restaurant

What would property tax relief from the Legislature mean for Texas renters?

Winter storm and travel advisories across much of Texas with some forecast models indicating things could get worse. Victor Murphy of the National Weather Service with more on the icy situation that’s already led to many school closures and stranded motorists overnight.

Our closeup on property taxes continues as the Legislature sets its sights on cuts. The Texas Standard’s Sean Saldana has more on what this means for renters.

The Standard’s Shelly Brisbin on how advocates for Texans with disabilities are turning up the heat on lawmakers at the Capitol.

And 30 years after the Branch Davidian siege, we’re talking to Kevin Cook, author of the new book “Waco Rising.”

Taco Gentrification

In Austin, East of IH-35 is considered the great divide, from the wealthy and the poor, the whites and Black and Latino communities. With Austin’s growth and gentrification comes even more displacement. You can literally experience it through the city’s tacos, where you can buy tacos for $2.00 at one location and $9.00 at another, all within 5 blocks of each other! In this episode, we’ll explore Taco Gentrification and how it impacts taqueros and the communities we live in. We will take a taco tour of the east Cesar Chavez and 7th Street and also hop over to East Riverside, a place of dos mundos where one side of the street is home to immigrants and families while the other side is inhabited by millenials and new condo dwellers. Guests include Regina Estrada from Joe’s Bakery & Mexican Restaurant, Mincho Jacob from BASTA Austin and Samuel Franco, East Riverside resident and advocate.

Smoked Beef Barbacoa

Barbacoa, from Sunday traditions to everyday goodness, barbacoa continues to evolve and surprise us. In this episode, we talk barbacoa basics before chatting with Joel Garcia, owner and pitmaster at Teddy’s Barbecue in Weslaco, Texas. Joel shares his barbecue and barbacoa story and how smoking beef heads takes barbacoa to the next level.

Texas Standard: August 8, 2022

Congress is on the cusp of passing climate legislation that has major implications for the Lone Star State. The multi-billion dollar package does quite a lot of things, but focuses on measures that will slow global warming. We’ll have the details today. Plus Houston’s food scene bows to no one. Why one new writer in the Bayou City says it’s among the most exciting food places on the planet. And putting artificial intelligence to good use: a new Texas partnership is trying to figure out how. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: March 29, 2022

A Democratic congressman resigns early creating what the GOP says is an opportunity to flex political muscle in South Texas. What Filemón Vela Jr. decision to leave congress early might mean for the GOP efforts to shift south Texas from blue to red. Also, how Texas new voting law disenfranchised some long term Texas voters. And they were first spotted in Texas in 2002. Twenty years and much destruction later, University of Texas researchers say they’ve found kryptonite for crazy ants. Also how the pandemic changed the recipe for a long running survey of the best restaurants in Texas. All that and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: March 28, 2022

Major property damage and evacuations as wildfires spread across parts of Central Texas. We’ll discuss the ongoing dangers amid efforts to fights the blazes. Other stories we’re tracking: As the war in Ukraine drags into its second month, the push to get more Texas oil to global markets, and why that’s easier said than done. Also the impact of the war on the global food situation. Plus a new chapter for libraries? A survey of universities finds a push for what are libraries of the future. We’ll hear what they might look like. And a new documentary on the life and times of one of Texas’ most astute and ascorbic political observers. You likely know her name. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: January 31, 2022

On this final day to register to vote in the primary, a new survey offers a sneak peek on who’s ahead in what races and why. A pandemic, a statewide power outage, a walkout at the capitol over voting restrictions. In 2022, how much is set to change in Texas politics? A new poll by the University of Houston Hobby School suggests less than some might imagine. We’ll hear more. Also, in a decision celebrated by environmentalists, rights to drill for oil in the gulf wiped out by a federal judge. We’ll hear about what could be long term ripple effects. And a growing problem for Texas pitmasters: where’s the wood? Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard :

Texas Standard: January 10, 2022

As the Omicron variant continues to feed a spike in COVID-19 cases in Texas, the Supreme Court hears arguments against vaccine mandates. We’ll have more on how the high court might be moving on vaccine mandates for large businesses and many health care providers. Meanwhile, Texas restaurants asking the state for millions of dollars to help them make it through the pandemic. Also, another round in the legal battle against SB8, the recently passed abortion restrictions in Texas. We’ll have the latest. And Texas to be home to the nation’s new biotech triangle. A major development or mostly marketing? Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: November 29, 2021

With a big rise in COVID-19 cases in New Mexico and pediatric cases up in El Paso, experts raise red flags for Texas. In time for the holidays, growing warnings about COVID-19 in Texas as the President announces new steps amid the spread of a new variant. We’ll have the latest. Also, with the infrastructure bill, the push for electric vehicles in one of the nation’s top gasoline consuming states, you know the one. Plus a conversation with the mother of a Texas elementary school student pushing for changes in how the stories of Indigenous people and Native Americans are taught. And a college football outlook and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: July 23, 2021

