Restaurant listings
Espresso Yourself!
Restaurant listings from My Table #84
This issue of My Table magazine is dedicated to the pursuit of caffeine — a substance Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder once described as “the gateway drug.” We spent the winter and early spring sipping our way across Houston. Some of our old favorite coffeehouses are still brewing, but they’ve been joined by several new ones — who says Starbucks rules the universe? — as well as a new generation of tea shops. There’s some great hot chocolate out there, too. Here are 15 of our favorite spots.
2007’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #83
Groan. Every year we compile this annual “best newcomers” list, and every year it is more challenging. Anyone who’s in the business can tell you why: Restaurants are constantly in flux. Reviewing a restaurant is not like writing a book review or film review where the object of our consideration is finished and permanent. Restaurants change every day. Maybe the seafood purveyor delivers a fresher product one week, or a new manager refines the level of service. Conversely, the chef de cuisine may quit suddenly or the owner may admit that, yes, his pricing is too rich for the market. In any case, any “snapshot” of a restaurant is accurate for only about a day, and that’s particularly true of newcomers. Having said all that, here are our nine picks for 2007’s best new restaurants. Note: We did not consider restaurants that moved (such as Simposio) or were close off-shoots to existing restaurants (e.g. Red Onion Taco Cantina, Brenner’s on the Bayou).
Eating Up Chinatown
Restaurant listings from My Table #82
Houston has the largest Chinese population in the South, so it only makes sense that Chinatown would be such a big attraction to both locals and visitors. There are many stores and services worth exploring along Bellaire Boulevard, but let’s be honest: We’re in it for the food. Although there are many new restaurants as of late, many of the older ones still deserve a visit, so this list includes both, as well as supermarkets.
A Flight of Wine Bars
Restaurant listings from My Table #81
As time goes by, old friends often change. The same may be said of Houston’s evolving wine bar/tasting room scene. In 2002, when we did our first wine bar round-up, we scraped the barrel to find nine; our 2004 update listed 12. Truth be told, many of these were just bars or restaurants that had a nice wine-by-the-glass selection, but weren’t strictly wine bars. This year we reviewed many more candidates, were more selective and cut some old favorites that have closed or aren’t true independent wine bars. This year’s 14 selections are amalgams of wine bar, retail bottle shop and accessories boutique, many with small food plates thrown in for good measure.
Private Parties
Restaurant listings from My Table #80
Here is a selection of 14 restaurants we like that have private rooms. We can’t quote prices because in each case it varies widely, depending on type of party, menu, day of the week and all that. When you’re planning a special event in a restaurant and you get a per-person price, make sure you figure in “plus plus plus,” as they say in the event-planning business: liquor, tax and gratuity. Our selection below overlooks hotels, which are already well known for banquet rooms, with one exception. In addition to these restaurants, consider Prego, Mockingbird Bistro, Backstreet Cafe, Aquarium (they close off half the room — corny but fun), The Brownstone, Fleming’s, Palazzo’s Trattoria, The Lodge on the Bayou, Kirby’s Prime Steakhouse in The Woodlands, Crapitto’s Cucina Italiana and Smith & Wollensky.
Dining on the West Side
Restaurant listings from My Table #79
The dining options on the traditional West Side of Houston—defined for purposes of this article as being bounded by Beltway 8 on the east and Highway 6 on the west, Westheimer on the south and Interstate 10/Katy Freeway on the north—have improved greatly in recent years, as the area has become both more diverse and more prosperous. It’s no surprise that the lofty price of oil fueling the pockets of many Energy Corridor corporations and their employees has fostered an increase in the dining options. A few top-tier restaurants have been area favorites for years. More recently, these have been joined by many terrific ethnic spots. Below is our list of the best restaurants on the west side.
Cold, Dry and Dirty
Restaurant listings from My Table #78
The martini, once described by H.L. Mencken as “the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet,” is the king of cocktails. As such, it lends its name to a type of glass and, regrettably, everything served in that glass, from ceviche appetizers to chocolate desserts. Early martinis gained notoriety consisting of gin mixed with dry vermouth in a three-to-one ratio (or so) and served with a garnish. Today, gin martinis are rare, and vodka has all but replaced it in the cocktail shaker, pitcher and glass. Vermouth might be present solely as a residue, if at all. A very good martini can be made through shaking (the preferred method in our warm climate), stirring or simply freezing and combining. The common thread is that quality liquor be used and the drink be served very, very cold. Some of the best local versions of the classic martini are poured below.
