Texas Monthly

Is it our imagination or are Texas restaurants more, well, imaginative than ever? What does all this say about dining in Texas as we approach the end of the first quarter of the twenty-first century? Maybe just this: We need to make room for more fun. The hospitality industry knows hard times all too well, with the ever-rising costs of raw ingredients and labor and the hollowing out of once vibrant restaurant-centric neighborhoods. Given all that, who wouldn’t opt for a break from the real world? It was in the same spirit that we selected the ten best new restaurants in Texas, along with a handful of honorable mentions. So get out there. Ask some friends to dinner; try some wild and crazy dishes; visit a place not on your radar. Life is serious enough—live a little. And eat a lot. Read more here:?https://txmnth.ly/41EKNJy ??: Bethany Ellen Ochs

#SXSW officially kicks off today. Here are a few Texas films and TV shows to keep an eye out for: https://txmnth.ly/41xxxpV

Every fisherman dreams of the lunker—the honorific given to big bass, which for most Texans start at ten pounds—but an obsessive subset of avocational anglers try to land one again and again, no matter the cost. These are not professionals chasing big money on the tournament circuit, where consistency is more important than reeling in a single high-caliber fish. They’re weekend warriors who lay out tens of thousands of dollars to catch a single big bass on one of the thousands of private lakes and ponds around the state, which themselves can cost a small fortune to build, stock, and manage. These anglers are “CEOs in the boardroom and CFOs on the water—Completely Fishing Obsessed,” says Steve Alexander, the co-owner of Private Water Fishing, essentially an Airbnb for lakes in Texas. Read more here: https://txmnth.ly/3D6tVmV ??: Bill Sallans

Hey, Texans! Here's a reminder that you’ll now find a curated selection of Texas Monthly’s best stories—covering everything from food and drink to travel, critters, and award-winning journalism—right within the pages of Community Impact. Texas Monthly and Community Impact have teamed up to deliver hyperlocal news and vivid storytelling in a single product that combines the best of both worlds. Keep an eye on your mailbox for the next issue, and get ready to dive into the best of Texas! Learn more:?https://lnkd.in/gxfewcs9

70-year-old Steve Oleson started training hawks when he was in seventh grade in San Antonio. He and his friends would put jesses—leather straps that help control the birds—on the kestrel's legs and get them used to being handled. Now the owner of Austin-based company Winged Victory, the lifelong falconer uses raptors to scare pest birds away from storefronts and parking lots. Oleson and his two Harris's hawks, Meego and Nico, usually start a job after the store has closed, around eleven at night. He'll let the hawk fly, only use one at a time, and it’ll go and try to catch a grackle. They do that over and over again for several hours, until the birds leave. Read more about the job, and the personalities of his hawks, here: https://txmnth.ly/4b9gb7a

Fifty-three people from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras died in San Antonio in what has often been described as the worst immigration-related disaster in U.S. history. The migrants had made their way to the border via dozens of routes and, those that made it, were herded into a stash house in Laredo. That’s where as many as 66 of them climbed into the back of a refrigerator trailer early in the afternoon of June 27, 2022, to make the last leg of a trip that had cost their families between about $7,500 and $15,000 each. They could not have known that the trailer’s refrigeration system was broken. Temperatures soared above 100 degrees that day. By the time the semi was discovered, 48 of the passengers were dead from heat-related injuries. Five more would die at area hospitals in the days that followed. There were at least eleven survivors. Seven people have been arrested and charged in the U.S. for the deaths of the Quintana Road victims. Another seven were arrested in Guatemala. Five of the defendants in the U.S. have pleaded guilty. The remaining two are scheduled to go to trial in March before a federal judge in San Antonio. The inner workings of their smuggling network will be revealed to the public during that trial, but more than two years after the tragedy, much about the victims and their families has gone unreported. Writer Elliott Woods spent dozens of hours talking with spouses, parents, siblings, children, and neighbors of the victims, all of whom shared migration stories spanning generations. Read them here: https://txmnth.ly/3Xkxb4T Léelos en espa?ol: https://txmnth.ly/3XjZBMd ??: Elliott Woods This story is presented in both English and Spanish as a service to readers, and was produced in collaboration with The Food & Environment Reporting Network

Is it true that Baylor University once banned Willie Nelson from its campus? Rumors have been flying since the university canceled a concert in 1988. When the Texanist dug around, he learned that every once in a while, a brief story pertaining to this matter will be published by some outlet or another, and then a quick flurry of three or four or five similar stories will soon follow. This cycle has repeated itself for decades. Perhaps it’s time to put it to rest once and for all. Read the full investigation here: https://txmnth.ly/41jlwFU (P.S. do you have any questions for the Texanist? Drop ‘em in the comments.) ??: Zohar Lazar

If you’ve noticed an increase on Austin streets in the number of shiny, white electric SUVs with rapidly rotating cameras and nobody behind the wheel, you’re not hallucinating. The self-driving vehicles from Waymo have been all over Austin roads as part of a test run ahead of the company’s big public launch in Texas. So why do so many of us take issue with the vehicles? “We have mental frameworks that tell us how the world works and what we can expect, and autonomous vehicles are what we would call an expectancy violation—they represent a disconnect between our mental frameworks and what we experience. When we’re on a highway, we have expectations that when we see a vehicle next to us, there’s also going to be a human,” said Jaime Banks, a professor of information science and public communication and technology at Syracuse University. Read the full story here: https://txmnth.ly/415EgY3

The 29th annual Texas Country Reporter Festival is coming to downtown Grand Prairie on April 26, bringing a full day of art, music, and Texas culture to the heart of the city. The festival will feature more than 100 artisan and vendor booths, food trucks, an exciting live music lineup, and so much more. Silverada, Gary P. Nunn, the Texas Gentlemen, Summer Dean, Sunny Saucedo, Ellis Bullard, and Double Ace will take the stage for a day of incredible performances. Don’t miss this Texas-sized celebration! ?? April 26, 2025 ?? Downtown Grand Prairie ?? Admission is FREE RSVP now: https://txmnth.ly/4gU1SF9

On a cold night in Texas, if the conditions are just right, frostweed sprouts fantastical ice formations called frost flowers. ???? https://txmnth.ly/4k7P3cO