It’s not hyperbole to say that the new Ruggles Green in the Woodland Heights is the most anticipated restaurant opening in this part of town. The ardent expectations for Ruggles Green’s introduction into the dining scene isn’t so much for its novel menu; it is, after all, the fourth franchise for the city’s popular salad [...]

There’s something about sushi that always dupes me. Before ordering finely-prepared fish, I will peer down the typically lengthy list of sushi rolls and think something like: Oh man, I bet that combination of peppercorn tuna and avocado with spicy aioli and tobiko and whatever other little clever fixings the chef is going to sneak [...]

When it comes to pies, Leader Eater is what you might refer to as a traditionalist. I grew up consuming conventional circular desserts: apple, pumpkin, lemon merengue – and on very special occasions, a pecan pie would show up on the dining room table (these nuts were a bit of rarity in the pecan-scarce North). [...]

Everyone has their own tricks of the trade for crawfish indulgence. Some have a special pinch on the tail to get that meat lodged from its crustacean armor. Others take a good, long pull from the mudbugs’ heads after a carefully-crafted crack at dislodging the rubbery gold in side those pint-sized lobsters. Some are finicky [...]

Getting brunch out on a Sunday morning has become an engrained neighborhood pastime in this part of town. Only a few years ago, the choices to fill your a.m. appetite on the final day of the weekend were sparse. Now, the marketplace has been flooded with French toast, fried chicken and waffles and fancy omelets, [...]

Have you ever had that feeling when you realize you are the last one to be let in on a secret? When you realize that you have been bumbling through life and have been oblivious to something that everyone clearly knew about? This is the feeling Leader Eater got on a recent evening at a [...]

Tending bar is an ancient art, a vocation that has gone on for centuries. One of the attributes of a barman (or woman) that has been lost through the years is when the keeper of spirits throws their hand across the two feet of so of lumber to extend a firm handshake to their patrons. [...]

When I’ve got Mexican on my mind, it’s difficult to find fascination in a franchise, let alone one clustered in The Heights’ crowded south Shepherd restaurant corridor. North Houston is fraught with charming, inviting and spectacular independent Mexican restaurants, so the prospect of spending a bright weekend evening at Lupe Tortilla is not high on [...]

There are few dishes out there that have veered so liberally from their original incarnation than the culinary pride of Peru, ceviche. You will be hard pressed to find an order of ceviche that has strictly raw fish accompanied with bright orange chunks of sweet potato, thumb knuckle-sized kernels of corn, a molehill of raw [...]