After the winter outages, Texans have been demanding a rethink of the Texas electricity market. Is it finally coming? Weathering criticism for its handling of winter outages, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, announces a redesign of the electricity market. We’ll explore the planned changes and what they add up to. Also, is Mexico breaking the free trade agreement with its Mexico-first oil policy? A bipartisan group of Texans asks President Biden to intervene. And endangered sea turtles on the Texas coast, now facing a new threat. Those stories and a whole lot more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: November 16, 2020

Texas’ top law enforcement official Ken Paxton faces more legal hot water, this time from some of his own former top aides. We’ll have the latest. Also, a city’s convention center transformed into a field hospital as COVID-19 cases soar in El Paso. We’ll have more. And lessons for the lockdown era: a book to help kids cope with the Coronavirus. Also the twists and turns of Texas elections without straight ticket voting. And we’ll take a closer look at what drove so many young latinos and latinas to the polls. Plus the re-release of a mid-century classic offers a critical re-examination of Texas small town life. Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: October 13, 2020

Texans get in line to cast their ballots in one of the most consequential election years in modern memory. Polling the polling places as our reporting partners statewide check in on day one of early in-person voting in Texas’ election 2020. Also, Texas restaurants brace for a new post COVID-19 normal. What’s on the menu won’t be the same as it was before the pandemic. And the debut of a new book and documentary: Driving While Black. And under the dome in Austin, a call for more women in leadership posts. Those stories and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: May 1, 2020

A may day like few others in recent memory as the Lone Star State begins a slow reopen. Texans get back to work, or perhaps, not. We’ll have the latest. Also, its May 1st: due day for millions of renters. Dallas and Austin among cities offering relief. We’ll look at why Texas’ biggest city hasn’t joined them. And the Texas Attorney General weighs in on property rights, in Colorado? Why? And the week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune, the Typewriter Rodeo and much more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: April 20, 2020

Texas becomes one of the first states making moves toward a post COVID-19 lockdown. Too fast, too soon? Governor abbott, flanked by other top officials announces schools will remain closed in Texas, but a task force is working on getting back to business as usual. We’ll discuss what happens next with House speaker Dennis Bonnen. Also, the Texas engineers ramping up to help offset a shortage of hospital ventilators. And a book by a Texan who survived a pandemic 100 years ago that resonates today. All that and more today on the Texas Standard:

Texas Standard: January 17, 2020

As the senate takes up impeachment, it takes up something else in the spirit of bipartisanship with major implications for Texas, we’ll hear all about it. Also, Texas among the states becoming magnets for people from Puerto Rico. As the territory hits population lows, who’s left? And remembering a moment that made Barbara Jordan a household name 24 years after her passing. Plus the week in Texas politics and much more today on the Texas Standard:

Missing Whataburger

What’s the best Whataburger you ever had?

That’s a question a friend of mine likes to ask everybody. Seems a strange question, but in Texas it isn’t. When he first asked me I told him I could not tell him about the best Whataburger I ever had until I first told him about the time I most wanted one.

Many years ago I took a job in Africa for the period of a year. While there, I just couldn’t find much to eat that I liked. I lost about twenty pounds in six months. I was so thin the local Care guys joked that they might have to send me a package.

It was at this point of mild starvation that a friend back in Texas, Don Love, sent me a two-by-three foot poster of a Whataburger. Ten times life size. Hot cheese, mustard and onions cascading seductively down the sides. Food porn. That is exactly what it was.

I think it was the cruelest thing my former friend could have done. There I was in Whataburger-less Africa, staring at that poster every day. He had me Whataburger-dreaming for months.

After a year in the African hinterland, I flew back into DFW. Though it was midnight, I hailed a taxi and said, “Take me to the nearest Whataburger.” I got a double-meat double cheese, with chopped jalapenos. I whatasized the fries and the Coke and chased it all with a chocolate shake and an apple pie.

Now that was the best Whataburger – indeed, the best meal – I ever had.

I am not alone in having such priorities.

Soldiers on leave from posts around the world often go straight to Whataburger when they get home.

I tell you, If the Pentagon would make MRE Whataburgers, it would lift morale.

Some people who live in Whataburger-less states will drive a couple of days to get a Whataburger. They don’t even check into a hotel. They just eat one, take one to go and drive back home. So you see, there are only two kinds of states in America – those who have Whataburger and those who wish they did.

In the Whataburger states, there are connoisseurs who feel that there is a particular restaurant that makes the best Whataburger of all. They will drive 60-70 miles in this Holy Grail-type-quest to get what they feel is the Whataburger of Whataburgers.