2006’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #77
We hate compiling this annual “best” list. By its very nature, it makes a permanent judgment of the best-ness of an industry that is constantly in flux. Not only will the list be obsolete by the time it’s printed, but it’s utterly subjective. Unlike sports with their endless statistics, say, there’s no way to quantify what’s best in any given restaurant. Sigh.
Here are some of the parameters we used to winnow down 2006’s best newcomers. We usually do not include chains (although you’ll see a couple exceptions below). Obviously we eliminated restaurants that opened and closed before year’s end (e.g. Pic) and those that changed up their concept (1308 Cantina, fka Sabor). We do not include replications of existing Houston restaurants — sorry, Perry’s and Cova. We love your restaurants, but let’s spotlight some new concepts. And we didn’t include restaurants that moved but kept their personality fairly intact, such as Indika, La Vista, Rainbow Lodge, Kanomwan and Truluck’s.
Houston’s Best Hotel Bars
Restaurant listings from My Table #76
Hotel bars do not have to aim very high, considering that they’ve got something of a captive audience: weary business travelers in need of alcoholic comfort and out-of-town revelers looking to continue the celebration after the reception is over. Happily, a few local Houston hotel bars have personality enough to attract hometown imbibers, too. Some of the following are great for before or after a concert or ballgame, and some are simply a lovely place to wait out rush hour. Most are attractive, quiet and conversation-friendly; a few provide entertainment; and a couple sometimes even get raucous. We’ve listed the best of the local hotel bars by hotel.
Fast ‘n’ Fresh
Restaurant listings from My Table #75
Many fast-casual restaurants offer more reasons to visit than being simply fast and casual. Some have remarkably good food, too. We have found that in many cases the most interesting and proficient fast-casual restaurants are local creations. Our favorites — okay, including some out-of-town chains — are listed.
An Anglo-Irish Pub Crawl
Restaurant listings from My Table #74
Across the globe, every burg of a certain size has a pizza joint, a Chinese restaurant and an Irish bar. Of course, what passes for an Irish bar is usually a flag of Ireland, a prominently displayed shamrock and improperly poured Guinness. (The very similar English pub typically substitutes the Union Jack for the Irish tricolor and a framed photo of Queen Elizabeth for the images in green.) The food, if any is served, is usually calorie- and fat-laden, meant to sop up beer and satisfy hunger pangs rather than delight the demanding palate. The following are Houston’s most authentic and convivial bars that evoke the spirit of the British Isles.
Far North Houston
Restaurant listings from My Table #73
Though Houston’s very best restaurants are still inside the Loop and in the Galleria area, the city’s increase in population, affluence and diversity over the past decade has resulted in many more dining options, especially in the bedroom communities north, west and south of the Beltway. The restaurants listed below are among the best in the city’s northern suburbs.
Where’s the Beef?
Restaurant listings from My Table #72
At the best steakhouses you should get richly marbled Prime beef, which is difficult to find at a retail butcher counter and expensive if you do. With a couple noted exceptions, each of our recommended steakhouses serves Prime for (nearly all) their steaks. Though steakhouses seem to suffer from more complaints than other high-end eateries, we believe that these 13 are the best and most consistent. Excellent steaks can be found in many top restaurants, of course, but for our list the establishment had to truly be a steakhouse. Steakhouses really don’t need a definition, do they?
2005’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #71
Our annual round-up of the past year’s best newcomers is always a challenge to write. We typically do not include chains (although there were a couple exceptions last year), and we shy away from listing places that have moved or simply reinvented themselves (but clearly there are some exceptions this year). Sometimes we miss an under-the-radar winner: We failed to include Rioja Spanish Tapas as one of 2004’s best new restaurants, but it has certainly proven itself to be one. Occasionally we tap a restaurant that abruptly fizzles out. One thing is certain, however. A restaurant is never the same entity after six months or a year as it is on opening day.
