Good friends and good food are good for the soul. When our Tennessee pals, Susanna and Aaron, came to visit us not too long ago, we played Houston tour guides & entertained them with a fun filled weekend & foodie tour of our new(-ish) city.
I hope you’re not hungry, because this post has a lot of delicious eye candy ahead!
First things first, when you’re in Houston you’ve got to eat local. And I mean that more ways than one.
We took our buds to Local Foods for lunch and then a bit of shopping in River Oaks.
I am going to be honest here, I’ve only ever ordered one thing on the menu at Local. The crunchy chicken sandwich. It’s not because I’m not afraid to try anything new, I’m just kind of addicted to this gem of a sandwich.
If you’ve had it before, you would know.
Susanna ordered a salad, so healthy. I tried a bite … and it’s safe to say I miiiight be stepping out of my comfort zone during our next visit.
My favorite thing about Local is the relaxed atmosphere. We came at an awkward time of day that was right in between the lunch and the dinner crowds, so we had the place a bit to ourselves.
I’ve decided, a white marble outdoor dining table and blue french cafe chairs, like the ones at Local, are in my outdoor patio’s future.
For now, this idea shall live on my “outdoor living” Pinterest board. An entirely other note is how I’m excited to make parts of that Pinterest board a reality! One day!
In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the outdoor living that Houston’s Discovery Green has to offer …..
One thing that I think is a must when playing tour guide to your out of town guests is stopping for a stroll in Discovery Green Park.
We did just that, as we had some time to kill before seeing the Astros play ball.
Let me pause for a second here to let you know that the Astros vs. Yankees game was the absolute highlight of the weekend.
Our buddy Aaron is a huge Yankees fan. I would also say my husband Patrick has become a bigger and bigger Astros fan by the day. Only time was going to tell which of our husbands would be the happier one that evening.
Naturally the two men have converted their wives. I showed up supporting the Astros in navy and orange & Susanna proudly represented the Yankees in her vintage tee.
The two of us really didn’t care either way which team was going to win. We may or may not have mostly been excited about the food!
We “pre-gamed” for the ball game with snow cones, of course.
If you’re going to go on a foodie tour of Houston, snow cones in Discovery Green have got to be included!
This was probably my first snow cone in YEARS. So it obviously had to be documented.
Before we left for the game, a quick snap with my main squeeze was in order!
The game was neck and neck for the most part. In a way, I was a good hostess … because I kind of wanted the Yankees to win so our friends would have an even better time during their visit.
Shh!! Don’t tell Patrick!
Next time I’ll fully be for the Astros. 🙂
Cheers to Houston beer and the Yankees actually winning the game!
Everyone was certainly in good spirits afterwards. Thanks to spirits itself and the Yankees big win.
Spoiler alert – the Astros beat the Yankees just the day before so it wasn’t really the bigggggggggest deal.
You can tell I’m not really into sports, right?
On another note, remember me mentioning eating local a bit earlier?
What can be more local than DownHouse in the Houston Heights? It’s so local, that it’s right smack dab in the middle of our neighborhood.
And also happens to be one of our favorite places to eat in town.
Which is why we took our Tennessee buddies here for brunch. 🙂
And we also just really needed some bloody marys.
*Fun fact – I didn’t even LIKE bloody marys until I tried the one served at DownHouse. If you need converting, (which trust me, you do) you’ve gotta try the ones at DownHouse!
From ooey goeey tomato, egg & gouda cheese sandwiches to shrimp & grits, we were all in brunch heaven.
The bloody mary’s certainly helped too.
Cheers to having Susanna and Aaron in town!! We had way too much fun showing off Houston to you guys!
For those of you wondering what else we may have been up to that weekend … (because I can’t hardly take pictures of everything now can I?) I’ll fill you in!
Other restaurants we simply had to take them to were: El Tiempo, Chilosos Taco House on 20th street, Torchy’s (DUH!), Common Bond Bakery, Cedar Creek, Pastry Wars for drinks, Niko Niko’s in Market Square and Tiger Den in China Town.
There were also gourmet Minute Maid Park hot dogs involved.
Like I said, a foodie tour of Houston! (And I’m still quite full from it all.)
It really was such a wonderful weekend and I’m so sad that it has come to an end. We had been planning this trip for months and it gave us something to look forward to. Now, without any plans in the distant future to get together again, I’m a bit heartbroken. But thank heavens for social media and the telephone! Because I don’t know what I’d do without the lovely Susanna in my life!
Houston readers, what are your favorite places to take out of town guests? Being from out of state, we’re often having guests in town and I absolutely love playing tour guide! So recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
As always, thanks for stopping by the blog!
—
alice
