Huge Foodie Weekend in Houston Highlights Ambitious Food Hall and River Oaks Wonderland

Houston weekends are packed full of events, but how many of them are truly worthy of your time? PaperCity’s new events calendar offers a curated look at all the best things to do in the area. But everyone can still use a guru — or two.

PaperCityWeekend Gurus Matthew Ramirez and Virginia Reynolds cull our calendar for your weekend must dos in this weekly series.

Bravery Chef Hall Grand Opening

Bravery Chef Hall has earned buzz for elevating the food hall in Houston — and now it’s finally holding its official grand opening. Even though it’s been open since summer on the ground floor of Hines’ Preston high-rise and has already won Best Food Hall honors in the city in PaperCity’s latest poll.

Throughout this week, Bravery has been hosing a Grand Opening event with featured dishes and cocktails, live entertainment, and more – but the party can’t last forever. Things wrap up this weekend, so head there either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to celebrate one of the city’s best chef-inspired food locales.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Lady M & Baccarat Pop-Up Boutique

When Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake,” she was probably referring to Lady M Confection’s luxurious cakes. The New York City-based sweets shop has been hailed by a host of outlets, like The Oprah Magazine, Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine, and Vogue, for creating beautiful and show-stopping treats. Picture taking a bite into 9-inch Pistachio Mille Crêpes. Or an 8.5-inch Framboise au Chocolat. Or any one of their signature crêpes served as a wedding cake.

But if you’re looking to visit a Lady M around town, good luck. Unfortunately, Lady M has no location even remotely close to Houston, or Texas for that matter. Sure you can find them in New York, California, Boston, Chicago – heck, even Shanghai – but not in the Bayou City. Until now.

The luxury cake shop has partnered up with Baccarat for a cross-country road trip in their nothing-but-the-best Luxury Cake Truck (think Baccarat chandeliers and 3D art by Kurt Wenner), and they’ve made Houston their very first stop. Visit the Baccarat store in River Oaks District to check out the truck and order some of their signature cakes, served by the slice or as a whole. The truck will be in the District from Friday, October 18 through Sunday, October 20.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

ArBOOretum

With Halloween just around the corner and pumpkin season officially upon us, it’s time to make the big mental leap from Summer to Fall (even though the temperatures haven’t shown it). So slip into your best Halloween costume, and head to the Houston Arboretum this Saturday for its biggest family event of the year, ArBOOretum.

The all-day festival will feature activities like face paining, pumpkin decorating, a petting zoo, and a Trick-or-Treat Nature Trail. There will also be some new highlighted events and happenings, like a cool Halloween Market, Halloween-themed science experiments, and more.

Admission for members is free; tickets for non-members is $15 online, $20 at the door. All proceeds help support the Arboretum and its education and conservation programs.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Taste of the District

River Oaks District will transform from luxury shopping center to open air market this Sunday, October 20 to celebrate harvest time in Houston. What does this mean, you might ask? Well the district has got it down (as this marks the event’s second year).

You can expect to experience the great flavors of this city, with samplings from both local chefs and the district’s desirable restaurants. So grab a bite from Bisou and finish with something sweet from Kicpops. And of course there will be drinks, compliments of Saint Arnold and Ketel One Botanical.

But to make it all better, the event is hosted in partnership with Recipe for Success, and will include fresh farm produce from the organization’s very own Hope Farms. Proceeds from the day will benefit Recipe for Success.

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Danny Brown

Detroit rapper Danny Brown released probably my favorite record of the decade in 2011. His galling opus XXX, a life-summary of the brash MC as he teetered on the edge of stardom and irrelevance at the ripe old age of 30 (every good rapper becomes washed at 25).

He’s spent the decade chasing that high through a number of releases, none of which even can approach XXX – but he’s come closest with his recently released record, uknowhatimean, which dropped in September and is produced entirely by legendary A Tribe Called Quest mastermind Q-Tip, who lends Brown a ridiculously lush, vintage, but never boring background for him to glide over.

Brown fixed his trademark gap teeth and cut his hair, an appropriate move as the rapper approaches 40 – and has found a new vital voice doing so. He’ll be at Warehouse Live Thursday, October 17.  -Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Maxo Kream

Born and raised in Alief, Maxo Kream has stayed busy this decade, building a cult following around his no-nonsense, non-showy tales of growing up in hardship, gang life, poverty, drugs, and other tropes of street rap.

Slowly but surely the Houston rapper gained a large following, before breaking out in 2017 when he collaborated with then No. 1 rapper in the world Lil Uzi Vert, then followed that up with Punken, a harrowing slice of life record.

This year, his star came to a head with Brandon Banks, an origin story that contains some of his sharpest writing, and his biggest hit – “She Live,” a summer anthem featuring Houston’s current hottest export Meghan Thee Stallion. Catch him at House of Blues Friday, October 18. Doors 7 pm; tickets $25. -Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.

Clairo

Within the past few years a new class of singer-songwriters has bubbled up across Spotify playlists and Instagram captions alike, capturing the minds and hearts of late-teens and early-20s music fans: Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy, Faye Webster, Frankie Cosmos, and, perhaps the most well-known of them all, Mitski (who at her age is the old-head of the group).

Hailing from Atlanta, Clairo has the clearest path to mainstream success. Her music is easy on the ears, easy to admire, and easy to slowly fall in love with. The 21-year-old’s full-length debut, Immunity, dropped this year and soundtracked a lot of late-evening drives for me over the summer. Working with Rostam (formerly of Vampire Weekend), Dev Hynes, Danielle Haim, and other big names behind-the-boards, Clairo is working hard to transcend the just-below-ground indie rock scene very soon.

Catch her at House of Blues while you still can Wednesday, October 23. Tickets $22.50; doors open at 7 pm. -Matthew Ramirez

Go to the full PaperCity events calendar listing.