CultureMap Houston

Editor's note: It's time to recap the top stories on CultureMap from this past week. 1. Guy Fieri-favorite Houston chef opens fine new Italian restaurant in River Oaks. After tasting his pastas on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Fieri called the Italian chef "the real deal." 2. Houston's newest lagoon community...

Bumble is causing a buzz once again, this time for collegiate women athletes. Founded by recent Texas Business Hall of Fame inductee Whitney Wolfe Herd, the Austin-based and female-first dating and social networking app this week announced a new sponsorship for 50 collegiate women athletes with NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals in honor of the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

A popular, national summer music festival is headed to Houston with some home-grown talent leading the way. Sad Summer Fest, now in its third year, heads to the Lawn at White Oak Music Hall on Wednesday, July 13. Houston trio Waterparks will headline along with UK act Neck Deep and alt band Mayday Parade. Sad Summer Fest also hits Dallas’ Gilley’s on Tuesday, July 12 as part of the 13-city trek.

Movie producer Kelly Frazier is a Western kind of gal. Born and raised in Houston, the former music-video producer (she's worked with such country artists as Shania Twain, George Jones, and Billy Ray Cyrus) has been working almost exclusively in the genre of cowboy fiction. "I did about seven Westerns in a row, which are always the most fun to shoot," Frazier, who's been in the business ("scarily enough," she says) for 30 years, tells CultureMap.

Women and men in the Houston restaurant industry are speaking out against the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic decision which provided women with the right to an abortion. Feelings of anger and sadness are common in the wake of the 6-to-3 ruling, handed down on Friday, June 24.

Houston businessman Bill Voss has always found his zen through his lifelong passion for the great outdoors, but there’s one aspect that was making him positively furious: the shopping. Burned out with driving to brick-and-mortar stores, standing in long lines, and dealing with dreaded returns, Voss turned his necessity...

The West is won in Downtown Odessa, which not only makes for a great 24-hour intermission during a road-trip trek to Big Bend National Park, but also holds it own as a main destination. Get it on an event. Time your trip right to catch one of the 10 annual...

Nestled along the Colorado River, La Grange is a place steeped in history, natural beauty, and some deliciously authentic fare, thanks to the town’s pioneering German, Czech, and Moravian immigrants who settled here in the 19th century. And, if you were wondering, La Grange is indeed home to the...

Doing a “standard” biopic about Elvis Presley in this day and age would be a fool’s errand; as the biggest selling solo artist of all time, his life and everything in it has already been dissected a million times over. That includes movies and documentaries specifically about him, others that use that use his larger-than-life presence as part of another period story, and still others that use his now-iconic face and voice in ways that have nothing to do with his life.

A beloved Dallas restaurant will make its return to the Houston area with a new location in The Woodlands. Rise Soufflé expects to open in the Creekside Park West shopping center in early 2023. Described by founder Hedda Dowd as serving an "egg in celebratory form," Rise offers more...

Baseball and beer go together like Jose Altuve and home runs. But now, fans who want to sip something other than a cold brew or Alex Bregman’s and Lance McCullers Jr.’s hard seltzer have a spirited new option. Woodbridge Wines, the Robert Mondavi brand and official wine partner...

On this week's episode of "What's Eric Eating," Jason Andaya and chef Cole Hoang join CultureMap food editor Eric Sandler to discuss Dinette. Slated to open later this summer, Dinette aims to offer a fresh perspective on Vietnamese fare by blending Hoang's heritage from northern Vietnam with some of the techniques he learned while working for James Beard Award finalist Christine Ha at The Blind Goat.

One of Houston’s most beloved music events is winding down this weekend, offering classical music fans a chance to enjoy burgeoning, top-tier talent. The Immanuel and Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival, which runs through June 26 at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music on the school’s central campus, boasts performances from its Texas Music Festival Orchestral Institute as well as a showcase of piano, organ, harpsichord and fortepiano in its 2022 High School Keyboard Academy event.

A popular Galveston destination now boasts a whole new look, thanks to a highly anticipated, major makeover. Galveston Island State Park will reopen the beachside of the park on Monday, June 27 following an extensive renovation. Beachgoers can look forward to a new park headquarters building, two new restrooms, new...

Houston dining obsessives worked themselves into a minor frenzy about a week ago when an Instagram user trolled Houston Chronicle critic Alison Cook about a grilled cheese sandwich. Put that on the list of sentences I never would have guessed I’d write, but here we are. Those looking for...

Local Foods just got even more local — to Austin. The popular Houston-based restaurant opens its first permanent Austin location on Saturday, June 25, anticipated since 2020. Technically, it’s already been here in pop-up, ghost kitchen capacity since last summer, in the space formerly occupied by Bonhomie. But this time it’s here to stay.

Nestled among the rolling green hills of Central Texas, the village of Salado has always been one of a kind. Home to one of the first co-ed colleges in the United States and a stop on the historic Chisholm Trail, Salado has been inspiring others for generations. Today, it is...

Got a thing for modern art? Then you'll be in heaven at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which showcases sculptures, paintings, and more from the 1940s to the present. Situated in the heart of Fort Worth's impressive Cultural District, the Modern stands out with its elegant concrete, glass, and steel building designed by...

A pro golf response to an overseas rival could reverberate locally in Houston. On Wednesday, June 22, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan admitted his tour couldn't win an "arms race" against Saudi-funded LIV Golf. By paying its members billions of dollars in guaranteed salaries directly funded by the Saudi Arabian government, the new rival golf league has convinced high-profile players like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Houston's Patrick Reed to leave the PGA Tour.

This weekend sees hot temps and red-hot fun. Look for choice theater, a restaurant grand opening, beer olympics, and a bar party. Also look for events celebrating our African American community and Pride — specifically a pool party. And one party celebrates the year — half of it, anyway.