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Tag: Best of Houston 2025

  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Music Festival – Houston Press

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    Best Music Festival: Hell’s Heroes

    Devil horns up for the best music festival in Houston, Texas, the all-out assault metal fans here and abroad know as Hell’s Heroes. The event began as a single-day offering to the metal gods back in 2018, survived a global pandemic and kept rocking, bringing fans of the genre from far off to Houston for bills packed with local, national and international acts which span generations.

    The festival has grown over the years, from the indoor rooms at White Oak Music Hall, its perennial home, to the concert hall’s spacious outdoor lawn. Its eighth edition has already been announced for March 2026 and will include three days of metal mayhem featuring acts from Germany, Japan, Norway and elsewhere. Best of all, Hell’s Heroes is homegrown, created by local musicians and music industry insiders who saw a need and filled it while making Houston a metal music destination.

    Hell’s Heroes on Instagram

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Bar – Houston Press

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    Best Bar: Winnie’s

    You may consider Winnie’s more restaurant than bar. After all, it serves some of the best noshes in town, noms that have been nommed in the field of foodies at Southern Smoke Festival and are routinely included on “eat here in Houston” lists. But we consider this Midtown wonder a bar with amazing food because Winnie’s does bar things and some of those things are our favorite things to do.

    For instance, there’s a regular trivia night, which is a lot of fun and also not routine for a “restaurant.” There’s speed-dating, an amazing drag brunch and, on occasion, you can karaoke at Winnie’s. If you sing near the bar or croon to po-boy eaters at their tables, the place magically becomes a supper club. Bands frequent the establishment, especially during Mid Main’s First Thursday block parties, which Winnie’s always participates in. There are TVs for watching sports and clear views of the surrounding area – from a spacious patio or from within the 1930s era building – for watching people.

    Our favorite bar thing to do at Winnie’s is drink and socialize. We bring along the good company and Winnie’s does the rest with just enough of the right stuff done perfectly. The place is part-owned by Johnny’s Gold Brick owner Benjy Mason, so you’re assured Winnie’s is following a stellar blueprint with classic margaritas, old fashioneds and Pimm’s cups. Staff cocktails dot the menu and include mesmerizing options. Best of all, the place morphs into a Winter Wonderland come Christmas, with specialty drinks served in seasonal glassware and cute backdrops for your holiday TikTok vids. There are lots of great bars in this town, but if you wanted one bar to situate at and accommodate all your needs for the afternoon and evening – including a killer meal – we’d choose Winnie’s.

    3622 Main

    713-520-0660

    winnieshouston.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Deli

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    Best Deli: Mandola’s Deli

    Deep in the heart of Houston’s east end is a deli that wears its Italian roots and love for the University of Houston on its sleeve (and walls and tables). Mandola’s, which has been serving terrific Italian deli fare since for 50 years, is the perfect example of a Houston-style deli. Yes, it has a classic deli counter with amazing sandwiches like the incredible meatball sub and the muffaletta, but it blends homestyle cooking — in this case, wonderful Italian dishes, pizza and pasta — with classic po’boys like fried shrimp. Comforting and always welcoming, Mandola’s is a terrific neighborhood deli and a Houston institution.

    4105 Leeland

    713-223-5186

    mandolasdeli.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Sandwich

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    Best Sandwich: Hawaina at Las Tortas Perronas

    You might be forgiven if you missed Las Tortas Perronas, situated in a little strip center just north of Spring Branch, if not for the giant I HEART TORTAS sign in the window and the wild decor inside and out. Now that you know, it’s worth a visit for this little tribute to the amazing Mexican sandwich. In this case, the Hawaina, a delightful pork/ham/cheese/lettuce/onion/grilled pineapple concoction on their in-house-baked bread. It’s savory and a little sweet and, like so many things in Houston, a mixtape of our multicultural melting pot. Add some green or red in-house-made salsa and you have a unique Cubano-slash-Hawaiian-slash-Mexican sandwich that is spectacular.

    1837 Bingle

    713-461-1900

    lastortasperronas.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Barbecue – Houston Press

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    Best Barbecue: Pinkerton’s Barbecue

    Houston’s barbecue scene is like a pro football league stacked with winning teams. Head to head, you’re going to get a hell of a game. As fans, that’s the kind of competition we love. Often, the difference is the quarterback and Pinkerton’s Barbecue has a Tom Brady-like force in owner and pitmaster Grant Pinkerton. The best QBs can see the field and Pinkerton had a clear vision for his version of craft barbecue, one that focused on quality meats, made-from-scratch sides and family recipes.

