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    Best Foodie Websites

    Online foodie dreams: The best websites for food lovers looking to give

    Marene Gustin
    Marene Gustin
    Nov 1, 2014 | 1:32 pm

    OK, Halloween is over, the costumes are put away and you’ve eaten all the candy. Well, at least the good stuff, no one likes those hard candies.

     

    So maybe now it is time to look forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

     

    Maybe even do a little gift buying.

     

    Not that I’m into marathon mall shopping, leaving the family on Thanksgiving to hit the sales or going into debt to buy materialistic crap for people who don’t need it and will probably return or regift it anyway.

     

    No, I don’t pay attention to Christmas creep or watch or read ads that say this is the must have/buy for the holidays. I much prefer to give the gift of good food, good company and holiday cheer.

     

     

      I wish more people believed in the old ways when a holiday was best celebrated with a feast, a nice wine or homemade gifts. 

     
     

    I might give a bottle of wine or extra virgin olive oil to a dear one but my preferred gift is to schedule a holiday meal with someone so we can celebrate with a feast at somewhere fun and spend time catching up. My treat.

     

    I wish more people believed in the old ways when a holiday was best celebrated with a feast, a nice wine or homemade gifts and not with a generic gift card or some expensive doodad no one really needs. Face it: Is there really anything we need but more time with our loved ones?

     

    And what better way to enjoy their company than to bond over food. Whether you prepare it for them yourself or you invite them to a favorite restaurant.

     

    And if I can’t do that because of geography, than I will send them food to share with those they are around. I start doing that in November so they can share with their local family and friends on Thanksgiving or Hanukkah or whatever holiday or football game they are celebrating at this time of year.

     

    Here are some of my favorite food sites for holiday shopping. No parking problems, no long lines at the post office.

     

     Dean & DeLuca started in 1977, before the current foodie craze, offering New Yorkers edibles from across the globe. The website offers wonderful gift baskets, whole holiday feasts, kitchen gadgets and cookbooks galore. Surely you know someone who would delight at opening a box of specialty caviars and pates?

     

    Even older, dating from 1934, is Harry & David. Known for its Royal Riviera pears and fruit-of-the-month club, this company today features a ton of holiday gift baskets, savory foods, sinful desserts, wines and even flowers and plants. This website has a little something for everyone on your list.

     

    But if your list, like mine, includes Texans, wannabe Texans and ex-pats, there are two Lone Star companies whose websites you’ll want to visit.

     

    First is the local Goode Company web store where you’ll not only find their famous mesquite smoked brisket, slow smoked ribs and sausage samplers but also gift boxes with Texas seasonings and cookbooks and, of course, the famous Brazos Bottom pecan pie. This delicious dessert made with Texas pecans and farm eggs comes in a wooden box branded with “Made in Texas.”

     

     

      What I love are the gift baskets, full meals and simple extras that range in price from easily affordable to huge spreads that will make your recipients think you’re from oil wealth.  

     
     

    Goode Co. BBQ has been baking this from the Goode family recipe since the first store opened in 1977. It makes a great gift.

     

    And then there’s my go-to site: New Braunfels Smokehouse. No, I wasn’t around in 1952 when the family owned ice house/ former brewery opened its first tasting room in New Braunfels, but as a teen in San Antonio my family regularly ventured north to shop in New Braunfels and stop by the smokehouse for lunch. Since those days the little smokehouse has grown into a major catalogue/web business selling its hickory-smoked meats, cheeses and snacks around the world.

     

    What I love are the gift baskets, full meals and simple extras that range in price from easily affordable to huge spreads that will make your recipients think you’re from oil wealth. Whole smoked turkeys and game hens, serious sausage packages, boxes of jerky, smoked cheeses, bread and butter pickles and jalapeno stuffed olives . . . and more.

     

    Do add on some sweet and spicy mustard and maybe a jar of pickled okra. Oh, and when I order gifts from here, I also order a “celebration in a box” full of multiple Texas treats for my own holiday entertaining.

     

    Dean & DeLuca offers wonderful gift baskets, including the Gourmet Turkey Essentials, shown here.

    Dean & DeLuca Thanksgiving basket gourmet turkey essentials
      
    DeanDeluca.com
    Dean & DeLuca offers wonderful gift baskets, including the Gourmet Turkey Essentials, shown here.
    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    HRW Menu Day 2025

    10 eateries participating in Houston Restaurant Weeks for the first time

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 15, 2025 | 12:22 pm
    Kitchen Rumors restaurant lobster dumplings
    Photo by Chris Furia
    These lobster dumplings are available as a supplement at Kitchen Rumors.

    One of the most eagerly anticipated days of the year for people who love Houston restaurants has arrived. Houston Restaurant Weeks has released the first wave of menus for its 2025 event.

    Held from August 1 until Labor Day (Monday, September 1), the charity dining event recruits as many as 400 Houston restaurants to serve two, three, or four-course, prix-fixe menus at set prices — $25 for lunch and brunch and $39 or $55 for dinner. HRW organizer The Cleverley Stone Foundation collects a $1 donation for every $25 menu sold, $3 for every $39 menu sold, and $5 for every $55 menu sold. It uses that money to make a substantial donation to the Houston Food Bank — just over $2 million from the 2024 event alone and over $22 million in the event’s 22-year history.

