CITYBOOK AT LARGE

Editor’s Letter

e make much in this issue of the city’s long-awaited and vibrant return to normal as the pandemic ends. With good reason! What used to be the dog days of summer — the only time all year when you could string together a few weeks of downtime with no social demands — are, in 2021, bustling and bountiful. The dreadful heat and humidity we love to hate is proving no match for the pent-up demand in town — for fun!

Dozens of new restaurants and bars — especially bars — have opened, and many of them are wildly colorful and a bit cheeky in concept. The city’s creative class had lots of time to marinate in their madness over the past 18 months or so, and the fruits of it are ripening everywhere.

I can’t wait to drop into Downtown’s new Cherry. If this isn’t on your radar, the ’80s and ’90s bar is mostly red, has a disco unicorn where a disco ball would be, and the men’s room has more of a ribald art-installation situation than everyday urinals.

New Heights House hotel has also opened, another bold idea come to life. Developers have overhauled an old retro motor motel off the freeway and turned it into a vividly hued, poolside boutique hotel with a uniquely funky feel. The bar here is called

WSpace Cowboy, embracing the slightly wacky energy, with yet more irreverence around the powder rooms. “Please don’t do coke in the bathroom,” sensibly reads a neon sign just outside. We like Heights House so well, we decided to shoot our annual Sexy Issue fashion story there — celebrating the city’s re-emergence with a bit of audacity of our own. For our swimwear-plus spread, CityBook Creative Director Patrick Magee and I asked photographer Steve Visneau to channel Bruce Weber — the lensman who did those racy Abercrombie & Fitch ads in the ’90s — in a partly black-and-white, studiously suggestive shoot. Hope you like it as much as we do. All that said, it seems the wildest and craziest scene right now isn’t bodacious bars or even babes in bikinis. It’s real estate. Managing Editor Evan W. Black reports on all the latest stats, and most soughtafter properties, in a recordshattering seller’s market. We know which neighborhoods are way up, and which ones aren’t, and we name names. Sexy is back, baby — in a big way. Have drink by the pool. Hell, buy the damn pool. Make the absolute most of Houston’s joyful return to life. It’s definitely going to be that kind of summer.

JEFF GREMILLION Editor-in-Chief

CityBook At Large Updates from HoustonCityBook.com & beyond

COOLEST PEOPLE A Sicilian Baker Doesn’t Just Make Amazing Italian Snacks. He Is One.

CityBook Digital debuted a new column highlighting the most fascinating faces in Houston. Among the first subjects? Hot Italian pastry chef Diego Chiarello, whose La Sicilia bakery in Montrose proffers items like ciambella cakes in flavors like strawberry shortcake or matcha with freeze-dried raspberries and a white chocolate drizzle. Want a bite?

PET PROJECT

Adopt this Adorable Rescue, Brownie

CityBook Digital highlights an adoptable pet each week! While this five-year-old mixed-breed pup spent the first part of her life chained up outside, her Friends for Life foster family says she’s super smart — and now socialized and ready for her forever home.

MUSIC

Tobe Nwigwe Lands ‘Ebony’ Cover

As reported in CityBook Digital, trailblazing Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe appeared on the first-ever digital cover of the newly relaunched Ebony magazine in June. The issue celebrated Black Music Month and Father’s Day. ICYMI

Insta-Worthy Moments

Here are a handful of hits from our social-media feed. Follow @houstoncitybook for more!

June 1 Katie Beal Brown, founder of Lone River’s Ranch Water hard seltzers, turned a Texas tradition into a booming new business.

June 10 Tandem exhibitions at UH’s Blaffer and Texas Southern University celebrate the work of Houston-born artist Jamal Cyrus.

May 21 Pier 6 Seafood & Oyster House debuted a delicious bayside brunch, complete with this over-the-top Bloody Mary.

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