And The Winners Are

Raise a toast to delicious winners of Rodeo Uncorked! & Best Bites Competition

More than 5,000 foodies flocked to NRG Stadium on February 19 for the Rodeo Uncorked! Roundup & Best Bites Competition, the Rodeo season's food and wine-focused kickoff event.

Hosted by the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the annual competition brought together signature dishes from renowned Houston-area culinary establishments, with more than 110 of the region's premier restaurants serving tasty tidbits at the event.

These were skillfully paired with an impressive selection of nearly 450 award-winning wines from the 2024 Rodeo Uncorked! International Wine Competition, including the Grand Champion and Reserve Grand Champion.

If you missed the festivities, you still have the opportunity to sample some of the winning wines in the Rodeo's Champion Wine Garden, presented by Frost Bank. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo runs through March 17, 2024.

Without further ado, here are the Best Bites winners:

People’s Choice Award
1st place: Grazia Italian Kitchen
2nd place: Cotton Culinary

Outstanding Showmanship Award
1st place: Eculent
2nd place: Sheshe Treats

Tasty Tradition Award
1st place: Messina Hof Harvest Green Winery & Kitchen – Mushrooms stuffed with goat cheese, mascarpone, ricotta, and Gruyere cheese
2nd place: Cultivated F+B – Raspberry white chocolate and vanilla verrine

Trailblazer Appetizer Award
1st place: Pier 6 Seafood – Wood-grilled coconut shrimp
2nd place: Goode Co. – Campechana
3rd place: Loro – Curried brisket rice

Lone Star Entrée Award
1st place: Raising Cane’s – Chicken fingers on garlic butter Texas toast with Cane’s sauce
2nd place: The Capital Grille – Kona-crusted dry-aged sirloin finished with a shallot butter sauce and au gratin potatoes
3rd place: Grazia Italian Kitchen – R-C Ranch smoked wagyu chuck eye pancetta risotto topped with a blueberry-rosemary garlic port reduction

Two-Steppin’ Dessert Award
1st place: Egghaus Gourmet – Strawberry tres leches croissant
2nd place: 1848 Handcrafted Heritage Ice Cream – Buckshot Caramel stracciatella with praline ethiope and whiskey caramel swirl
3rd place: Guzel Cakes – Perfect Love: Vanilla pudding cake with strawberry cheesecake

Rookie Award
Money Cat – BistecBao: Filipeno-inspired bao with braised beef chuck, calamansi aoili, pickled red onion, cilantro, and chicharron

The 2024 Rodeo Uncorked! International Wine Competition champions included:

Grand Champion Best of Show: Beau Joie Brut Champagne AOC, NV
Reserve Grand Champion Best of Show: Smith-Madrone Riesling, Spring Mountain District, 2018
Top Texas Wine: Meierstone Vineyards The Airship Red, Texas High Plains, 2021
Top Red Wine: Marchesi di Barolo DOCG, 2018
Top White Wine: Perissos Vineyards and Winery Winemaker’s Reserve Pape Blanc, Texas High Plains, 2022
Top Sparkling Wine: Champagne Telmont Reserve Brut Champagne AOC, NV
Top Dessert Wine: Quady Winery Essensia Orange Muscat, California, 2020
Top Region Wine: TerraNoble CA1 Andes Carmenere, D.O. Colchagua Valley, 2020
Top Value Wine: Animus Vinho Verde DOC, 2022
Top Wine Company: Nice Winery
Top Region Wine Company: E & J Gallo Winery
Top All-Around Winery: Winebow Import
Top Texas Winery: Kiepersol

The 21st annual wine competition featured 2,985 entries from 22 countries. In addition, 539 entries came from Texas wineries and the 2024 featured region, Chile, had 161 entries.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo promotes agriculture by hosting an annual, family-friendly experience that educates and entertains the public, supports Texas youth, showcases Western heritage, and provides year-round educational support within the community.

Since its beginning in 1932, the Rodeo has committed more than $600 million to the youth of Texas and education. For more information, visit rodeohouston.com and follow @RodeoHouston online via Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube for all the latest news.

Photo courtesy of HLSR

Pier 6 Seafood won the top title in the Trailblazer Appetizer Award.

wine chefs rodeo winners promoted

visiting popup bagels

A highly opinionated take on Houston's venture-backed new bagel shop

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

It’s hard to remember the last restaurant opening with as much fanfare as PopUp Bagels. Houstonians lined up in the heat for the bakery’s grand opening on Saturday, June 13.

Shawn the Food Sheep included a glimpse of the line in his review below.

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A post shared by Shawn Singh (@shawnthefoodsheep)

Eager to see what the fuss is all about, I stopped by around 10 am on Thursday, June 18. Thankfully, only about a dozen people stood in line ahead of me, and I had a bag of six bagels in less than 20 minutes.

The frequency with which it boils and bakes it bagels sets PopUp Bagels apart from Houston’s traditional, mostly family-owned bagel shops. Instead of making large batches early in the morning that may get refreshed once or twice per day, PopUp Bagels is constantly boiling and baking smaller batches of a couple dozen bagels at a time throughout its operating hours. That's why customers will hear the cry of “hot bagels” echoing through the small, counter-service space every time more emerge from the oven.

PopUp is different from traditional bagel shops in a couple of other important ways. First, the menu only list five varieties — plain, poppy, salt, sesame, and everything, which is topped with poppy seeds, salt, and sesame seeds. And, it only serves whole bagels — no slicing or toasting. The store’s motto of “grip, rip, and dip” explains how it expects customers to consume their bagels. Packaged lox are available, but diners have to assemble the sandwich themselves — either off-site or at one of the couple of cafe tables outside.

PopUp Bagels also doesn’t sell individual bagels. Instead, diners must order a minimum of three bagels and a schmear — various cream cheese and butters are available — for $15. Six bagels and a schmear costs $24. A dozen bagels and two schmears is $46. As a point of comparison, the Bagel Shop Bakery in Bellaire charges $25 for 13 bagels and two, 8-ounce schmears.

So, how is it?

Fresh, hot bagels are inherently superior to hours-old bagels. That’s a real advantage for PopUp Bagels. On my visit, the fresh-from-the-oven plain bagels were so hot that they needed a couple of minutes before we could "grip and rip" them.

As for the bagels themselves, they certainly look the part. The outside is deeply caramelized with an even distribution of toppings that adhere well to the exterior.

But the biggest shortcoming is texture. Bagels, obviously, are supposed to be chewy, but all six of the bagels that an ex-pat New Yorker friend and I ordered walked the line between chewy and underbaked. That may be deliberate, as softer bagels are easier to “grip and rip.”

It's also possible that the bakery’s new employees are still dialing in procedures, and that a different day would yield bagels with a crispier texture. Colloquially, friends who have also visited the shop — both in Houston and other cities — disagreed with my assessment of the texture.

The plain is just that, with a very mild flavor. Both the scallion cream cheese and salted butter had a pleasantly creamy texture and boosted the dining experience.

Overall, PopUp is competitive with Houston’s best bagels. That’s promising, since Stripes — the equity growth firm that bought PopUp Bagels in 2023 — has announced plans to open more than 300 locations nationwide.

But you won’t see me driving half an hour or standing in a long line to get another taste. Houston’s locally-owned bagel shops are more convenient, less expensive, and just as good.

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

openings news-you-can-eat breakfast popup bagels