Go For the Bistro
Restaurant listings from My Table #70
Though the offerings from our recommended restaurants are far more varied than what would be found on a year’s worth of chalkboards announcing the plats du jour in the French countryside, the list will have a bias toward French and French-inspired eateries. The French invented the bistro concept, after all. The best and most inviting restaurants in Houston that follow the general bistro theme are shown below. Just ignore the term “cafe” in the name of some of these, as “bistro” truly is a more accurate term.
Mythic Pizza
Restaurant listings from My Table #69
Houston might not be a great pizza town, but it is a pretty good one. Most of the pizzas served here are the New York-style, featuring a thin (but not too thin) crust with generous amounts of toppings. You can also find Sicilian-style pizza—the kind that features a thick crust and a rectangular shape—and fanciful California-style pizzas are becoming more commonplace. Regardless of style, the best pizzas have a flavorful crust and are baked properly and thoroughly at high temperatures. Quality toppings are judiciously used.
No Place But Houston
Restaurant listings from My Table #68
Robust flavors, high quality, a lack of pretense and great value are some of the hallmarks of Houston’s home-grown restaurants. Oh, and the amazing diversity. Though many large cities can claim multiple cuisines done well, no other incorporates influences from Mexico, the Gulf, South Louisiana, rural Texas, Central America and second-generation Sicilian-Americans—often all on the same menu—as does Houston. Though great for Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue, the restaurant scene here offers much more, as readers of My Table well know. Here are 14 restaurants that could only happen in Houston.
Buns of Gold
Restaurant listings from My Table #67
The best hamburgers in Houston range from the sloppy, hand-crafted monster patty residing between processed white bread buns at the forlorn Lockwood Malt Shop in the Fifth Ward to the picture-perfect version at Taste of Texas in suburban west Houston. Yes, there are many restaurants in Houston, nice and otherwise, where you can get a good burger. What might be surprising to some is that the many of the best burgers are found at Inner Loop neighborhood bars and low-volume African-American eateries that serve just their communities. With apologies to Bubba’s Texas Burger Shack, Pappas Burgers, Goode Co. Burgers & Taqueria, Baba Yega, Christian’s Totem and several others that make notable burgers, below are the city’s top 14 hamburgers, listed alphabetically.
Ciao Down/Italian Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #66
Area diners have become more sophisticated during the last 15 years and are more receptive to regional Italian cuisine. Thankfully, we have restaurants that can oblige. Much of Northern Italy and Sardinia are well represented in this regard. Below are restaurants where you can eat Italian food that has a decent level of authenticity coupled with some real proficiency in the kitchen.
2004’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #65
If 2003 was the year of comfy American bistro dining in Houston, then 2004 was the year that restaurateurs felt it time to take down the safety net and simply go for it. Hugely expensive renovations and lively menus were the hallmarks of this past year, from a gorgeous Moroccan restaurant to a “cafe” that looks like fin de siecle Vienna to a naughty steakhouse famous for its strips. Here are the year’s 10 best newcomers, plus a selection of the year’s noteworthy closings.
Brunch Time
Restaurant listings from My Table #64
Brunch! Do we get questions about brunch! We have devoted these listings to weekend brunch a couple times, most recently in Issue No. 52. By now you know the obvious places — Rainbow Lodge, Goode Co. Taqueria, Benjy’s, Jalapenos, Barnaby’s, La Strada, Katz’s, Mama’s Cafe, Raven Grill, Tila’s, Buffalo Grille, Merida, Fountainview Cafe, the over-the-top hotels (e.g. the St. Regis, Four Seasons, Lancaster, Omni) and the mother of all brunch restaurants, Brennan’s. Here are more other places to consider.
Soulful Houston
Restaurant listings from My Table #63
Houston supports a number of very casual neighborhood restaurants that serve home-style or country-style African-American comfort food. We have put together a list of 14 of the best-known local soul-food restaurants. Don’t expect much in the way of decor or comfort at these places. The setup is usually functional at best, and takeout is often as popular as dining in. What you can count on is a very hearty, straightforward meal for a fair price.
The Village Eats Out
Restaurant listings from My Table #62
Rice Village is the melting pot of Houston. Surrounded by older upscale neighborhoods similar in sophistication to River Oaks, this shopping area combines the commercial density of the Galleria with the trendy nightlife of Montrose and historical pride of Downtown to allow visitors a taste of our metropolis in just one bite. Restaurateurs have respected the Village’s eclectic atmosphere and offer a little something for everyone.
