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    wine guy wednesday

    CultureMap Wine Guy Chris Shepherd coaches Houston — How to pop big bottles for Super Bowl bashes

    Chris Shepherd
    Feb 8, 2023 | 2:30 pm
    Chris Shepherd large format wines

    Bring a big bottle or two to your Super Bowl party.

    Photo by Julia Casbarian

    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 offers tips for hosting a memorable Super Bowl party. Take it away, Chris,

    The biggest professional football game of the year is upon us. What does that mean to me? Big bottles, big groups, and lots of snacks!

    Let’s talk about big bottles. If you’re planning on opening multiple bottles throughout the evening, now is the time to consider going big.

    A guide to large format wines

    • 750 mL standard-size bottle
    • 1.5L (two standard-size bottles) – Magnum
    • 3L (four standard-size bottles) – Double Magnum
    • 4.5L (six standard-size bottles) – Jeroboam
    • 6L (eight standard-size bottles) Imperial Magnum
    • 9L (12 standard-size bottles, the equivalent of a case) Salmanazar
    • 12L (16 standard-size bottles) – Balthazar
    • 15L (20 standard-size bottles) – Nebuchadnezzar

    Why do I buy magnums? They age better and slower than small bottles. The wine matures slower, which means it stays fresher and cleaner for a longer period of time. But when it gets down to it, it’s just damn fun to drink wine out of big bottles. It’s Texas. Bigger is better.

    If you’re going to a party, you’ll look really cool walking in with a magnum. For me, it fits my hand just perfectly.

    It’s very doable these days to find magnums and double magnums at your local wine shop. Contrary to popular belief, not every big bottle is expensive. Look for varietals like Gamay, Pinot Noir, or Italian reds, and regions like Beaujolais, Chianti, Southern Rhone, and the Sonoma Coast. You can always find a good supply of Champagne and rosé in magnums — it’s hard to get more celebratory than that!

    Eating the enemy

    I’ve been cooking and "eating the enemy" for years. It was a tradition for every Houston Texans tailgate I’ve ever hosted. Our tailgate team, Duck Fallas, was in Blue Lot 26 every game. The idea is to take the iconic foods of your opponent, cook them and eat them to take their mojo away. I believe that the Astros won the 2022 World Series because I made Philly cheesesteaks every single game they won. The games they lost, I didn’t cook cheesesteaks. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

    If you’re a Kansas City fan, it’s Philly cheesesteak time. Luckily, I have lots of tips. First, the bread. Hoagie rolls are available at any local grocery story, but if you know Montrose well, there’s a local bakery selling delicious fresh bread until 1pm every day. If you know, you know. (Editor's note: It's Royal Bakery at 1841 Fairview St.)

    For the meat, head on over to H Mart. On your way to the meat department, pick up onions and Korean green peppers, which oddly enough look like long hots, a classic Philly addition to the cheesesteak. The thinly sliced ribeye traditionally used for Korean barbecue is perfect for cheesesteaks. Just season it up, chop it up, and cook it on the flat top.

    For cheese, skip the argument by offering all the options — provolone, Cheese Wiz, and American. Plus, all three cheeses make the best cheesesteak anyway. Have plenty of sautéed mushrooms and onions. A friend of mine even introduced me to mayo on a cheesesteak — it’s good! Combine to make a build-your-own party.

    What to pair with a cheesesteak? Gamay all day.

    If you’re a Philly fan, it’s time to head to Kansas City for some barbecue! Ribs are speaking to me — I love them so much. Let’s go with pork ribs. Pick your favorite style — you’ll find them all in KC. I like to follow a 3-2-1 method: 3 hours of smoke unwrapped around 225 degrees, 2 hours wrapped in foil with a little sauce, 1 hour out of the foil back on the pit glazing with sauce. This method produces a sticky, delicious, sauce-all-over-your-face rib. Texas ribs are not traditionally as saucy, but I can respect Kansas City for requiring more napkins.

    I know Kansas City is also known for their burnt ends, but I’d visit my favorite barbecue joint to buy those.

    If you don’t feel like spending six hours smoking meat, they also named a steak after the city. You can’t go wrong with a Kansas City strip steak.

    Suggested pairings:

    • Ribs – Champagne, yes. Rosé, yes. Pretty much anything, yes.
    • Burnt Ends – Go find yourself a Big Red [soda]. A big red wine will work, too, like a Syrah.
    • Strip Steak – It’s still Cab season, y’all.

    I hope everyone has a fantastic Super Bowl. Maybe one day soon our opponents will be cooking banh mi and biryani paired with my favorite rosé to eat the enemy. Welcome home, Coach.

