Although I’ve been traveling to Houston frequently for the
past 7months for work, I haven’t gotten a chance to experience Houston outside
of the Hotel, Work, Dinner, repeat routine.
My first Houston trip of 2013 I took advantage of my friend relocating
to Houston and found some fun to get into. Staying in the Southwest of Houston
for work is not one the most exciting parts of the city. The traffic is pretty much horrendous at any given moment. That is probably attributed to the lack of
public transportation, besides a bus that is also stuck in traffic, and that NO
BODY walks or carpools. I get the whole “not
car pooling thing” but for a major city, you would assume to see people out and
about walking and living life. Negative! Houston is not a walk-able city. However, you can get a decent stroll around
some areas of downtown Houston, often
referred to as Mid-town, and check out some cool spots.
·
Layal Hookah Midtown: This is
a cool BYOB (no liquor) hookah spot with indoor and outdoor seating. It was poppin’ in there. There was a wait for both indoor and outdoor
seating. As a frequent “Hookah-er” I don’t think this place has
the best indoor ventilation system. It
was kinda stuffy inside and felt like we could possibly get congested. So we patiently waited until there were
available seats on the front patio and enjoyed the outside freshness. In the midst of having fun and enjoying the
evening, rain starts to drizzle down – and good thing I had an umbrella in my
purse. Apparently with the patio, there wasn’t
an awning to cover moments like this and was an opening ceiling. Not the greatest of ideas but, definitely
something they should look into. Unlike other
Hookah establishments I visited, they actually placed the hookah on the ground
because of “liability issues,” which I thought was rather interesting as I never
seen nor heard that before. My
recommendation would be to try to call ahead for availability and not go when
there’s any chance of rain in the forecast
·
Farrago Brunch: This by far has been the most poppin and hype
brunch spot I’ve ever been to in LIFE.
From the outside it looks like it’s a fairly quiet establishment. When you enter it – it was super poppin’ with
a DJ on the 1s & 2s, people everywhere enjoying the libations and music. The wall art was vibrant and just brought a
completely different ambiance than what you would think is outside. This establishment offers ‘Bottomless Mimosas’
for $13 as part of their brunch special.
I am assuming this is “THEE brunch spot” as Slim Thugga came in and was
escorted right to the back – VIP treatment.
I would have been jealous but my party of 4 had already settled in at
the bar after embracing the defeat of possibly getting a table aaanndd we became
friends with the bar tender. #winning. One dislike about the place was – there was
only 1 bartender. For a super busy Sunday
that didn’t seem logical but – hey Im not the one to judge- she kept my Mimosa’s
bottomless J. Since I was in the South I embraced the
Chicken and Waffles meal and it was Yummmmy.
I definitely caught the Itis right after but we stayed there for a while
and watched a little bit of Good Ole’ Texas Football that was playing on their
several screens mounted across the place.
Brunch typically last until 3 or 4pm depending on how busy they are so I
would DEF recommend this spot.
·
Hanks Craw Fish: When in Rome, do as the Romans do… was the
theory I applied when experiencing Crawfish in the South for the first
time. I’m a big fan of seafood so I
thought I would give it a whirl. This establishment
seemed like a smaller hideaway spot that you find to have great food. Whilst engaging in my 1st
Crawfishing experience, my friend tells me about how big they can come during
crawfish season and how it’s a past-time.
He explains how there are family functions where they cover the tables
with newspaper and keep dumping random seasoned flavors of crawfish out for you
to enjoy. After eating my yummy 1pound
of mild Cajun crawfish – im ready for the family affair
·
Galleria Mall: This is a super huge mall. It has a lot of
upscale stores that you can shop at.
This multi-level mall is quite interesting because…… It has an Ice
Skating Rink built inside. You
can watch from any level above and see the ice rink and those who are learning
how to ice skate, practicing, enhancing, and those who just plain show off!
LOL. There are quite a few fancy restaurants
within the mall and also within the galleria area. There are plenty of hotels in the area also. Outside of Midtown, I would recommend the
Galleria Area to stay while visiting Houston.
If you enjoyed this
review and the one from NYC, stay tuned!
Can’t wait to continue my web series about the fun at….. MARDI GRAS 2013!!!
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