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    Trendysomething in SoMo

    SoMo Mascot Evicted!

    Steven Devadanam
    Jan 7, 2010 | 12:00 am
    • A letter of eviction came our way. I was completely unaware that people evenstill sent physical mail.
    • Sas, making himself at home (sigh)
    • We performed the brutal labor of cleaning up shards of Lone Star beer bottlesleft from the night-before's fête.

    Twentysomethings with pets: Discuss. There are those who choose to completely devote themselves to their animals, beleaguering coworkers with tales of their tails. Maybe you have a fellow employee in IT who has a very special relationship with his ferret or python. Or perhaps you, too, have been on a date with somebody who names his malteses after obscure Roman emperors. Then, there are the girls who have already accumulated countless feline friends; we’ll call them Cat Ladies in Training, or CLITs. Let’s just say that I do my best to avoid CLITs.

    Personally, I was raised with rescued thoroughbred spaniels, so I, too, have a soft spot for cuddly, furry animals. Therefore, I wasn’t too fazed when my roommate surprised us with a lop-eared rabbit in October 2008. Rabbits are sort of a novelty pet once you’re more than a decade old, so owning one in your 20s can be ironic, nostalgic and super-cute all at once. Really, housing a rabbit is a very efficient way of being trendy. Sure, our lease required a pet deposit, but we assumed it could be waived due to bunny Sasquatch’s cute nose and plush coat.

    Sas was promptly set up with a three-story bunny condo, complete with organic hay and lining of back-issues of Vice. He was a hit at parties, as Facebook pictures document him sporting glow bracelets and eating the fresh mint out of mojitos. Sasquatch is so beloved that one summer day when he went missing from our back patio, we spent an afternoon roaming around SoMo searching for the little guy. This eventually amounted to us sneaking into our neighbor’s back yard and going for a swim in his pool – where we found Sas chilling out by the hot tub. Yes, Sas was a party bun – but his diva days were numbered.

    In comes a belligerent landlady; let’s call her Wheezy. Our cute strip of mansard-roof townhomes represents the first of her late husband’s property developments and the last in the family’s possession. It’s logical that she designates a certain degree of preciousness upon the property. When I first moved in, she simply stated in her Texan drawl, “I just wanna provide a good home fer good people like you two!”

    Wheezy had no idea. Somehow we received no complaints over our first slew of parties: Halloween 2008, Cape Cod Cougars/Jersey Shore Boozers, Yourself from the Future, The '80s Before AIDS, Trendy Indie Kids – just a few of our themed bashes that didn’t even receive a peep from the neighbors. It wasn’t until this past August’s “Look at this Fucking Hipster”-themed event that we caught wind of a negative response. Perhaps this is because the mix of ironically dressed hipsters and regular friends dressed ironically as hipsters decided that outside was the new inside and took to loitering in the street—and on the roofs of strangers’ vehicles.

    Apparently our next-door neighbors were hosting a quiet dinner party, and when their guests reappeared, they found various kids squatting on their minivan, surrounded by half-empty cans of PBR. Needless to say, Wheezy was not pleased by the sound of the next day’s phone call. She showed up at our door, decked out in the majority of items ever offered at Chico’s, and watched as we removed the Parliament butts and shards of Lone Star bottles from the sidewalk. As we performed the brutal labor, people from the neighborhood passed by and snickered. Said one pedestrian, “Aw, look at the sad hipsters!”

    Never again were we to host a full-fledged fête. We thought we were golden, as we've kept to ourselves during the past several months.

    That is, until yesterday, when we received an angry email from Wheezy revealing that she had learned of our bunny-harboring activities. Not only had we neglected to ever pay that pet deposit (these parties don’t pay for themselves!), but unbeknownst to us, our most recent lease completely forbade pets of any kind. That same day, we received a detailed letter from Wheezy’s real estate attorney. I was completely unaware that people even still sent physical mail. After a futile phone call with the lawyer asking if he could just break his letter down into a few texts or tweets, we decided it was time for Sas to go. The attorney was too busy anyway with the whole Robinhood vs. Beerhaus drama.

    Perhaps one day I’ll cash in on the American dream and own a home of my own, where rabbits and ragers may coexist. In the meantime, we’ve put him up for adoption. I can take solace in keeping track of Sas Patterson on Facebook and closely following sas_the_bunny’s Twitter.

