OMG! 45 pages and counting on this topic! Please forgive my repetitions; I need to not get fired from spending all my time reading everything that has gone before.
I lived in Houston 1967-92, so these are from that era, and I'm going to take the liberty of expanding the geographic area for some notable memories. Since I haven't lived there in so long, some of these may still exist.
San Jacinto Inn, near the Battleship Texas, for all-you-can-eat shrimp, crab and sherbet (everything else was forgettable), in a cavernous building with linen tablecloths and impossibly efficient waiters, who would write cryptic hieroglyphs on the tablecloths. I never figured out what they meant.
Athens Bar & Grill, especially when a Greek ship was in port and all the sailors came there. Belly dancing and breaking plates! Opa!
Shanghai Red's, perched above the Turning Basin. Mediocre food, but spectacular views through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Cottonwood Inn, in LaGrange, just across 71 from the county airport. I used to rent a Cessna and fly there from Hobby for dinner, and *always* planned my drives to Austin to include a stop there for a great steak dinner. I remember the amateurish mural of the patriarch roping a sheep(?). Both the airport and the Inn are long gone.
Los Troncos on Westheimer. Paella in a tree! The ideal place for a "snow date" (to snow = to impress a girl).
Jamie's Hamburgers on South Main. Linen tablecloths and big copper chargers that they took away before serving your "gourmet" hamburger.
The Ninfa's somewhere around Kirby & Richmond, where I developed my lifelong addiction to Tex-Mex. Tacos al carbon, queso a la parilla, sopapillas, and even chile con queso dip. All completely unheard of here in Silicon Valley. All my friends liked Spanish Village, but I much preferred Ninfa's.
There was a Der Wienerschnitzel, also near Kirby and Richmond, and the woman who owned it would violate her franchise agreement to make spectacular hamburgers for us. If you wanted one, you had to be college age (we were all Rice students) and order a "Joe" (the name of her son). If some other customer saw it and wanted one without knowing the secret word, she would just tell them, "Sorry; can't do it. I just make these for my son and his friends."
I wish I could remember the name of the place in the Montrose that was run by a Greek family and served the best friend shrimp I've ever eaten, to this day.
Brenner's steakhouse out off I-10, with that lovely manicured back yard. I'm remembering a water wheel?
The Brownstone, with their wildly mixed patterns of china and utensils, no two the same. Mile High Pie! My most memorable meal there was when they were playing Barbra Streisand's "Classical Barbra" album, which I was hearing for the first time, and loved. So that must have been 1976.
James Original Coney Island, who made their own buns with slits that left the ends closed so the chili wouldn't run out.
Nick's Fish Market, in the basement of some bank downtown; the best seafood meal I've ever had, and the best lounge piano player, Ariel, who was Russian, I believe. I heard they had to close when Exxon management sent a memo around that they would no longer reimburse business meals at Nick's, since it was so expensive.
I spent the summer of 1969 learning, at the Steak & Ale on OST near the Astrodome, that I am, hands down, the world's *worst* waiter. Menus printed on meat cleavers! Ever since that disastrous summer, I have always tipped at least 20%, since I have a clue what it takes to give even minimally competent service.
Antone's poor boys, of course.
Youngblood's fried chicken! KFC put all those old great chicken restaurants out of business, and we're the poorer for it.
So many more! But I have a doctor's appointment I have to get to.
Thanks for the memories!
Dan
1 hour ago, DanH said:
I wish I could remember the name of the place in the Montrose that was run by a Greek family and served the best friend shrimp I've ever eaten, to this day.
Dan, the place in Montrose run by the Greek family was on Yoakum and the name was...Zorba The Greek
Historic Houston Restaurants
in Historic Houston
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Dan H.