In honor of the World Cup-winning Italian futbol team, we’ve assembled our own team of Italian delicacies to be had right here on the third coast. Mangia! • Meatball Sandwich and Macarpone Cheesecake at Enoteca Vespaio This sandwich with crusty white bread, juicy and spicy meatballs, warm melted cheese and sweet tomato sauce provides a very intricate marriage of flavors for something so, well, simple. Pair with something from an obscenely large collection of......

The Zagat Restaurant Survey, bastion of epicurean exorbitance, has finally descended upon Texas. Abnormally long enough so that it won't easily fit into your back pocket, these glossy red books review hundreds of the "best" restaurants in a city, culling the frothiest excerpts from thousands of voluntarily-submitted reviews by gluttonous gourmands in each city. These are then slopped together with a few select conjunctions, and topped off with individual ratings for Food, Decor, and Service,......

We told you about Enoteca Vespaio last week, and tipped you off that they were going to start serving brunch this past weekend. Well, we heeded our own advice and had ourselves a bit of brunch yesterday, and we were very, very impressed. We're not food writers, so we're not going to try to be flowerly with our writing here. Our meal consisted of two cups of cappucino, a bread plate featuring 3 slices......

: : FRIDAY : : [music] The Zippo Hot Tour Semi-Finals featuring Fractious, 9pm @ The Backroom - FREE! [film] A Bunch of New Movies Open! @ your local theater [film] QT6, 7pm & 9:30pm @ Drafthouse Downtown: Grindhouse Triple Feature also Saturday [music] Mike Graff, 8pm @ End of an Ear [dance] Refraction Arts presents "Shish-ka-bob! An Inventory of Works by Amy Cone," 8pm @ The Blue Theatre [music] Palaxy Tracks, The Glass......

Hey Folks, this post is by future contributor Karin L. Kross. We love Italian food -- one of the (very small) handful of things we missed about Houston was the ready availability of quality Italian restaurants -- but we're embarrassed to admit that we've never tried Vespaio. We have, however, sampled the goods at the new Enoteca Vespaio, and pronounce our need for good Italian food to be well-satisfied. An enoteca, according to our......