    Or maybe we’ll meet again. I always order the braised rabbit at Catalan.

    unspecified
    news/city-life

    most read posts

    Major closures, celeb sightings, more top Houston restaurant news 2025

    CultureMap's 11 favorite new bars that shook up Houston in 2025

    Houston's only Michelin-recognized Tex-Mex restaurant now open in Bellaire

    hottest headlines of 2025

    The 10 hottest CultureMap headlines that had Houston talking in 2025

    Eric Sandler
    Dec 31, 2025 | 10:00 am
    Places-Unique-Rice University-main building-exterior-1
    Photo courtesy of Rice University
    undefined

    Editor’s note: The time has come to look back the most-read CultureMap articles of 2025. As always, Houstonians take a lot of pride in seeing our city’s institutions and personalities shine on the world stage, so it’s no surprise that readers responded to news about Rice being ranked among the best universities in the world and Sugar Land nearly topping a list of the best places to live in America. Restaurant news remains at the core of our coverage, which is reflected in six of this year’s top 10. Elsewhere, we celebrated Houston companies that are great places to work and embraced our city’s richest billionaire.

    Places-Unique-Rice University-main building-exterior-1
    Photo courtesy of Rice University
    Rice University is one of the best in the world.

    Read on for the 10 most popular stories of 2025.

    1. 2 Houston universities named among world’s best in 2026 rankings. QS (Quacquarelli Symonds), a London-based provider of higher education data and analytics, compiled its World University Rankings 2026 by using factors such as academic reputation; employer reputation; faculty-student ratio; faculty research; and international research, students, and faculty. Rice, ranked No. 2 in Texas, moved up more than 20 places, and the University of Houston climbed about 100 to No. 556 globally.

    2. Houston chef breaks his silence on sudden exit from Woodlands restaurant. Chef Austin Simmons spoke to CultureMap exclusively about his decision to resign from his role as executive chef and partner of Tris, a fine dining steakhouse in The Woodlands. Since then, Simmons has devoted his attention to Chef & Rancher, his cattle business, and burger pop-ups. He’ll open a new restaurant, Charlois by Chef Austin Simmons, in the spring.

    3. Totally sweet Houston suburb triumphs as No. 3 best place to live in U.S. Livability.com ranked Sugar Land No. 3 on its list of "the 100 Best Places to Live in 2025." Limited to cities with populations between 75,000 and 500,000, the study considered criteria such as average rent and home prices relative to income. Across the eight main categories, Sugar Land ranked the highest for its health (89), housing and cost of living (88), and economy (85).

    4. Pioneering Houston Mexican restaurant will shutter after 44 years. Citing an overall downturn in business and more personal factors, chef-owner Armando Richards said he would close his restaurant Picos this fall. However, a surge in demand has delayed the closure until early 2026. That means Houstonians have a little time left to get signature items such as chilorio, duck with mole, and tamales.

    5. 11 Houston companies named best places to work by U.S. News. The annual "U.S. News Best Companies to Work For" report examines thousands of publicly-traded companies around the world to determine the best employers based on six metrics. Chevron, American Bureau of Shipping, Calpine, Hines, and others represented Houston on the list.

    6. Houston restaurant served Beyoncé a Southern feast for her first meal in H-Town. When Beyoncé Knowles-Carter returned to Houston for two sold-out shows at NRG Stadium, she and her family turned to downtown restaurant Taste Kitchen + Bar for a Southern feast. The epic spread included jerk lamb chops with deep-fried lobster, smothered chicken with collard greens, and the restaurant’s signature chicken and waffles. Later that weekend, Taste chef-owner Don Bowie shared a photo with Jay-Z.

    7. Shaquille O'Neal leaves $1,000 tip at Houston Tex-Mex institution. The NBA Hall-of-Famer, media personality, and restaurateur dined at Ninfa’s Uptown in July. Sitting in the main dining room, he posed for pictures with both fans and the restaurant’s staff. After dining on crispy tacos, he left his server a very generous tip.

    8. James Harden's Houston restaurant locked out over $2.2 million in unpaid rent. The former Houston Rocket’s tenure as a restaurant owner came to an abrupt end in September, when the building’s landlord locked out Thirteen for non-payment of rent. Harden opened Thirteen in 2021, shortly after he left the Rockets for the Brooklyn Nets. In July, he signed a two-year, $81.5 million contract with the Los Angeles Clippers.

    9. Award-winning Houston steakhouse will close after only 2 years. Although it has achieved success and spots in the Michelin Guide with both Candente and The Pit Room, Sambrooks Hospitality couldn’t find an audience for Andiron, its live fire steakhouse in Montrose. Even after pivoting to a more affordable menu, Andiron wasn’t financially viable. New Orleans restaurateur Malachi DuPre claimed the space for Casa Kenji, a new seafood restaurant that blends Japanese and Latin influences.

    10. Richard Kinder is Houston's richest billionaire in 2025, Forbes says. The Kinder Morgan chairman is the 11th richest Texas resident, and ranks as the 108th richest American. Kinder also dethroned Tilman Fertitta to claim the title as the wealthiest Houstonian. The publication estimates Kinder's net worth at $10.6 billion, up from $8.1 billion in 2024.

    hot-headlinesmost popular storiesyear in review
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