    Prior to her death in 2020, HRW founder Cleverley Stone described the event as a “win-win-win.” That is, a win for the restaurants who turned the traditionally slow month of August into a busy time. A win for diners who got good deals on meals at some of the city’s top restaurants. And a win for the Houston Food Bank, which turns every dollar raised into three meals for Houstonians in need.

    Now under the direction of her daughter, Katie Stone Cappuccio, Houston Restaurant Weeks maintains its status as the city’s premier charity dining event. Participating restaurants include all four restaurants in Bludorn Hospitality — Bludorn, Navy Blue, Bar Bludorn, and Perseid — all four of James Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega’s restaurants — Hugo’s, Caracol, Xochi, and Urbe — and two of the five Houston restaurants that hold one Michelin star — BCN and Le Jardinier.

    For diners, one of the most exciting aspects of the event is the opportunity to try a new restaurant with the certainty of a fixed price (plus beverages, tax, and tip). Towards that end, CultureMap has compiled a list of many of the first-time participants to help guide people’s selections. Diners are encouraged to keep checking the HRW website, because more establishments will be added between now and August 1.

    Bar Bludorn
    Aaron Bludorn’s Memorial-area tavern is serving a three-course, $55 dinner menu. Starter choices consist of shrimp tartine, chilled corn soup, or arugula salad with watermelon. For an entree, select ricotta gnocchi, branzino, or pork loin. Finish with blueberry cake, chocolate mousse, or ice cream.

    Barbacana
    Chef Christian Hernandez’s downtown restaurant that celebrates Houston’s diversity will serve both a two-course lunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. Choices include jicama salad, wagyu carpaccio, mushroom donburi, and grilled vermillion snapper. Supplements include octopus with mole poblano and a Texas wagyu Denver cut steak.

    Derby
    Located at a storage facility for collector cars, this restaurant is serving a three-course, $39 dinner menu. Choices include bacon with maple glaze and cayenne, apple walnut salad, fried green tomatoes, blackened chicken pasta, and a wagyu burger.

    Doko
    Part of Duckstache Hospitality (Handies Douzo, Aiko, etc.), this sushi restaurant in Autry Park is serving a four-course, $55 menu. Start with scallop aquachile, scallop ceviche, or a tomato salad. Choices for the second and third course include yakitori-style skewers with proteins such as short rib, chicken meatball, and wagyu ribeye as well as one of three sushi rolls — wagyu beef, avocado, or fried shrimp. Finish with one of three desserts.

    Kitchen Rumors
    This inventive, Indian-inspired restaurant from the team behind acclaimed Woodlands restaurants Amrina is serving a three-course, $55 menu. The first course offers five regular choices and two supplements, including lamb keema infladita, blue cheese chicken kebabs, scallop ceviche, and lobster dumplings. Choose from seven different entrees such as pan fried paneer, goat biryani, prawn curry, and bison short rib nihari.

    Maven Coffee & Cocktails
    This neighborhood restaurant that touts Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr as one of its owners will serve a four-course, $55 menu. Choices include a gazpacho shooter, bread and butter, “Caesar cups,” deviled eggs, steak au poivre, spicy rigatoni pasta, and a cheeseburger.

    Okto
    Part of Sof Hospitality (Doris Metropolitan, Hamsa), this Mediterranean restaurant in the Montrose Collective mixed-use development is serving a two-course brunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. At brunch, look for dishes such as ricotta toast, frena bread with pistacchio butter, beet-cured lox, and shakshuka. At dinner, the choices include hamachi tartare, octopus carpaccio, squid ink linguini with crab, and steak frites.

    Perseid
    Bludorn Hospitality’s French restaurant at the Hotel Saint Augustine is serving both a two-course lunch and a three-course, $55 dinner. Both menus include options such as white gazpacho, smoked salmon dip, tomato risotto, and the signature chicken paillard with fingerling potatoes and arugula salad. Dinner adds three desserts, including a chocolate entremet with salted caramel and coffee ice cream.

    Pizzana
    The Los Angeles-based, neo-Neopolitan pizzeria is serving a three-course, $39 menu that includes one of three pizzas — margherita, pepperoni, or the signature cacio e pepe — paired with a choice of three salads and three desserts. We recommend the little gem Caesar and the tiramisu, but that’s entirely up to you.

    Solarium
    Lance McCullers’ pickle ball bar in Midtown is also participating in HRW with a two-course brunch and a three-course, $39 dinner. Both meals include choices such as a chicken skewer with jalapeno-dill yogurt, Caesar salad, and cheeseburger. Brunch adds breakfast options such as pancakes or an egg sandwich, while dinner adds chicken tenders, a pulled pork sandwich, and choice of dessert.

    Kitchen Rumors restaurant lobster dumplings
      

    Photo by Chris Furia

    These lobster dumplings are available as a supplement at Kitchen Rumors.

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