Meals to Remember - 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers - page 143

on the one hand; and, on the other, the
modern reality of a bounteous year-round
growing climate where farmers can culti-
vate anything from persimmons to Meyer
lemons to Asian greens.
Like Alice Waters, to whom she's often
compared, Pope's a bit of a culinary pio-
neer, single-handedly creating a market
for organic farmers, small cheese makers,
specialty ranchers, and chocolate makers,
all within a 300-mile (483km) range of her
Midtown Houston restaurant. (In sprawl-
ing Texas, that qualifies as a short drive.)
Her nightly five-course tasting menus put
Texas artisanal food products prominently
in the spotlight—things like Pure Luck
Hopelessly Bleu goat cheese with Joan's
figs, poached in Texas Hills Merlot; a tem-
pura of Gita's squash blossoms with saf-
fron-sherry aioli; Lola's shell beans and
farro with Texas tarragon; espresso-rubbed
Katz cross quail with smoked pecan pilaf;
or a chicken-fried Maverick Farms ante-
lope cutlet with roasted okra and Wild
Mustang grape jelly. Something as simple
as summer pudding with local blueberries
can be divine when the blueberries were
handpicked that morning.
At less than $50 without wine, this
tasting menu is a wonderful bargain,
considering that you'll be sampling the
best of Texas's organic boutique food
products. The à la carte portion of the
menu also includes an interesting mix-and-
match option, where you choose your
base entrée from a list of variously priced
proteins and combine it with any one of 10
signature sauces, from port wine sauce to
sweet-hot mustard to blossom butter.
Even the dining room of this scrubbed-
down bistro, with its bare brick walls,
blond woods, and plain white acrylic
tables, features murals and paintings by
local artists. It's a relatively small place,
open only Tuesday through Saturday (the
Fri lunch prix fixe is a well-kept local secret

T'afia is named after a Creole drinking toast
meaning “to your health!”

worth seeking out). And here's another
secret: Tuesday through Thursday, all the
tasty snacks on the lounge menu—things
like a pimiento mac-and-cheese, chickpea
fries with red curry ketchup, and luscious
little miniburgers—are free with drinks.
It's an addictive deal.

3701 Travis St. ( & 713/524-6922;
www.tafia.com).
( George Bush Intercontinental (37

miles/60km).
L $$$ Hilton University of Houston,
4800 Calhoun Rd. ( & 800/HOTELUH [800/
468-3584] or 713/741-2447; www.hilton.
com). $$ Best Western Downtown Inn
and Suites, 915 W. Dallas St. ( & 800/780-
7234 or 713/571-7733; www.bestwestern.
com).