Above: that’s me, right, with my bestest of friends, Gabriele “Elvis” Inglesi. When I was in my early 20s, we were a touring duo in northern Italy. Today, Elvis is one of the best “chicken picking” guitar players I’ve ever performed with.

After my family, there are two great passions in my life: music and wine. When they come together, it’s magic for me.

This Sunday, May 25, my 80s cover band, The Bio Dynamic Band featuring Katie White, will be performing at my monthly open mic at Emmit’s Place, my favorite local dive bar.

This will be the fourth music event I’ve done at Emmit’s. But now there’s an added twist: a few weeks ago I launched a wine program at Emmit’s.

Currently, we have just three wines on offer but they are all winners: a Friulian OG Pinot Grigio, a Sangiovese/Merlot Super Tuscan blend, and a wine I’m extra super stoked about, a killer Barbera d’Alba. All three wines will be available this Sunday. And Emmit’s just installed a new pizza oven!

This is a family-friendly event and the Open Mic is geared especially for kids, including classical musicians. And all the kids love the mocktail list that owner Susan Davis created just for us.

Please join me, my family, and some of the best musicians in Houston (no joke) for a great way to pass a Sunday afternoon. Last time, this amazing brass band showed up and took the house down. Word is getting out about our gig and you never know who is going to show up and play!

Open Mic at Emmit’s Place!
featuring The Bio Dynamic
featuring Katie White

Where: Emmit’s Place
4852 Benning Dr.
Houston TX 77035

When: Sunday, May 25
2-6pm (our band goes on at 4:30)

$5 cover (optional, not required)

Thank you for supporting local music, local musicians, and independently owned local businesses. Mention this blog post and I’ll buy you a glass of the Barbera myself!

The Meyerland Middle School community came together this morning to mourn the loss of an eighth grader, James.

The teachers released doves and the students released balloons to honor his memory.

Our school’s guitar group played “Stand by Me” and the mariachi band played “Cien Años.”

Students offered heartfelt memories of James.

It’s the unimaginable. Like James, my oldest brother died at around the same age, and like James, it was a car accident that took his precious life. I know what their family is going through right now. My deepest condolences go out to them.

G-d bless their family and G-d bless James.

Please DM me if you’d like the family’s Zelle to help support them in this unimaginable time.

Yesterday’s post was a dive into the differences between the osteria and trattoria (hint: the answer lies in the wine).

That discussion raises the question: what’s the difference between an osteria, a trattoria, and a ristorante.

In his 1953 novel Roma, Futurist poet and novelist Aldo Palazzeschi writes of the emerging “restaurant” (à la française) category in Italy’s capital (remember this is during post-war rebuilding but before the economic miracle of the 1960s): “they are osterias in name and look but not in fact. And thanks to their love of profit, each one of them is aspiring to transform itself into a restaurant, little by little.”

The word restaurant is widely believed to have first appeared in or around 1765 (in an early form) on the shop sign of a Parisian bouillon monger who offered “restoratives fit for the gods.” The term comes from the Latin restaurare meaning to restore, in the sense of restoring your vitality.

By the early decades of the 19th century, restaurant began to be used broadly in Paris and beyond (just take a look at English guide books to Paris from those years and you’ll see evidence of this).

The term first begins appearing as ristorante in Italy in the last decades of the 19th century. But its popularity would grow in the post-war era as economic recovery began to come into focus.

I think it’s safe to say that Italians would agree that the ristorante is the highest tier in the eatery category, a step up from osteria and trattoria (see my post from yesterday).

It’s also widely accepted that the ristorante is found generally in cities, although there are exceptions to that rule as well (ambitious wine country chefs sometimes call their venues ristoranti). Whether in the city or in the country, the designation has a ring of urbanity and sophistication.

The word is also often used for hotel and train station eateries, even though those venues may not achieve the level of refinement that you would expect from a stand-alone restaurant in a big city.

Thanks for being here. I hope that people find this interesting and useful!

One that people who don’t live in the U.S. south don’t realize is that southerners appreciate and expect great cooking more than in any other part of the U.S.

When I flew into Charleston week before last to speak at an event (for the Abruzzo consortium and the Charming Taste of Europe campaign), I went straight to my hotel, one of those corporate affairs where you’re lucky to find a bag of Doritos in the “shoppe.” Super clean and professionally managed lodging but equally anonymous and depressing.

It was around 9:30 but the hotel restaurant was still open. So, I thought, maybe maybe maybe I can get something decent to eat and a beer.

Not wanting to take any chances, I aimed low: a grilled cheese sandwich would do the trick, I thought.

To my surprise, it was probably the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. The quality of the bread and cheese and the apple peperoncino spread were in a perfect balance of sweet and savory. What a simple but wonderful sandwich! Even the fries: no Sysco here (no offense, Sysco).

I later met the chef and his wife and found that they are proudly running an entirely independent restaurant at the otherwise anodyne hotel.

The next morning, following our seminar, I was blown away by the porchetta (above) prepared by Costa, the restaurant where we held our event.

The crust was crunchy and the pork was melt-in-your-mouth tender.

I was also impressed by the caliber of service and wine professionalism. What a great and wonderful team. Even the servers that day listened intently to my talk and had a ton of comments and questions afterward.

Costa seemed in synchronicity with the overarching quality of food and food service in Charleston. I enjoyed everywhere I ate and drank.