Whataburger is a Texan chain, born as a food stand on Ayers Street in Corpus Christi, back in 1950. It was the brainchild of a burger visionary named Harmon Dobson. His goal was simple: in a time of small burgers, he wanted to make one so big it would take two hands to hold it, and so good that with one bite people would say, “What a burger!”

And it was so. When my mom used to take me and my two brothers to Whataburger when we were just little boys, she would first spread newspapers across our laps in the back seat of the cavernous old Buick sedan. Then she would cut the burgers in half and serve them to us that way, one half at a time, so we wouldn’t “make a mess” of her protective plastic seat covers.

Three things I loved about the early Whatsburgers: 1. The triangular buildings that looked like the orange table tents everybody takes as souvenirs today. 2. The smell of burgers and onions that permeated the air within half a block. 3. My mother saying, “If you finish all of that, you can have a shake.”

Today there are 810 Whataburgers across the Orange States of Whataburger Nation, from Arizona to Florida. Texas remains the capital, of course. All of these Whataburgers are open 24/7 – proving every day that everything is bigger and better in Texas.

The Weird Connection Between Tony Romo and Tony Roma’s

When Tony Romo joined the Dallas Cowboys back in 2003, some people confused his name with that of Tony Roma’s, the restaurant chain. They thought maybe Tony Romo was related to the Tony Roma family, perhaps heir to the baby back ribs fortune, even though there was an important one letter of difference at the end of the names. Everybody knows by now that there is no relationship between Tony Romo and Tony Roma’s, but there is quite a deep connection between the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Roma’s that few people know about.

Back in 1976, the Dallas Cowboys played the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl X in Miami, a game the Cowboys lost by four points. After the game, Clint Murchison, Jr., owner and founder of the Dallas Cowboys, went to dine at the only Tony Roma’s restaurant in existence at the time. It was in North Miami. He was so impressed with the ribs and the cole slaw, that in legendary Texas style, he said to himself, “I like this restaurant. I think I’ll buy it and move it to Texas.”

These quick draw decisions were not unusual for Murchison. He was once forced to spend a good deal of time with bankers in New York City and soon found himself frustrated that he couldn’t get a decent bowl of chili or good smoked brisket. So, he did the only rational thing a rich Texan could do. He opened his own restaurant there in Manhattan. He called it The Dallas Cowboy. It served classic Texas chili and smoked brisket. Problem solved.

Back to Tony Roma’s. Clint Murchison couldn’t buy the original Tony Roma’s because Tony wouldn’t sell it. But Clint did buy the franchise rights. Within just a few years, there were Tony Roma’s in Manhattan (giving Murchison a second place to get food he liked when he was stranded in New York), Hollywood, Dallas – and the headquarters soon moved to Dallas (well, Plano to be exact) where it remained until just last year.

It could be said that Clint Murchison, Jr. started two great franchises in his life – the Dallas Cowboys and Tony Roma’s. The Dallas Cowboys are today the most valuable team in the NFL. In fact, at $4 billion, Forbes says the Cowboys are the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Worth more than New England or Green Bay. Worth more than the New York Yankees. Worth more even than Manchester United or Real Madrid.

Jerry Jones must be given his due for creating a good deal of that value, but Murchison did build the Cowboys into a marquee name in the NFL before he sold the team. As for Tony Roma’s, it is privately owned so I don’t know its value, but I do know the restaurants have gross sales of over $300 million a year. That’s a lot of ribs, y’all. And now they’ve added lamb ribs to their newest menu.

Just as the Cowboys are known worldwide, Tony Roma’s is, too; 150 restaurants in 30 countries on six continents. You can eat at Tony Roma’s in Madrid, in Tokyo, in Bangkok, Lima, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, where there are eight to choose from, or at locations right here in Texas. Yes, Clint Murchison, Jr. gave us the sacred tradition of watching the gladiators of the gridiron on Sunday afternoons and he gave us the food to watch ‘em with, too. Now, that’s a mighty fine accomplishment. A mighty fine man.

Tony Romo may have no official relationship with Tony Roma’s. But I think he should buy a franchise so we can say I’m going to Tony Romo’s Tony Roma’s. That would be hard to say three times real fast, which I’m sure you’re gonna try as soon as you’re done reading, which is now.

12th & Chicon: What a New Business Owner Sees

Executive Chef and Owner of Big Easy Bar & Grill Darold Gordon, has brought a taste of his hometown of New Orleans to the neighborhood. He opened his restaurant in 2013, about eight years after Hurricane Katrina forced him to move to Central Texas. His restaurant is where the old Club 40 used to be in East Austin.

Table That Thought

Everyone has their own way of relaxing and gaining perspective: meditating, listening to music, or sitting in a favorite chair with a cup of tea. Sometimes you just need to sit and ponder life’s questions and forget about the daily routine. Today’s poem is for all of us who need to stop and think, tables included.