The Cheap Side of Town
Restaurant listings from My Table #61
Houston’s melting-pot population and relatively low cost of living help make this a great city for dining on the cheap. According to USA Today, “Houston just might be the people’s dining capital.” Below is a list of 14 of the best local eateries where you can be assured of a well-prepared meal and an average bill under $10 per head (excluding drink, tax and tip). These selections are diverse, but each provides a very good meal and great value. Decor, service and atmosphere are secondary considerations.
Note: The average meal price is shown at the end of each listing.
Open Late
Restaurant listings from My Table #60
It’s 10:30 pm, and you’ve just exited Jones Hall and a Houston Symphony performance. Or, more likely, you just walked out of the Edwards’ screening of Russell Crowe’s latest flick. In either scenario, you’re hungry! Where to dine in this restaurant-rich town? If you’re like us, you can never think of a single place and end up at some drive-thru or fluorescent-lit chain restaurant. To help, we offer a few places that serve food late. Hint: Tear it out and put it in your glove compartment.
2003’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #59
Despite the troubling economic news that permeated the local restaurant industry in 2003, there were many fresh starts and bright stars. Trends? Several cool new spots opened downtown—five of the 12 we selected as the year’s best are downtowners—and confident “American bistro” style cooking (e.g. 17, Cava Bistro, Shade) is, finally, firmly planted here. Sad to say, we’ve also noted a dozen restaurants that closed and local foodies will miss most; we could have listed many more.
Wonder Bars
Restaurant listings from My Table #58
Bar food is a concept that is hard to corral. The term covers everything from freebie happy-hour buffets such as Jalapenos’ Tex-Mex selection to the weekly steak night at West Alabama Ice House. Bar food might mean a jar of pickled hardboiled eggs at one place, complimentary pizza at another, or simply the kitchen’s most ambitious food in smaller servings. In the listings below, we’ve tried to highlight all of these bar-food styles.
A Menu of Venues
Restaurant listings from My Table #57
What makes a great party venue? It’s all about flexible perspective, about transforming a theater, sports arena or even just a big, square room into something surprising and meaningful for both guests and hosts. These 14 special-events sites have the potential to fire up a New Year’s Eve party, bring co-workers together, underpin a charity fundraiser and/or launch a newly-wed couple in style.
Family Affair: Dining With Kids
Restaurant listings from My Table #56
If you’re a parent, grandparent, godparent or favorite aunt or uncle, sooner or later you’ll need some fresh ideas for dining out with youngsters. Besides the national burger chains, most Tex-Mex and casual Asian restaurants are family friendly, too. Here are more local restaurants that have made a point of putting out the welcome mat for kids.
Tops in Service
Restaurant listings from My Table #55
In the end, it’s service that matters most. Diners can forgive a stale roll, limp salad, an overcooked steak in a heartbeat. But if they don’t feel appreciated and treated with courtesy, well, that is often impossible to get past. Good service begins with the reservation process and concludes when the diner drives off the parking lot. It’s a million tiny details. Taken altogether, it’s what is known as hospitality. Here are some Houston-area restaurants that do it right.
Old-Fashioned Texas Eats
Restaurant listings from My Table #54
It’s hard to define “a Texas-style restaurant,” since Texas has so many different styles. How similar is the Texas that is hot, steamy Cajun-accented Beaumont to the Texas represented by, say, Amarillo or El Paso or Harlingen? For the sake of editing, we’ve pulled together a few spots that represent a variety of Texases. It’s a little walk down memory lane, a little cross-taste of the many kinds of foods and restaurants that we love in the Lone Star State. You’re welcome to send us your own additions to our list.
2002’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #53
Perhaps in subconscious defiance of the tattered economy and pervading sense of pessimism weave been living with for the past 14 months, Houston diners were gifted with some of the finest new restaurants in years. We wouldn’t call any of them conceptually daring (except perhaps Hugo’s), but the dozen listed below all are remarkable for several reasons, not the least being food. We traditionally single out the previous year’s best new restaurants in our February-March issue; this year, we also recall a dozen entities that foodies will miss most.
