Because August 32 doesn't exist

More than 20 celebrations for unofficial Houston holiday 713 Day

July 13 isn’t officially a holiday in Houston, but lots of people treat it like one. After all, 713 is Houston’s oldest area code, which means the number will always be part of the city’s identity.

Also, we can’t celebrate anything on February 81 or August 32, because they don’t exist.

As has become a tradition, organizations and businesses all over the city are planning special events for Saturday. We’ve rounded up all the best food pop-ups, car shows, markets, concerts, and more.

Go out and enjoy. After this week, we could all use some fun.

Community Celebrations

Children’s Museum Houston invites you to chill out on 713 Day with frosty melodies, cool sculptures and breathtaking science. Also, dance and sing-along with your favorite Frozen-inspired characters and friends in a wonderful show of music. 9 am.

Over at 8th Wonder Brewery enjoy live music from Donny Houston, Matt Mejia, and Shame On Me, a vendor market curated by Good Market HTX, outdoor activities, cannabis beverages, beer, and more. It’s free and open to the public. Noon.

Fonde Community Center and the Houston Rockets are teaming up for a 713 Day of Basketball. There will be a youth basketball clinic, a dunk contest, a dance fitness class, and appearances by Trae tha Truth, Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and others. 10 am.

Harrisburg Art Museum will be the place for Houston Culture Fest’s 713 Day Fest. There will be a live performance from Lil O, a puff and paint sesh, live graffiti art, a slab meet/contest, and a bunch of vendors. 5 pm.

Market Square Park will have a special edition of the We Heart HOU Music Series. The event will feature more than 20 local vendors and live performances by Aire Fresco and EZ Band. 5:30 pm.

Starseed Hostel will have a 713 Day Fest, hosted by Off Record Media and Coexistence Collective. Slum City Art Department, Goosechase, The Chevy Bois, Junkyard Cat, and The Kiddos are scheduled to perform. 5 pm.

Restaurants & Bars

Cadillac Bar will keep things figuratively and literally flowing throughout the day. They will have an extended, all-day happy hour, hitting you with cervezas, margaritas and over 70 tequilas. 11 am.

Cafe Leonelli invites fellow Houstonians to celebrate their city with its festive 713 Day cocktail, the Comet Crush. Priced at $7.13, the Comet Crush is the perfect tribute to Houston’s unofficial holiday. 5-9 pm.

Craft Pita is bringing back their “Only in H-Town” summer cookout event to showcase the combination of cultures and flavors one can only experience in Houston. Created in collaboration with guest chef Gabe Medina (formerly of Click Virtual Food Hall), the menu will celebrate Lebanese, Filipino, Palestinian, and Peruvian cultures. 11 am.

Over at Diversion Cocktails, Space City area-residents are invited to sip on a $18 Candy Paint cocktail with rum, candy syrup, citrus, soda and cinnamon. It’s a drink for the senses and a must-try. Reservations are strongly encouraged through Tock. 5 pm.

If you’re near either the downtown or Galleria Grotto restaurant, you can stop in and get their famous peach bellini for $7.13. (Call the Galveston location and see if they’ll also have this.) 11:30 am (noon Galleria).

FAO HTX will get its party on with a 713 Day bash. There will be door prizes, a Houston-inspired scavenger hunt, Houston trivia, photo opps and $7.13 H-Town margaritas. The Do713 crew will also host a countdown, a celebratory toast and confetti cannon blasts at 7:13 p.m. RSVP here. 6 pm.

J-Bar-M Barbecue will host Cadillacs and Coffee, a free-to-attend car show featuring unique stock and modified classic Cadillacs. Barbecue connoisseurs can enjoy J-Bar-M’s “El-Dog Sando” with a side of french fries for $20. 1 pm.

King Ranch Texas Kitchen will have an all-day, extended happy hour, with speciality cocktails for $7.13. You can get such delicious drinks as the spiked cucumber fresco, the Texas peach tea and the grilled pineapple margarita. 11 am.

Marmo will have $7.13 spritzes, which will be available all day long. Indulge in a classic aperol spritz or a mesmerizing purple spritz made with Empress gin for a festive and refreshing treat. 11 am.

Pizaro’s Pizza is offering a deal for customers who show their H-Town pride. Customers sporting a Houston-themed outfit or shirt on July 13 are invited to purchase an 8-inch personal margherita pizza for $7.13. 11 am.

