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Honoring JFK 50 Years Later

Big crowds brave frigid Dallas weather to honor JFK on solemn anniversary

Claire St. Amant
Nov 22, 2013 | 2:42 pm

Thousands heeded the call from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to brave the cold and rain Friday to honor the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy 50 years after his death.

“We the people of Dallas honor the life, legacy and leadership of the man who called us not to think of our own interest but that of our country,” Rawling said as light rain fell over Dealey Plaza.

The somber ceremony drew a diverse, respectful crowd, which was no accident. The city’s decision to issue 5,000 tickets to carefully screened attendees ensured a tightly-controlled event.

“I came here to commemorate the good things that JFK did, not the horror that happened,” said Miguel Andrews.

Emile Gosslin came to Dallas from Vermont to witness history firsthand. “To be here in person, it’s an honor,” Gosslin said. The 61-year-old still vividly recalls the day 50 years ago when JFK was shot.

“I was 11 years old, and I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Grand Prairie resident Miguel Andrews was living in Mexico City in 1963. He said the president’s death had a deep impact on him as a child, but he doesn’t want to dwell on the assassination or conspiracy theories today.

“I came here to commemorate the good things that JFK did, not the horror that happened,” Andrews said.

Although Dallas is home to many reminders of JFK’s assassination, the 50th anniversary marks the first official city event held in Kennedy’s memory. In addition to the ticketed event in Dealey Plaza, the city set up public viewing locations AT&T Plaza at American Airlines Center, Annette Strauss Square and the JFK Memorial at Founders Plaza.

“The man we remember today gave us a gift that will not be squandered,” Rawlings said. “Kennedy and our city will forever be linked. In tragedy, yes, but out of that tragedy an opportunity was given to us … a chance to hold high the torch even when the flame flickers.”

Dallas dedicated a new monument to JFK to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his assassination. It bears words from Kennedy’s unspoken speech, the one he was going to deliver the day he has shot.

Renowned presidential historian David McCullough praised Kennedy’s command of language.

“His words changed lives. His words changed history,” said McCullough, who devoted most of his keynote speech to quoting Kennedy. “He had high hopes, and so did we. And on we go.”

In closing, the Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes prayed for blessings on Dallas and the world and offered thanks for the inspiring legacy of President Kennedy.

“As we go forth, grant that we won’t be centered on where have been or what we have done, but where we are going and what is possible by your grace.”

The Navy honor guard presents the flags at the JFK 50th anniversary event in Dallas.

JFK 50th anniversary in Dallas
Photo by Sylvia Elzafon
The Navy honor guard presents the flags at the JFK 50th anniversary event in Dallas.
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the pit room expands

Guy Fieri-approved Montrose barbecue joint fires up hot new Memorial location

Eric Sandler
Oct 26, 2022 | 4:44 pm
The Pit Room interior
Photo by Jenn Duncan

The Pit Room uses offset smokers.

A popular Montrose barbecue joint is heading west. The Pit Room will open a second location in the Memorial City area in the third quarter of 2023.

Located in MetroNational's Benignus Plaza, the new restaurant will occupy approximately 6,200-square-feet just west of the Gateway Memorial City development (10301-A Katy Freeway). Considerably larger than the Montrose original, the new restaurant will combine both the Pit Room and its adjacent bar the Patio at the Pit Room into one space. The new restaurant will feature seating for 100 inside, 25 at an indoor-outdoor bar, and 80 on a covered, 2,600-square-foot patio. A dedicated to-go counter will allow customers to purchase barbecue, sausages, sauces, and more.

“We are excited to grow the Pit Room concept and serve a new area of Houston,” owner Michael Sambrooks said in a statement. “The Pit Room is our original concept, really our baby, and we look forward to serving the residents in Memorial and on the West Side.”