    The go-to at Pinkerton’s is the brisket – just look at it up there. Keeping the football motif, this entrée is never a Hail Mary, it’s the X-and-O you call when you want to score. It’s what’s put Pinkerton’s on the lauded Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ Joints list time and again. But, even if you call an audible and go with ribs, turkey or sausage once you’ve made your way to the front of the usual line to order, you’re going to get a winner. That’s thanks to Grant Pinkerton’s expertise and leadership, the sort that gets one splashed on food TV shows, placed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and compared to Tom Brady.

    1504 Airline

    713-802-2000

    pinkertonsbarbecue.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Speakeasy – Houston Press

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    Best Speakeasy: Endless Bummer

    Let’s face it, the bars of the world are overrun with folks drinking stiff drinks to distract from the reality that they too will one day be stiff, rigor mortis-stricken husks of what once was alive and boozing. If that sounds depressing then go have a drink to distract; and, if you’re ready to lean into the void rather than avoid it, the best place to celebrate your someday demise is Endless Bummer. The new Houston tiki bar (brought to life by our friends at Betelgeuse Betelgeuse) is also an IYKYK Montrose speakeasy and bills itself as “somewhere between death and vacation.”

    The décor is decidedly Dead Man’s Curve, with tropical beach tones enhanced (or dampened) by lots of skeletal and spectral imagery. The drinks also cleverly teeter between hanging 10 and being carried by 6. The menu changes with the seasons because “everything dies eventually,” according to Endless Bummer. Drinks like the Fog Cutter, Jet Pilot and Saturn are denoted by their years of origin which adds to the sense that they’re immortal now, something that outlives death. There’s a comfort in that but if it’s still just too freaky for you, you can always goofily order the Banana Hammock (it’s delicious, btw) to attempt some comic relief.

    We love Endless Bummer for big life moments – birthdays, bridal showers, bon voyages, wakes – because it intimately intimates that everything is life and death. That makes it perfect for those everyday moments, too.

    4500 Montrose

    713-640-5220

    Endless Bummer on Instagram

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Doughnuts – Houston Press

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    Best Doughnuts: Donita’s Donuts Mini-Donuts

    We assumed it would take something big to knock the perennial “Best Doughnut” honoree from its perch. Turns out, just the opposite did the trick. The small but mighty mini-donuts from Donita’s Donuts aren’t just adorable, they’re packed with sweet, tasty goodness, thanks to an airy cake topped with all sorts of flavorful glazing options. Oh, they have regular-sized donuts, too, frequently baked and decorated to recognize some special event, like Valentine’s Day or Astros Opening Day. There are kolaches and coffees, everything we’d expect from a modern Houston donut shop. But it’s the mini-donuts that got us hooked on this East End shop, which has been serving up the “yumminess and sweetness” for just a year-and-a-half now.

    Maybe it’s the guilt-decreased appeal of these little donuts that allows us to savor each of the relatively few bites it takes to devour one. We don’t know, we just know we love them. They may be tiny but we feel the big love the folks at Donita’s put into creating these wondrous donuts, our favorites of the year.

    1603 N. Wayside

    832-800-3118

    Donita’s Donuts on Instagram

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Most Instagrammable Restaurant

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    Most Instagrammable Restaurant: Haii Keii

    Haii Keii is a whole vibe. The 3,000-square-foot space dazzles with neon-lit metallic walls, plush jewel-toned seating, and an eight-foot inverted Bonsai centerpiece that is like something out of a movie (the aesthetic takes inspiration from movies like Blade Runner and Kill Bill). Pair that with artful Asian-inspired dishes — from sexy Wagyu flights and lobster dumplings to dramatically plated sushi rolls, plus a bright, bold cocktail program, and your TikTok is about to go viral.

    3300 Kirby
    713-370-6313
    haiikeii.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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  • Best Of Houston® 2025: Best Middle Eastern Bakery

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    Best Middle Eastern Bakery: Badolina

    Any great bakery will have excellent cakes, pastries and breads. Badolina absolutely satisfies on that front. But, you won’t find Basboosa, a delicious semolina cake soaked in syrup, or Sambusak, a Jewish pastry filled with savory ingredients like egg and tahini. The same restaurant group that opened Middle Eastern cafe Hamsa (right next door) and steak house Doris Metropolitan, created Badolina to complement their restaurants with an absolutely killer bakery. Don’t miss fresh Challa bread served only on Fridays.

    5555 Morningside Drive #110

    832-649-5909

    badolinabakery.com

    This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.

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