Kindred Stories

Houston Chef Chris Shepherd’s Southern Smoke Festival Returns for Its Biggest Year Yet | Eater Houston

"A bookseller that will be on-site selling cookbooks during the event and participating in festival-related signings." - Brittany Britto Garley

East Nashville Is the Hottest Neighborhood In the Hot-Chicken City | Bon Appétit

"The running joke for the past decade is that thousands of barns gave their lives to supply the amount of reclaimed barnwood decorating the city’s institutions. So it was with a healthy amount of skepticism that I approachedPelican & Pig, a Southern-ish restaurant with, yes, a bar wrapped in wood. I should have been more trusting since (a) those are new pine boards and (b) it’s from Nick and Audra Guidry, the husband-and-wife duo behind the excellentSlow Hand Coffee + Bakeshopnext door. Here they give Southern staples a twist, smoking short ribs and layering them with a Sichuan-spiked soubise and making pillowy gnocchi out of biscuit dough to slide under braised rabbit." - BySTEVE CAVENDISH

This Third Ward bookstore moved into the restored Eldorado Ballroom, hosting readings that center Black voices. Featured by the Houston Chronicle and local outlets, it’s a cultural anchor steps from Emancipation Park and neighborhood landmarks.