Sunday Brunch
Restaurant listings from My Table #52
Sunday brunch can be the best of all meals, or the worst. It all depends on the state of your liver. This is the meal when we tuck into delicate comestibles most of us would never eat any other day of the week: huge stacks of pancakes squishy with maple syrup. Hollandaise sauce by the boatload. Pork and eggs in myriad combinations. Brunch even has its own drink menu—mimosas, milk punch, bloody Marys. Yes, we love Sunday brunch! Here are 14 brunch spots that cross many ethnic and price borders.
Dining Solo
Restaurant listings from My Table #51
Unaccompanied, she smoothly enters the restaurant. Lunch break has produced madness in the form of screeching ladies who lunch, businessmen in shirtsleeves and cell phones, and packs of teen-agers MIA from their high school. Relieved that there is a counter to order from rather than a waiter (a constant and embarrassing reminder of her solitary state), the woman orders a sandwich and makes her way over to a small table in the corner. There she enjoys a much-needed respite away from work, traffic, family—everything. The following provide a comfortable atmosphere and respectable food for solo diners.
At Your Side
Restaurant listings from My Table #50
Why do we enjoy tableside preparations so much? They’re terribly old-fashioned (mostly) and labor-intensive for the restaurant. Is it because the whole floorshow rolls up to our table almost oozing showmanship? Such preparations can certainly be exciting: There’s always a frisson of excitement generated by a live demonstration performed at arm’s length, especially when fire is involved. Will the flare of rum singe the chef’s eyebrows? Can the teppan chef really catch a shrimp in his hat? Will the fish skeleton be lifted out intact? When the magic show moves from the kitchen to tableside, food is transformed into an entertainment, an artform, an experience.
Hauling In a Catch
Restaurant listings from My Table #49
This is a city of seafood restaurants — Mexican seafood, Asian seafood, Italian seafood and, of course, Gulf Coast seafood. Aren’t we lucky to live in a state with more than 1,000 miles of jaggedy coastline? The listings below are just a sampling of what Houston has to offer. Note: The Chilean sea bass population is heavily stressed now by overfishing. Let’s order it less often.
Whole Latte Love
Restaurant listings from My Table #48
With so many vices off-limits, a small buzz from a cup of coffee is to be relished. Which brings us to coffeehouses. “America lacks the decadence required for a truly great coffeehouse,” observed New York restaurateur Brian McNally about 10 years ago, “but we’re acquiring it, I think.” You bet. Today Americans, including Houstonians, understand how to idle over a cup of coffee with a book or a special friend. (Indeed, coffeehouses are the last great cheap date.) Starbucks has become well ingrained in our culture and needs no elaboration here, so let’s explore some other coffeehouses. Break out the biscotti!
2001’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #47
This is always the most difficult Listings to write every year. To begin with, newcomers often change radically within their first months: What we ate and experienced in April may be irrelevant in November, as the restaurant tweaks to find its niche. Some newcomers die before we go to press with this list; yet does the fact that the right audience never found them make these restaurants any less charming or innovative or remarkable? With some vacillation, here are our 14 choices for 2001’s best new restaurants.
Please note: We did not include new siblings of existing restaurants — e.g. Bistro Provence, El Tiempo, Buca Di Beppo, Cafe Express, Redwood Grill, etc.
Holiday Helpers
Restaurant listings from My Table #46
Winter is a particularly grand and busy time year for the eaterati. Even as the days grow shorter, tables groan with seasonal extravagance to share with family and friends. Who doesn’t welcome special foods, pretty candles, traditional decorations and seasonal trinkets? It’s too late for you to catch the Nutcracker Market, which is held every November. But we have 13 other suggestions for markets, bakeries and shops that will help you dress the table or dress the plate.
Satisfy Your Inner Child
Restaurant listings from My Table #45
The notion of childhood “comfort foods” might be expanded to “comfort restaurants”: places that probably won’t earn a plaque from the Chaine des Rotisseurs, but offer appealing, usually very hearty food in a setting that is the antithesis of elegant. Most of the 14 restaurants listed below are noisy, whimsical and cheap. Both the setting and food will satisfy your inner child … or the child holding your hand.
