Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

After a couple of visits to Mexta, two things became clear: The restaurant, which opened in March in downtown Austin’s historic Littlefield Building, has all its bases covered, from perennial Mexican favorites (guacamole, ceviche) to exciting, lesser-seen regional specialties (pork belly encacahuatado, tikin xic salmon with xnipec salsa). Second, it intends to be the boldest Mexican restaurant in the city.Peering in from the foyer, distracted by happy-hour chatter and the whir of blenders, I looked around for half a minute before I saw my friends waving their cocktail glasses. I made my way across a room utterly transformed from the breezy white-on-white palette of the short-lived previous occupant, Simi Estiatorio. Room dividers lined with diminutive terra-cotta bricks are offset by massive copper-clad columns, huge straw…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Each month, we get to know one of the state’s many wonderful and quirky critters. Latin name: Antilocapra americanaSize: 3–5 feet long and 90–150 pounds (males)Texas habitat: The Panhandle, far West Texas, and San AngeloWhen they hit their top speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour, pronghorn kick up clouds of dust that swirl in their wake. Only cheetahs can sprint faster. With their curved black horns, white patches along the neck, and dramatic eyelashes, these ungulates (hooved mammals) exude intensity. Otherworldly, ancient creatures, they seem to have time traveled from another era. In fact, they pretty much did!What do you mean by time travel?Pronghorn are essentially the last of their kind, having evolved at least 12,000 years ago, when a dazzling array of megafauna roamed…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Mifepristone, a common abortion inducing medication, will remain on the market without additional restrictions after the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected an antiabortion group’s challenge to the drug’s approval.In the high court’s first abortion-related ruling since it overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, the nine justices ruled to change nothing about the drug’s legal status. The ruling is a rebuke to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo. The opinion was written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, with a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas.Medication abortion, typically performed with a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, is the most common abortion method in the United States. In the nearly 25 years since it was first approved by the U.S. Food…

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

In 2004 the yellow Livestrong bracelet went viral, selling five million units in a matter of months. For some it was a fad, for others a symbol of hope. And as Lance Armstrong’s doping scandal unraveled, it was caught up in controversy. Staff writer Emily McCullar discusses how the bracelet’s impact is much deeper than many understand and why she wanted to write the July 2024 cover feature, “Making the Band: An Oral History of the Livestrong Bracelet.”

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Get in-depth coverage of news, reviews and conversations about Texas barbecue. It's basically Christmas every day for barbecue-lovers.

Designer Martha Hudson was touring the country, sewing custom-made swimsuits in her converted school bus, when she stopped in San Marcos. Originally from Sacramento, she visited a childhood friend who had relocated to the town—with its spring-fed, year-round 72-degree river—and Hudson parked her bus in her friend’s driveway for long-term stays. “I had a long list of things I wanted in a home, but daily access to fresh water for swimming was one of them,” she told me over coffee in South Austin. “Living on the road, there were a ton of places I loved, but San Marcos hit so many marks. That river is what really sold me on moving to Texas.” The goal of Luv Martha, Hudson’s one-woman “bikini-slinging business,” founded in Sacramento in…

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