11 TASTY VENDORS TO TRY AROUND NRG PARK DURING THE RODEO
Longtime rodeo fans know exactly where to head when they are hungry. Many of the food vendors and restaurants have been serving their fare in the same spot for years.
Here are 11 spots you should try at the rodeo. If you can’t locate them, ask someone sporting a gold rodeo badge. They know everything.
Alamo Tamale & Taco: This Houston company has been serving handmade tamales for more than 50 years. Choose from a wide variety, including spicy pork, chicken, spinach/cheese and jalapeño/cheese.
Blue Ribbon Grill: This Houston-born company has been making sausage since 1946 and serving rodeo visitors since the 1950s. Its booth serves a dizzying lineup of smoked specialties. Custom Confections: This mom-and-pop mobile kitchen is known for its awardwinning desserts. With any luck, it’ll be serving Fried Brownies again this year. Oh, yes, it is good. Goode Company Barbeque: It doesn’t get more western than a sliced brisket sandwich on house-made jalapeño-cheese bread. Save room for Goode’s famous Brazos Bottom Pecan Pie. Harlon’s BBQ: Operated by the Brooks family, Harlon’s has a long rodeo history. Go for the award-winning baked potato topped with three smoked meats.
Holmes Smokehouse: Pecan-smoked sausage is the foundation of this Rosenberg-born company. Holmes’ bill of fare includes hamburgers, jerky and roasted corn. Its claim to fame, however, is a 2-foot-long sausage on a stick.
Paradise Burgers: As the name implies, burgers are the stars here. Fairly priced, Paradise is a good choice for folks looking to avoid deep-fried fare.
Polonia: One of Houston’s only Polish restaurants is a relative newcomer to the rodeo. Try the midway-friendly Bacon on a Stick. Or consider the kielbasa. It’s killer, as are the pierogi.
Sills Funnel Cakes: This familyowned, Spring-based business is known for its over-the-top funnel cakes. Among Sills’ offerings is a banana split pastry topped with strawberries, banana, chocolate and whipped cream. Curly fries and corn dogs also are on the menu. Stubby’s Cinnamon Rolls: A rodeo veteran, Stubby’s has dished out sweet sticky rolls on the midway for decades. It’s also a good spot for chili, wings and breakfast sandwiches. Tad’s Bodacious Burrito: The Oklahoma City-based vendor serves burritos with bold flavors, such as chipotle beef, chicken with black beans and garlic with spinach.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo offers a remarkable wine appendage in the form of its now 14-year-old Rodeo Uncorked! International Wine Competition. Why? Because the rodeo celebrates agriculture and there’s no separating wine from agriculture. Ask any winegrower/maker what he or she does for a living and chance are you’ll be told, with pride, “I’m a farmer.”
Further, proceeds from the rodeo’s wine-related events have become a significant source of funding for the 750 scholarships worth nearly $15 million that will be awarded again in 2017. This year, in fact, the co-winemaker of the competition’s Reserve Grand Champion wine, Nice Winery’s 2013 Notorious Mount Veeder Malbec, once was a rodeo scholarship recipient. It’s a win-win proposition.
“That was very special for me, given my history with the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo,” Nice’s Ryan Levy said. “I couldn’t have gone to Rice (University) without it.”
Nearly 3,000 wines were submitted to the judging panels in November and the champion bottles will be available for tasting at a variety of venues, starting with the Rodeo Uncorked! Round Up and Best
Bites Competition February 26 at NRG Center. There, all the wineries that won a saddle, a belt buckle or a double gold medal will be poured — and paired with food from many of Houston’s best restaurants.
On March 5, special 9-liter bottles of many of those same wines will be offered at auction at the Champion Wine Auction & Dinner, also at NRG Center. Both the Grand Champion and Reserve Champion Best of Show wines last year sold for $125,000; the price for the Grand Champion has gone as high as $232,000.
Then, during every RodeoHouston performance, March 7-26, more than 70 of the top wines will be offered — many by the glass — at the Champion Wine Garden in Carruth Plaza. A wine bar at a rodeo? Only in H-town.
Wine garden hours are 4-11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4 p.m.-midnight Fridays, 11 a.m.-midnight Saturdays and noon-10 p.m. Sundays. An added amenity under the big tent is live entertainment starting at 1 p.m. on weekends and every evening at 6 p.m.
Go to rodeohouston.com for more event information. Go to rodeohouston.com/wine for a list of all the medal winners.