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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.

Reverend John Whiteford at St. Jonah Orthodox Church, in Spring, on December 10, 2023.On a recent Sunday morning, parishioners shuffled into St. Jonah Orthodox Church, a beige clapboard building topped by a blue onion dome. Tucked down a wooded lane far from road noise in the Houston suburb of Spring, the house of worship drew a crowd of congregants, many of them sporting floral headscarves, chest-length beards, and cotton or gingham dresses that fell past the knee. Beeswax candles flickered in a blast of air-conditioningthat dispersed an invisible cloud of incense. As the Reverend John Whiteford, wearing a ceremonial cape, stood with his back to the congregation, a small choir chanted three times, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” Parishioners crossed their foreheads, shoulders, and chests with three fingers and then bent down to touch…

The post Inspired by the Confederacy and Czarist Russia, “Ortho Bros” Are on the Rise appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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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.

Jake Gyllenhaal in Road House.After the world premiere of Amazon’s remake of the 1989 cult classic Road House at SXSW on Friday night, star Jake Gyllenhaal offered a tribute to Patrick Swayze, the performer who originated the lead role of Dalton that Gyllenhaal reprises in the new film. The late Swayze, a Houston native, delivered one of his most soulful performances in an unabashedly pretty silly action movie about a star bouncer who protects a roadside honky-tonk called the Double Deuce from the evil machinations of a corrupt businessman. Swayze, as we all know, had layers. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t [mention] Mr. Swayze,” Gyllenhaal said after the screening, when panel moderator Dax Shepard asked which big-screen tough guy most inspired him as a young man. He grew up…

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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.

Pastries at Little Foot Farms.When it comes to baked goods, Waco is, for the most part, firmly rooted in the early 2000s. If you want softball-size cookies or cupcakes heaving under three inches of frosting, this is your town. True, folks in search of something more nuanced have enjoyed a recent uptick in artisan bakers offering items such as sourdough boules, cakes that favor salted honey buttercream over fondant, and Costa Rican empanadas stuffed with guava paste and cheese. But for a long time, those of us devoted to laminated pastries, of which the croissant is queen, had just two options: H-E-B, whose bready, pliant croissants are more suitable for lunch-box sandwiches, and Nightlight Donuts, whose signature cronuts are positively juicy with frying oil.That changed in 2021, when Little…

The post These Two Bakers Are Bringing Paris to Waco With Their Incredible Croissants appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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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.

A guest enjoying the view outside one of two cave suites at the Summit at Big Bend.The glass door to Crystal Cave, a site at the Summit at Big Bend resort, reminded me of the wardrobe that leads to Narnia. But this portal was hidden in the jagged cliffsides of the high desert. As I pulled it open, I felt like I was straddling two worlds: Outside, an electric blue West Texas sky throbbed over the brown mountains stretching to Mexico. Inside, an intimate haven beckoned with a king-size white bed, mini fridge, and Instagram-ready two-person shower.“We’re getting married tonight,” I told my friend, which was awkward because she has a husband, but I was struck by an overwhelming desire to have my honeymoon here. Our room was one of two luxury suites constructed into the side of Tres Cuevas Mountain,…

The post Luxury Caves! Futuristic Domes! The Great Glampification of Texas appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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Glamping-Sidebar-five-other-spots-tents-yurts-treehouses-a-frame-casitaWhat started as a niche trend almost twenty years ago has transformed the travel industry in Texas. Although the Hill Country is the state’s glamping capital, you’ll find high-end domes, yurts, tree houses—and even caves—across the state.Live Oak LakeWacoJust about ten minutes from downtown Waco, seven lakeside A-frame cabins with glass facades are nestled among the trees. Created by Isaac French, who moved to Waco in 2020 and has become known as a microresort influencer, Live Oak Lake’s tiny homes were designed in the Scandinavian style. Each comes with a firepit, hammock, and hot tub. Rates range from $658 to $735.*Missing HotelMarble FallsGlobe-trotters Sam and Stephen Hopkins opened this property on a one-hundred acre farm in 2021. The domes and villas were inspired by their travels…

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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.

Border Patrol agents patrolling the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass on February 24, 2024.He stood at the edge of the Rio Grande, mustering the nerve to wade in. It was early in the morning, and days of rain had swelled the river, amplifying the danger of trying to cross. On the opposite bank, he could see Eagle Pass, a border town roughly midway between Big Bend and Brownsville. Alan Paredes Salazar, a stocky 37-year-old, was athletic—a former player in a lower division of Peru’s professional soccer league. And yet as he faced the wild rapids, it mattered more that he was a weak swimmer who feared deep water. In Peru, where he had eked out a living selling T-shirts and working other odd jobs in coastal towns, he had steered clear of the ocean. But desperation drives people…

The post More Migrants Are Drowning in the Rio Grande Than Ever. No Agency Is Keeping Track of How Many. appeared first on Texas Monthly.

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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.

MARCH PIT PERKS Brisket U | Get $15 off any Brisket U Class with code TXMNEWS24scTW La Barbecue | Happy hour on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3:00 pm-6:00 pm Juan and Allie’s BBQ | Address: 114 Texas Spur 511 Sunset Texas 76270 Bar-A-BBQ | Easter pre-orders available; Will be open Easter Sunday, March 31. Tejas Chocolate & BBQ | 20% off merchandise, rubs, and sauce bottles.* Sundays offer brisket hash, and Mondays offer Cubanos. They are now open seven days a week!

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Dan Patrick Now Controls the Texas House tooDade Phelan may soon have the distinction of becoming the first Texas House Speaker to lose his seat since 1972, when Democrat Fred Head, one of those rare do-gooder types in state government, knocked off Rayford Price. Phelan’s opponent, oil and gas consultant David Covey, is no Fred Head, and little about this matchup has to do with good government. Still, Phelan’s inability to avoid a runoff against his Republican primary challenger is a political earthquake. Even if he does win his runoff on May 28 and clings to his Beaumont district, his speakership is in jeopardy. The stench of defeat hangs over the two-term Speaker.The GOP primaries this year were remarkably ill-tempered and contentious. Governor Greg Abbott targeted sixteen House Republicans who voted against…

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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.

The dunes sagebrush lizard.Snakes, salamanders, and other slimy specimens peer sightlessly out from rows of glass jars in a College Station archive. As Lee Fitzgerald walks past roughly 115,000 preserved amphibians and reptiles that belong to Texas A&M University’s Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections, he points out a boa constrictor from California, a goliath frog from Cameroon, and a thorny devil from Australia. In front of one metal shelf, he stops before a hefty container piled with about thirty lizard corpses in varying shades of brown and gray. Fitzgerald picks up the jar and holds it up proudly, as one might when introducing a beloved pet. He and fellow herpetologists collected these two-inch-long lizards during more than three decades of research in West Texas and New Mexico, where…

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A plastic sign along the sidewalk in Lemon Grove, California, just outside San Diego, read “Texas BBQ” in bold red letters with an arrow that pointed to Coop’s West Texas Barbecue. I was way west of West Texas, but conspicuous restaurant names like Coop’s make it easy to find smoked brisket in a foreign land. The two steel smokers out front told me I was in the right place.Bradrick Cooper, a native of Midland, opened the place in 2010. He cooks with mesquite and coast live oak trees found in California. A big barrel smoker outside is where he gets the brisket so tender; the brick smoker behind the counter inside cooks the savory pork spareribs. He also serves juicy house-made Texas hot links that…

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