heard of Avenue Q. So I looked it up on YouTube. The first video I viewed was a puppet singing and dancing to the lyrics, "The Internet Was Made for Porn." The video quality was not great and, although it was pretty funny to see puppets singing and dancing about porn, I was not overly impressed. I'm not sure what I was expecting from the musical at the playhouse but I definitely wasn't expecting it to be as laugh-out-loud, hysterically funny as it was!
Sometimes you feel like a more cultured person for having seen or done something. This was one of those things. It's an enlightening play that pokes fun at racism and homophobia, but not in an uncomfortable or awkward way. It's the kind of play that encourages open-mindedness and worldly views but, at the same time, isn't preachy or overtly one-sided. It was clever and thoroughly entertaining.
Afterwards, we still had some time on our hands so we walked over to The Tasting Room. It's a trendy wine bar that is getting some rave reviews on various Houston critic websites for having some of the world's finest wines. It's also owned by the same guy who owns Max's Wine Dive. We bought two bottles. My husband and I bought a German red wine. No idea what the name of it was (it was in German). It was unlike any other red wine I've ever had with a distinctly fruity flavor. And I can't remember the type of red wine in the other bottle (Chilean, perhaps?) My mind was a little fuzzy at this point. We had 4 bottles of wine, afterall.
The Tasting Room also serves beer for the non-wine drinkers in your party or for folks who just want a change of pace. Our friend, Ryan, ordered a Warsteiner and they served it in a Stella Artois glass. He said it was one of his favorites and described it as a smooth, German beer.
It is now August and Ryan will be choosing this month's restaurant. The great thing about August is that it's Houston Restaurant Weeks. Lunches are $20 per person and Dinners are $35 per person. The restaurants will donate $3 for every lunch and $5 for every dinner. I can't wait!
Great reading! Sounds like delightful evening!
ReplyDelete