Opened in 2016, the Pit Room serves Central Texas-style barbecue prepared in offset barrel smokers. It has drawn a devoted following, including an appearance on a 2021 episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

In addition to the usual meats such as brisket, pork ribs, and three kinds of housemade sausage, the restaurant has built a devoted following for its Mexican and Tex-Mex-influenced sides such as chips and queso, elotes, and charro beans. Three kinds of tacos, served on housemade tortillas made with brisket fat, are always popular with regulars. Texas Monthly taco editor José Ralat hails the smoked chicken taco with garlic cloves as "the magic order" at the Pit Room.

The new location will bring the Pit Room's full menu to Memorial. A larger kitchen will allow it to serve a bar menu for game watchers, a "specialty grill menu," and more desserts.

“We are pleased to announce the arrival of the Pit Room’s legendary Central-Texas barbecue to Memorial City,” MetroNational vice president of retail leasing Danna Diamond said. “This hometown favorite reinforces our commitment to provide special dining experiences for our community.”

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we literally love them

Sorry haters, here's why the Astros have cemented favorite status in Houston

Ken Hoffman
Oct 26, 2022 | 3:15 pm
Houston Astros Jeremy Peña

Houston Astros/Facebook

Jeremy Peña is already a fan fave.

The Houston Astros don’t need to show a bill of sale to prove that they own Houston. Just take a snapshot of what happened in Houston sports the last two weeks.

The Astros, fresh off dispatching the Seattle Mariners in three straight games, gloriously and emphatically swept the dreaded New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Now the Astros head to the World Series as clear-cut (-185) favorites to beat the Philadelphia Phillies starting Friday at Minute Maid Park. Tickets for the World Series opener in Houston are available on the secondary market starting at $504 for standing room. Field level seats behind home plate will cost you up to $4,000.

Walk into a sports store and all you see are Astros jerseys, caps and pennants. Local TV news anchors and radio personalities are wearing Astros gear and hosting watch parties and downtown fan fests. Schools are encouraging students to wear Astros colors. Politicians are showing up at ball games, hoping to get some Astros karma before Election Day. Houston is awash in Astros orange. Houston undeniably is a baseball town in traditionally football-crazy Texas.

You know the facts and figures: six consecutive American League Championship Series appearances, four World Series appearances in six years, five Division titles since 2017, batting titles, and Cy Young, MVP Awards and Rookie of the Year.

But more than that, the Astros own the hearts of Houston fans. They look like Houston. They fight like Houston. They are diverse like Houston.

The first baseman is a Cuban expat with gravity-defying hair and better scoops than Marble Slab. The second baseman is a pint-sized superstar and girl dad from Venezuela, probably the greatest Astro ever. The baby face shortstop was born in the Dominican Republic, played his college ball in ice box Maine and high-tailed it to subtropical Houston fast as he could, like many of us from someplace else. The smart aleck third baseman is a clutch-hitting Jew with a newborn baby and salsa side hustle. And calling the shots, a beloved old-school African-American wearing gloves and wristbands and working a toothpick into splinters.Last week the manager Dusty Baker stopped by Kenny & Ziggy’s deli to pick up some lox and bagels to help third baseman Alex Bregman break his Yom Kippur fast. That’s teamwork.

The Astros starting pitcher Friday night has two Cy Young Awards, one more in the mail, a superstar model wife who’s graced the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit editions, and an endorsement deal with Ford. It doesn’t suck to be Justin Verlander.

You may not know it in Houston, but football and basketball seasons are in full swing. The Texans and Rockets aren’t putting up much of a fight for sports section headlines, though.

The Rockets? They opened their 2022-23 season by dropping three straight games before notching a win Monday night. Current odds of them winning the NBA title this season – 50,000 to 1.

The Rockets announced an opening night crowd of 18,055, a rock-solid sellout. I said “announced.” Tickets for the Rockets’ next home game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 2 start at $17 on the secondary market.The Texans? They’re 1-4-1, stuck in last place in the AFC South. Last week they played the equally hapless Las Vegas Raiders and lost 38-20. The only positive news to come from the Texans this year – they lowered the price of hot dogs and beer and finally (finally!) fired polarizing executive Jack Easterby. The Texans are 17,500 to 1 to win the Super Bowl.