Delicious Patios
Restaurant listings from My Table #44
When it’s not unleashing 30 inches of rain on us (June 2001) or sucking up every last drop of moisture from the Earth with 108-degree heat (Summer 2000), Houston’s weather is generally considerate to those who would dine outdoors. Hot? Sure, in the summer. But with an east-facing patio, century-old live oak or a well-placed fan, dining in the great outdoors is more than doable. It’s wonderful. Here are some favorite spots.
Daft Restaurant Concepts
Restaurant listings from My Table #43
Preparing this list of restaurants founded on kooky concepts was a stroll down memory lane. As we pulled out file upon file, we were reminded of the humanely short lives of restaurant after club after cafe based on God-knows-what thinking. Most are long-gone, but a few have not only endured but thrived. No surprise that a city with a Beer Can House, Art Car Parade and Hair Ball would give birth to some nutty restaurant concepts as well. Here are 14 of the more peculiar.
Ladies-Who-Lunch Spots
Restaurant listings from My Table #42
Women can (and do) eat all over Houston, of course. However, there is a certain genre of restaurant that seems to especially configure itself to please women who wish to meet, visit and dine leisurely. Following are several such places. To aid in our research, we asked several women to tell us where they most enjoy lunching with friends. We’ve incorporated some of their responses in the listings below.
2000’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #41
Every year in the February-March issue we offer our choices for the previous year’s best new restaurants. The year 2000 was notable not only for the sheer number of new eateries to open in the city, but also for the unusually high quality. We can’t recall a more difficult selection process. Here, then, are our candidates for best of class, with this note: At least five more eateries could easily have been included.
Downtown Update
Restaurant listings from My Table #40
Back in Issue #18 (April-May 1997), our Listings recommended 14 downtown restaurants. Wow, has the eating-out landscape changed since then! The long-time institutions—Brennan’s, Damian’s, Clive’s, et al—have been been joined by dozens of newcomers: hordes from Dallas and Austin, clones from the suburbs, trendy young things that erupt overnight. Here are a few of the new kids on the block.
Restaurants We’re Thankful For
Restaurant listings from My Table #39
Houston is blessed with a plethora—no, make that a pleroma—of eateries so abundant with goodness, we often choke back tears of appreciation. Some are world-class, some are humble in the extreme, but all make us thankful to live and dine out in Houston. Shall we bow our heads for a moment of silent salivating, then get on with celebrating the pride of the pack?
Bog Apples & Rhubarb (Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants)
Restaurant listings from My Table #38
One potato, two potato, three potato, four—86 my order for stuffed wild boar. Okay, bad poem, but good idea. Flesh pots are out, earthy’s in—or so say the veggie-lovers who not only abound in number but in good health. Might say it’s open season on being pro-veggie around these parts. But don’t shoot them, unless the shoots are alfalfa or bean sprouts.
Open-Door Policy
Restaurant listings from My Table #37
Where to eat at the noon hour on Saturdays is a question that pops up with regularity. Legions of us drive around looking for an open sign at our favorite restaurants, only to find a great majority shuttered. But take heart, grumbling stomach. With stoves fired up, these Saturday-friendly spots eagerly await the weekend brunch lunch bunch.
Dinner & Dancing, part 2
Restaurant listings from My Table #36
Draped across a banquette, I felt a growing excitement as sultry jazz filled the air. Just as I lifted the forkful of cold lobster to my lips, I lifted my gaze toward the center of the room where it landed on … Ahem! Excuse the momentary lapse. There’s just something about music and great food that makes for magic. As promised: part 2 of our series on mood music.
1999’s Best New Restaurants
Restaurant listings from My Table #35
Restaurants come, and restaurants go. But sometimes they come and don’t go. The restaurants that survive seem to be doing something right to please quite a few people most of the time. The crop of 1999’s outstanding newcomers listed below are graduated now into the senior class, and with our congratulations, we present well-earned diplomas.
Dinner & Dancing, part 1
Restaurant listings from My Table #34
Heaven, we’re in heaven. Our hearts are beating so about a retro dining trend that we can hardly speak. Yes, several restaurateurs are doing the Latin hustle to seize on the popularity of salsa, while supper clubs, lounges and piano bars are also making a welcome comeback. Don’t miss our suggestions (half below, with part 2 in a future issue) on where to get a side of live entertainment.