    -----

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

    Chris Shepherd won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest in 2014. Last year, he 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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    Bourdain-inspired chef/writer

    Houston chef looks back at barbecue pop-ups with artful new zine

    Craig D. Lindsey
    May 15, 2025 | 4:00 pm
    Ryan Grimes Knives in Water
    Courtesy of Ryan Grimes
    Ryan Grimes has been serving food in bars for more than 10 years.

    If you frequent beloved dive bars like Two Headed Dog, Grand Prize Bar or Lil' Danny Speedo's Go Fly a Kite Lounge, there’s a good chance you’ve drunkenly bought food from Knives in Water.

    One of several pop-up kitchens that sells and serves bar food on a regular basis, Knives consists of one guy – Baltimore native Ryan Grimes – who knows his way around smoked meats, whether it’s ribs, turkey legs, buffalo wings, or a whole turkey (for Thanksgiving only). When it comes to barbecue, he sees himself as a culinary outlier.

    “The art of barbecue can kind of be gatekept by a lot of folks, which is ridiculous,” Grimes tells CultureMap. “I mean, it's three ingredients. It's a lot like punk rock: three chords and the truth, and you’re gonna get it right.

    On Saturday, May 24, Grimes will celebrate his 42nd birthday at Midtown bar Two Headed Dog, where he’ll be serving up more than just food. He’ll also debut Papercut, a zine filled with essays, remembrances and, yes, recipes. “A lot of it was taken from previous Instagram posts I had done that I expounded upon,” he says.

    With layout and artwork provided by bartender/artist Khrystah Luisa Gorham (who also designed Knives in Water’s logo and T-shirt merch), Grimes included many endearing entries to this brisk read. A 2015 post has him recalling the time he and his father went to the Million Man March when he was 12. A more recent piece has him cooking for his parents and maternal grandparents on Martin Luther King Day. He pays tribute to idol Anthony Bourdain (“I count him as a teacher of sorts, helping me find my own voice through food, culture and adventure.”) as well as an old friend whom he named a wing sauce after.

    The issue also runs down the various dishes Grimes tinkered with during the pandemic. “I took a look back at dishes that I had done in the past that I don't do anymore or, for one reason or another, I can't do,” he says. “Maybe they're too complicated or just wouldn't sell well at a dive bar, that kind of thing.”

    Papercut is basically a printed primer of the business Grimes has been operating since 2019. “Actually, [The Suffers frontwoman] Kam Franklin was the person that first put the idea in my head to do this, you know, professionally,” he remembers. “I did a dinner party for her. I mean, I can't remember what year it was — 2010, 2012, 2014… She was the first person to say, 'hey, you really got something here. You know, you're talented, your food's good. People seem to dig it.' So I guess you could kind of date it back to that.”

    Grimes got the idea for Papercut when he did a pop-up at last year’s Zine Fest Houston, held at the Orange Show. That’s where co-organizer Anastasia “Stacy” Kirages encouraged Grimes to put his thoughts and opinions down on paper. “It took her a while to convince me to do it,” he says. “Stacy's the most personable, likable person on the planet and I admire the hell out of her. So, it was kind of tough.”

    After he stopped procrastinating, Grimes found that creating a zine came quite easily to him. “Once I came up with the name, the silly name, it just kind of flew together in the space of maybe two months. I started writing it in February and I was holding a copy of it by late March, maybe early April. But yeah, it didn't take long at all.”

    Grimes has a limited number of copies, which he’ll be selling at his pop-ups. Copies will also be available at CLASS Bookstore and Gulf Coast Cosmos Comicbook Co. He isn’t ruling out dropping another volume if demand calls for it. If he does, Grimes assures readers that he’ll have fun with it and not become another culinary clout-chaser. “

    Yeah, it's really serious – the business of being a foodie, posting on Instagram and likes and all this stuff,” he says. “The competition is real and this is just a way to say it doesn't have to be that way. You know, you can do all of this yourselves. You and your friends can start a pop-up.

    “Starting a restaurant is something that will likely never happen for me,” he continues, “but that doesn't mean that I don't believe in my food and don't believe in my friends that do it as well. Umbrella Fellas, Annie’s Sammies, Tacos Bomberos. These are all pop-ups that are deserving of brick-and-mortar restaurants. They're deserving of all the accolades that we just don't get overshadowed because we're small-time, hanging out in dive bars, serving the people. But that's fine. No one I know is doing this for the laurels. It's just this punk rock DIY ethic that anyone can do this. Yeah, that's the beauty of it.”

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