The Texans claim an average attendance of 69,243 this season. Don’t even. Tickets for Sunday’s home game against the Tennessee Titans start at $31.

Sunday is a travel day for the World Series. What will be the top sports story that night? The Astros are back in action tomorrow!

----

This article originally ran on our sister site SportsMap.

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wine guy wednesday

Wine Guy Chris Shepherd spotlights an acclaimed West Coast vineyard every Houstonian should know

Chris Shepherd
Oct 26, 2022 | 2:14 pm
Jasmine Hirsch Vineyards
Courtesy of Hirsch Vineyards

Jasmine Hirsch is the general manager and winemaker for Hirsch Vineyards.

Editor's note: Long before Chris Shepherd became a James Beard Award-winning chef, he developed enough of a passion for wine to work at Brennan's of Houston as a sommelier. He maintains that interest to this day. When Chris expressed interest in writing about wine-related topics for CultureMap, we said yes.

In this week's column, he talks to his friend Jasmine Hirsch about Hirsch Vineyards, a California winery that has supported the Southern Smoke Festival from the beginning. Take it away, Chris.

-----

I want to talk about a special place that you all should know. When you think of world-class vineyards, people think of sites in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Northern Italy. Hirsch Vineyards should be on this list.

David Hirsch purchased land on the true Sonoma Coast in 1978 and began growing grapes to heal the land after years of overgrazing and deforestation. Once the vineyards were planted, this became one of the best sites for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Some of the sought after producers bought their grapes — wineries like Littorai, Williams Selyem, Kistler and Failla. In 2002, David started making his own wines. His daughter Jasmine returned home to Sonoma in 2008 to work with the family business—first in sales and marketing, then general manager, and became wine maker in 2019.

I’ve known Jasmine since my Catalan days, and we’ve become great friends. She was just in Houston last weekend pouring her wines at the Southern Smoke Festival where we inducted her into the inaugural class of Southern Smoke’s Hall of Flame — people who have supported the organization and its mission since day one.

Just this month, Jasmine was included in a Travel + Leisure article highlighting California’s new generation of female winemakers, and Hirsch Vineyards was named Winery of the Year by Vinepair. She’s kind of a big deal.

We chatted about her path to becoming a wine maker, what she’s excited about for the future of Hirsch, and what she drinks at home.

Chris Shepherd: You didn’t start out in the family business. You left for 10 years and lived all over the world. Why did you decide to come home?

Jasmine Hirsch: I moved to New York in 2006, and I really thought I wanted to work in private banking. I worked really hard to get this great job, and I hated it almost immediately. I loved the non-work aspects of my life in New York, drinking wine, going to restaurants, meeting people. I became friends with Bernie Sun, a master sommelier who was the wine director for Jean-Georges for years. He knew how much I loved wine and restaurants and did not feel the same about banking.

He told me that I should go home and work for my dad. He said, “Your father is doing something important, and you should help him.”

He was able to point out to me that I had a responsibility, and also in a way, it gave me permission to go home.

When I was a kid, we called the vineyard “the ranch.” It was my favorite place. We lived and went to school in Marin with my mom, but in 5th grade, I spent an entire year living on the ranch with my dad, and I was so happy there.

My dad is a classic entrepreneur — a pioneer with a strong personality, doesn’t want to compromise, wants to do things his way. It was so hard when I started working for him! I thought I knew everything, and I had not earned that yet. After a few years, I knew I wanted to take care of this place. My dad wasn’t giving me space, so we fought a lot. It’s a very vulnerable thing to be in business with your family. And you really need to build trust with your business partner. After his accident [he was injured in an accident at the winery in 2014], it was like a master class in trust. He was forced to let go and had to rely on other people.

