Foodie News

Power to the patio: Tiny Boxwood's named Houston's most popular 'cheap eats'

Urbanspoon was one of those apps that first made the original smartphones look cool, with its gambler-friendly, shake-to-pick-a-restaurant format.

Four years later, Urbanspoon has a database of over 1 million restaurants throughout the United States — and one restaurant in Houston stands out as one of the most popular.

On Tuesday the site published a list of the 100 most popular cheap eats — that's any restaurant labeled with a single '$' — as based on "blogger reviews, food critics and diner votes on Urbanspoon."

In Houston, the only restaurant that made the list was Tiny Boxwood's, the ultra-popular bite-sized cafe inside the Thomson + Hansen nursery. Say what you will about Tiny Boxwood's (can any place with a $22 lamb burger really be considered "cheap eats"?) there's always a huge line on nice days for the simple yet delicious fare (helloooo, chocolate chip cookies), the gorgeous environs and the premium people-watching.

Austin had three restaurants make the nationwide Urbanspoon list — Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Hut's Hamburgers and Magnolia Cafe — and other Texas cheap eats ranked in the top 100 include Fuzzy's Taco Shop in Fort Worth, Thai Pepper in Lubbock, Tex's Star Grill in the D/FW suburb of North Richland Hills and San Antonio's Florio's Pizza and Mangolia Pancake Haus.

What are your favorite cheap eats around town?

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Farewell, ElRo

Creative Montrose pizzeria will shutter after only a year-and-a-half

Photo by Julie Soefer

ElRo Pizza & Crudo

An acclaimed Houston pizzeria will soon serve its final pies. ElRo Pizza & Crudo will close after service on December 31.

In a post on Instagram, chef-owner Terrence Gallivan thanks his staff for their dedication and his customers for their support. “We hope to see you all over the next couple weeks. Come celebrate with us,” he writes.

Open since June 2023, ElRo intrigued diners who enjoyed Gallivan’s work at pioneering Houston restaurant The Pass & Provisions. At ElRo, the chef served a modified version of the Provisions pizza recipe alongside crudos and shareable small plates such as arancini and housemade sausage. It earned four nominations in this year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, including Best New Restaurant and Chef of the Year.

Sadly, Gallivan tells CultureMap that business has seen “a steady decline in business for many months.” Recently, the restaurant had tried a number of initiatives to draw in diners, such as steak night on Tuesday and fried chicken on Saturday.

The early announcement gives diners two weeks to make one more visit (or two) to the restaurant before it closes. Customers may want to time their visit for happy hour, which takes places from 3-6 pm Tuesday-Friday. It includes half-off glasses of wine, $4 draft beers, $9 select cocktails, and food specials.

Gallivan adds that he doesn’t know yet what his next move will be. Hopefully, he’s got one more comeback in him. Houston is a more fun town to dine in when Gallivan is cooking in it.

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