Nashville hot chicken restaurant Red Chickz is giving diners a free chicken sandwich with the purchase of any combo.

Tacodeli will be offering $5 margaritas and $2.13 beers to mark the occasion. Combine the specials for a total of $7.13 to show some Houston pride. Specials will be available at both the Washington Avenue and Post Oak Plaza locations. 8 am.

The Tipsy Sloth will celebrate its grand opening with a 713 Day Market. DJ Areal and Whitney Screwston will provide the grooves, while Baked Potato Mannn will serve up the food. There will also be an H-Town cocktail menu. 7:13 pm.

Treebeards in Bunker Hill will be celebrating 713 Day with $7.13 summer cocktails all day. Cocktails include the watermelon spritz, the grapefruit chilton and the Greta Garbo (we’re assuming that one is best consumed alone). 11 am.

WILD Concepts invites Houstonians to salute the city’s oldest area code with both of its locations in Montrose and The Heights. They’re offering $7.13 specials all-day on their popular cocktails Swangin’ and Bangin’ and Still Sippin’. 8 am (10 am Montrose).

Over in Spring Branch, Wild Oats is serving $1.50 oysters (half dozen minimum), $4 guacamole, $7.13 queso, $7.13 margaritas, and $3 select beers.

Courtesy of 8th Wonder

8th Wonder is celebrating with concerts, a market, drinks, and more.

holidays festivals 713 day

Movie Review

Star-filled pickleball comedy The Dink aces on Apple TV+

Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Mary Steenburgen and Jake Johnson in The Dink.

While the sport of pickleball was invented way back in the 1960s, it has exploded in popularity in the 2020s. It was only a matter of time before someone figured out a way to make a movie about the craze, and a comedy like the new Apple TV film The Dink provides the best way to honor and make fun of the divisive sport at the same time.

Dusty Boyd (Jake Johnson), aka The Hammer, is a former tennis phenom who’s now working as an instructor at a club owned by his dad, Chuck (Ed Harris). While the two don’t always see eye-to-eye, they have a mutual hatred for pickleball, which they have begrudgingly allowed on the property by giving it the worst court.

Dusty is hoping to stop all future pickleball expansion by winning a one-on-one grudge match, but when he injures his wrist, he’s given a prescription of pickleball as a form of rehab. Older women like Candace (Mary Steenburgen) are the only people he can find to play with, and despite his disdain for the sport, he soon falls prey to its low-key charms.

Directed by Josh Greenbaum (Will & Harper) and written by Sean Clements, the film is probably the best advertisement pickleball will ever have. Dusty’s introduction to the sport serves as a lighthearted tutorial for the uninitiated while still getting in some nice digs at its expense. The other players — Candace, Gail (Cleo King), and Judy (Lynn Marie Stewart) — are equally welcoming and critical of Dusty, who initially has trouble adjusting to the game’s different rules.

The film’s approach to the story is silly but never stupid. Dusty is a blowhard, but he’s also able to admit when he’s wrong, especially when Candace introduces him to multiple things he had never considered before. A long-standing feud between Dusty and Andy Roddick provides more than just a goofy cameo for the real-life tennis star. The film also pushes right to the edge of being over-the-top before pulling back, allowing it to keep a semblance of reality to it.

Clements’ story follows a tried-and-true formula, making the film very predictable but enjoyably so. Where it earns its comedy credentials is in its finer details, like Dusty’s love for his 1999 Buick LeSabre with under 200,000 miles on it, his trunk full of old VHS tapes, or his interactions with his assistant PJ (Aaron Chen), who manages to be the comic relief in an already funny film.

Johnson, probably best known for starring in the sitcom New Girl in the 2010s, has the right amount of smarm and niceness to pull off the role, letting viewers laugh at and root for him at the same time. The film is full of comedy all-stars in small roles like Oswalt, Chris Parnell, and Ben Stiller, but Harris steals everyone’s thunder. The line readings by the four-time Oscar nominee give an extra punch to his character’s jokes, especially one that hints at the sordid history of the tennis club.

It’s a shame that The Dink is only playing on a streaming service as there’s a dearth of good comedies like this in movie theaters. With a solid joke-telling approach, a respect for its subject matter, and a cast who all play off each other well, this is a film that deserves to be seen by more than just those with an Apple TV subscription.

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The Dink is now streaming on Apple TV.

movies sports pickleball film