What is fate? I don’t know but I think a lot of us have these karmic battles or dances that we have to go through in order to find out way to feel right about ourselves and the people we love.

CS: You’ve really stepped into a major role: wine maker. The brand has always been legendary. You’ve just been honored as part of the next generation of female winemakers. That’s pretty special, and that must make your dad proud.

JH: It’s funny because we never talk about that stuff — he and I. It’s meaningful to have your work recognized from the outside. The media attention and the love from our customers enables us to do the work we do, but the important part is the the work we do when nobody’s looking.

There is a deeper reason why we do what we do. It’s to take care of the land.

CS: Your goal is to be a steward of the land.

JH: It was the reason my father planted vineyards. He bought the property in 1978 and realized it needed a tremendous amount of work to bring it back to some kind of ecological health. It was a rainforest, and our land was clear cut long before we bought the land and then it was overgrazed.

My dad needed some sort of cash crop so he could bring the land back, and he looked at redwoods, mushrooms, and he settled on wine grapes.

CS: Imagine how different your life would be if your dad chose mushrooms!

JH: You would have to have a separate section at Southern Smoke just for mushrooms!

Around 2005, my dad started to look around for a different way of farming and became interested in biodynamics. He was interested in it as a framework for how to manage the entire ranch. Our consultant who helped us transition into biodynamics said there is no such thing as a biodynamic vineyard. It’s a biodynamic farm. It encompasses the whole place.

The whole reason my dad built the winery was to produce income so we could heal the land. And I realized, what could be a better purpose than to take care of the land and your people? When we have a purpose in our work that’s bigger than accolades or money, our work is so much more generous to our hearts and spirits.

I’m very lucky that my father gently pointed out to me that there was a bigger goal in this business than just making good wine.

CS: What’s your favorite Hirsch vineyard site? Which one is the most challenging?

JH: The perfect vineyard is Block 8. It achieves its own natural balance in the vineyard and in the cellar. It’s a remarkable vineyard in that way. It has a soil that we don’t have anywhere else at Hirsch.

Block 7 is the heart of the West Ridge has always been my favorite vineyard, and West Ridge has often been my favorite wine. The wines are charming and effortless and very delicate, and yet it’s a very challenging vineyard to farm. It’s a bit of a heartbreaker vineyard because the vines do struggle. As my dad loves to say, every problem is an opportunity. Change your perspective.

CS: What do you see for the future?

JH: Amongst the wines, Raschen Ridge. It’s been interesting because we have been impressed by that section of the vineyard for a long time. We wanted to make sure that specialness wasn’t a flash in the pan but we finally bottled it on its own when the vineyard was 12 years old. Since taking over the winemaking and working with Michael [Jasmine’s partner Michael Cruse is the founder of Ultramarine and Cruse Wine Co] — he comes from outside and is a pragmatist. When he says Raschen Ridge can be better than Block 8, your ears perk up. That’s what I’m excited about.

And we’re planting new vineyards to try new things—new plantings with the goal of climate resilience.

CS: You and Michael are sitting back after a long week. What are you going to open?

JH: When we want to treat ourselves, we open old Barolo. Or I have a gin and tonic, and he’ll have a high ball.

CS: What’s your favorite restaurant in Houston?

JH: Catalan! Come back!

CS: How can people find your wines?

JH: You can go to our website and buy wines. There are always a few wines on our website to purchase. Or you can sign up for the mailing list, and we’ll send you a link to join the wine club.

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Contact our Wine Guy via email at chris@chrisshepherdconcepts.com.

Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. He recently parted ways with Underbelly Hospitality, a restaurant group that currently operates four Houston restaurants: Wild Oats, GJ Tavern, Underbelly Burger, and Georgia James. The Southern Smoke Foundation, a non-profit he co-founded with his wife Lindsey Brown, has distributed more than $10 million to hospitality workers in crisis through its Emergency Relief Fund.

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