Home All Stories

Culture

Chron •

Explore the history of the Jewish deli in Houston

"The delicatessen is my life" says Ziggy Gruber as he walks through a gallery at the Holocaust Museum Houston on a Thursday afternoon in May. Most Houstonians know Gruber as the co-founder of Houston-based deli Kenny & Ziggy's, but on this day he's playing unofficial tour guide, taking a small group through the museum's newest exhibition.

Called I'll Have What She's Having, the exhibit examines the cultural and historical significance of the Jewish deli, a uniquely American phenomenon born out
Chron •

South Texas meets South Asia in new Houston art exhibit

In her work as a curator at the Blaffer Art Museum, Houstonian Erika Mei Chua Holum began to see similarities between artists and creators in Houston and those working in Southern Asia. Holum, who is Filipinx, refers to this as a "South-South relationship."

"I started to see overlaps in how art is being created," she says, "And I started to think about 'What does it look like to generate knowledge from the South?'"

Those intersections are the subject of a new exhibit curated by Holum, now open
Chron •

Houston plant lovers, mark your calendars for PlantCon

In 2021, an ultrarare variety of a popular exotic houseplant—a variegated Rhaphidaphora Tetrasperma—sold for more than $19,000 in a New Zealand web auction. Trade Me, the website where the auction took place, has called it "the most expensive houseplant ever sold." Next month, Houstonians will have an opportunity to see that subspecies, and hundreds more collectible house plants, at a new event at NRG Center called PlantCon International.

PlantCon aims to help plant-lovers, from the experienced
Chron •

How Houston's historic Eldorado Ballroom was restored

In a town that's known for tearing down aging buildings as opposed to preserving them, the renovation of the Eldorado Ballroom feels like a miracle. The Third Ward nightclub, which hosted blues and jazz musicians for more than three decades during a time when Jim Crow laws kept Black performers and audiences segregated from white crowds, isn't just culturally significant. It's also architecturally unique—one of few Art Moderne buildings remaining in Houston.

After a $9.7 million project that in
Chron •

8 cool things to do in Houston during the NCAA tournament

Thousands of people will descend upon Houston over the next two weeks to enjoy the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, whose Final Four games will be played at NRG Stadium on April 1 and 3. Though the games are taking place on the south side of the city, many visitors will be staying centrally or in Downtown.

Spring is the perfect time to visit the nation's fourth-largest city. The heat hasn't set in yet, hurricane season is a few months off, and many of Houston's gems—from sweeping parks
Chron •

Pedro Pascal sets the record straight on good Tex-Mex, Mexican food

Beloved actor and TikTok heartthrob Pedro Pascal made a stop on the YouTube series Hot Ones this week, where he set the record straight on which states have the best Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine.

For the uninitiated, Hot Ones is a talk show produced by First We Feast and Complex Media, where celebrities eat progressively spicier hot sauce-drenched chicken wings while answering questions from host Sean Evans. Previous guests have included actress Maya Rudolph, rapper Post Malone, and Top Chef hos
Chron •

One of Houston's most popular art installations is coming back

One of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston's most popular art installations in recent years is set to go back on display later this month.

Pixel Forest, by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, will reopen in the museum's Cullinan Hall on March 12. The installation, which consists of thousands of hanging orbs filled with LED lights, will be accompanied by a large-scale video installation called Worry Will Vanish. Both works were last shown at the museum in the summer of 2017, the year that they were acquire
Chron •

Rodeo brings a dynasty of trail riders back to Houston

Rodeo season is a bit different for the Desperados trail riders this year. For the first time in more than four decades, they are riding without their matriarch, Beverly Wilson Smith.

The trail-riding posse was founded by Beverly and her brothers, Welcome and Jack, in the late 1970s. Beverly, who also became the first female wagon boss in the Salt Grass Trail Ride Association, died last April of complications from Alzheimer's, just a month after RodeoHouston wrapped up.

But her legacy lives on
Chron •

Play matchmaker for your friends with a new Houston dating app

Would you let a friend or sibling set you up on a date? How about your mother, or a coworker? That's the idea behind a new dating app, founded by two Houstonians, that allows people to act as matchmakers for their single friends.

The app, called Wingr, encourages users to make "wingperson" profiles, with the ability to suggest suitors to single friends who are also registered. The founders say they hope the app will allow those looking for love to develop more meaningful connections, rather tha
Chron •

Here's where to celebrate 2023 Mardi Gras in Houston and beyond

Galveston doesn't have the only lock on Mardi Gras in Southeast Texas. Though the festival marking the start of Lenten Season has been celebrated in the region since at least 1867, the number of events in Houston and surrounding communities has been on the rise since 2005, when hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents relocated to the Bayou City following Hurricane Katrina. Now, Mardi Gras events range from neighborhood block parties to kid-friendly concerts to festive parades and communit
Chron •

Solange to honor Eldorado ballroom reopening with Brooklyn concert series

Songstress and Houston native Solange Knowles will honor the reopening of the legendary Third Ward nightclub Eldorado Ballroom with a series of musical performances in Brooklyn, New York beginning on March 30.

The event coincides with the reopening of the historically Black venue, which hosted blues and jazz musicians for more than three decades during a time when Jim Crow laws kept Black performers and audiences segregated from white crowds.
Chron •

How Numbers became the epicenter of Houston's gay scene

Nearly everywhere film director Marcus Pontello goes, they run into someone familiar with Numbers, the long-standing Montrose nightclub best known for its popular '80s night, Classic Numbers. A man at a New Orleans cafe who'd grown up in Dickenson. A Houstonian now living in Toronto who'd been a regular at the club. A woman in Nashville who worked as a coat check girl for the venue in the early '90s.

Pontello has been crisscrossing the country the past few months, screening their documentary ab
Chron •

Tilman Fertitta's new $150M superyacht spotted on Galveston waterfront

Visitors to Galveston may see an unusual sight near the Strand this week. A massive yacht belonging to billionaire Texas restaurateur and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta is currently docked outside the Harbor House Hotel and 21st Street Pier.

It's not often that yachts are moored along Galveston's waterfront, and especially not superyachts. The vessel, a 76.5-meter Feadship, has been parked outside the hotel since at least Sunday. Aerial views of the ship, appropriately called the Boardwa

Let's get social