know who this is part 2…

i posted this picture a few days back asking if anyone knew who it was?

i guess my jpeg gave away the answer – but that was the plan.  i wanted people to look into charles hatfeild’s story and im glad at least one person caught the widespread panic reference!  anyway, hatfeild was a rainmaker that used to cooked up various gases to be released into the atmosphere creating rain for areas that were in need.  he was called on by the city of san diego to help them with their drought situation and was posed as a hero when the rain came but when the people of san diego saw that the rains were not gonna let up they re-called their deal with hatfeild and ran him outta town! 

i admit – the support of tenacity so far has been fantastic and continues to grows with each dinner but i know there are still a ton of people in houston who I have yet to tap into.  are you unhappy with the variety & more importantly, the quality with the houston dining scene?  that can only change if you get out there and support new & old places! 

the question i get asked most often at supper club dinners is “why do you think that houston dining scene is not on par with other major metropolises?”  my reply is always the same – “lack of support”.  “new” and “different” isn’t easy in the south and even more difficult in houston.  I know we have a fantastic ethnic dining scene and they offer tons of variety but if we want to become the restaurant city we aspire to be we need more…

cities like nyc, san francisco & chicago have fantastic ethnic dining (better than houston some might say) but they also have an equal if not better casual & formal dining scene – making them the culinary capitals of our nation. i know we have a some nice eateries here in houston but to me, they can be counted on 1 ½ hands.  now, before i get rocked with hate comments let me clarify.  i know a quality place does not have to be fancy, expensive or modern so you can keep those comments to yourself but when you compare the size & prosperity of houston with other cities – we lack in comparison.  although i do believe in the past 3-4 years houston has been blessed with some great restaurants such as reef, catalan, voice, the grove, dolce vita and many others. i also believe that we are on our way to becoming a culinary destination city but we as a city need to get out there and support local restaurants (and supper clubs)!