Shout-out and warm thanks also to the amazing Kellie Holmes who put together a wonderful group of pros for our tasting.

People on the coasts disdain us southerners. But they sure love our food when they’re here. Maybe they should take a closer look at where that food culture comes from and they should take the time out to meet and know the people that make it.

Ever since Tracie, the girls, and I moved to Westbury in southwest Houston, we’ve lamented the fact that our neighborhood lacks a wine bar.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if our community had a family-friendly wine- and craft beer-focused venue, ideal serving pizza, where parents and kids could go to enjoy, well, wine, craft beer, and pizza. Sounds like a winning combination, doesn’t it? Burgers would be an added plus.

After we had already put on a few super family-friendly music shows and open mics at one of our favorite local dive bars, I made the following proposition to the owner, Susan Davis and her husband Carlos (both of whom I adore btw): how would you feel about me turning your joint into a family-friendly wine bar for a night?

To my surprise and delight, they said YES!

And so that’s what’s happening!

On Saturday, May 10, 4-6pm, I’ll lead a tasting and will host a retail pop up as folks enjoy house-fired pizzas.

I’m so excited about this and I hope you’ll join me. Details and tickets here. It’s already had a great response. We are all super geeked.

I know it’s going to be a great way to create community and support a beloved local business that already serves as a hub for that community. I hope to see you there!

In other news…

I had to cancel my wine dinner in LA next week (Weds., May 7) because Tracie, the girls, and I have too much going on in Houston. The dinner is still on and will be super fun regardless. I’m so sorry to miss it.

But I’m counting my too many blessings to count this morning after boarding a plane back to Houston from beautiful South Carolina.

It’s been a great week, with tastings and wonderful people in Austin, New Orleans, and Charleston.

I can’t wait to get home to Tracie and the girls. We have concerts and auditions this weekend and Tra’s parents are coming in tonight to celebrate Jane’s birthday. I’ll make steak and baked potatoes and we’ll open a good bottle of wine.

Buon weekend a tutti. Thanks for being here.

Looking back on the last two decades of my career, it’s crazy to think about how much I owe to being in the right place at the right time.

One of those moments was hanging out with Cory Cartwright at Terroir in San Francisco in the first decade of this century. It was there that he and a band of likewise forward-looking cats were forging a new wine language.

Many industry folks will remember those years. Those pre-social media days marked the advent of “natural” wine and the explosion of the eno-blogosphere.

Cory and I met because we started reading each others’ blog. He was one of the most prolific writers of the early blogging days as he deciphered the new (old) wines that were finally reaching our shores.

When he and I reconnected yesterday in New Orleans at wonderful The Tell Me Bar, we reminisced about what a magical and exciting time it was. We were part of a burgeoning and swiftly expanding enoical dialectic. Those were the years of the new wine and the new wine language.

Hanging out at his popular spot in the city’s warehouse district, I was inspired by his business partner Uznea Bauer’s approach and interaction with their guests. Her voice is so genuine and her chops so spot on. Gone are the pretension and the one-up-personship that have plagued our industry for too long. Is this the authenticity that we have been hoping and waiting for? I believe it is. Spending time in their joint, wine felt like pure unadulterated pleasure unbound from the superciliousness of pseudo-connoisseurship. Man, it was good.

But as much as I was looking to the future last night at their bar in New Orleans, I couldn’t help but order a wine from the past. I remember drinking wines like that, so many years ago, with Tracie by my side, on my way to one of the best gigs of my life. It was the legendary night of Guillaume and the baseball bat at Terroir!

Uznea and Cory, thank you for putting together our Abruzzo event yesterday. It was off the charts!

Uznea, I quite literally couldn’t have done it without you. And it was such a treat to get to work by your side!

Cory, dude, how will I ever forget those years and how exciting it was to be part of a movement that would change the wine world forever and for better. Thank you for everything — then and now.

I’m one lucky son of a bitch. Just happened to walk into the right wine bar at just the right time — then and now.

Love you guys.

The whole idea was inspired by the kinda wild house parties we used to throw at our first home in Houston.

The girls, still in elementary school, were just getting started with their classic music training. We would open our home around 2 p.m. on a weekend day and I would set up a stage and sound system. The kids would do “open mic” performances for a few hours or so and then the adults would “jam out” using my backline (my amps, PA, drum kit, etc.).

Those were some legendary shindigs… and our house got a proper trashing along the way!

Earlier this year, I approached our best neighborhood dive bar, Emmit’s Place, where many members of our very musical and musician-rich community perform regularly. I asked the owners if they would let me take over one Sunday afternoon a month for an open mic featuring local musicians, including kids from the elementary and middle school music magnet programs (where our kids study as well).

The first one was such a success that it even merited a write-up in the Houston Press (our once weekly rag, now digital only).

This Sunday, from 2-6pm, I’ll be returning to Emmit’s Place in southwest Houston where I will be emceeing the open mic and then performing a set with my band, The Bio Dynamic Band featuring Katie White, during the last hour.

This is a family-friendly event, with comfort food (burgers, fries, nachos) and mocktails for the kids (the kids LOVE the mocktails).

I hope you can join me for an afternoon of great music. Some of our community’s leading adult players (some of the best in Texas, btw) have been known to sit in!

Thanks for supporting local music, local musicians, and local independent businesses!

And btw, happy Italian Liberation Day!