Teahouse (Memorial)

I used to be a big Teahouse groupie, or maybe their #1 customer.  I haven't had one in a while but this new location made me kind of crave it.  So, for old times sake I stopped in on my way out of Snap Kitchen, which is next door.  On a side note, the Chicken Butternut squash is really good, must try.  So is the Buffalo Quinoa Hash...so good it makes you think this can't be healthy.  Ok, so anyways, I get me a milk tea, and they said it's buy one get one free.  Awesome!  It comes out to just under $5, which is outrageous, but I don't think prices changed all that much.  It's amazing how expensive these types of teas and coffees are!  Anyways, it was good and it was just as I remembered it.  I had mine with the regular boba and took the free one back to the office to share with Alexa.  They also had macaroons and other fun things. 

Pinkberry!

I love how they just put a small dollup of yogurt and pile on the fruits! This is the fruit bowl with original yogurt.  I was kind of over the yogurt thing, until I found the fruit cup at Pinkberry...YUM!

Just Poppin Gourmet Popcorn!

I first had my first gourmet popcorn in Chicago at Garrett's Popcorn. My sister used to bring this to me from San Jose.  I was super ecstatic to see a gourmet popcorn shop has finally arrived in Houston!  Though they tell me they've been here a year!  I think the location is probably not ideal, downtown in the business section.  They should be located in the mall or something.  Either way, I'm glad they're fairly close to me.  The ladies in the shop are super nice.  I really went out of my way today to run over and get two bags, one caramel and one cheddar.   I could not wait to bring it back to the office to open up, so naturally I ate on my way back and by the time I got back to the office, I had TMJ.  Good thing my ladies at the office helped me.  If it weren't for this bad jaw, I probably would have finished the whole bag!  Good thing for my physical ailments.

Ok, that's it for now...definitely go get you a bag...or two!

Ooh La La Desserts

The shop is in a great spot in Town & Country shopping center, not City Center.  The interior is cute, I can see they tried.  But, they need a little more work it looks a little sad and definitely not cozy.  But the selection of furniture is fun and kind of shabby chic. 

The dessert casings are kind of ghetto, but whatever...the cupcakes are ginormous!  I can't wait to sink my teeth in it.  Geez, what a deflater, it was totally eh...actually I take that back...it's worse than eh.  The chocolate cake was dry and pretty bad, but on the bright side, if you keep eating it...it starts to grow on you.  But, if you take a break and go back, it's pretty bad again.  Also, just so you know...I warned that girl that this one cupcake would determine if I ever came back and she still recommended it to me!  That's scary.

In summary, when it comes to cupcakes, it should be about quality, not quantity. There was just no love in these cupcakes and you can't hold it against people for giving high ratings for subpar cupcakes.  They just don't know any better.  But, it was pretty bad...so bad, I didn't finish it.  That's bad.  I'd rather eat a cupcake from Costco...ok, not really.  But really, just save the calories for something better!!   If you want to know what love in a cupcake tastes like...go to Celebrity Cupcakes!  Ok now, tootles!

Petite Sweets (Upper Kirby)

In the home of the former yogurt shop that I've never been to.  I think the location is probably a little more hidden and hard to find than hoped for.  It's really not a sexy location and it's always pretty empty when I drive by.  My former roommate was in town and was craving frozen custard, apparently the new hot trend.  We do some searching and Petite Sweets pop up and since it's been on my to do list, that's where we're going.  We're pretty excited about it too.

Petite Sweets is a joint effort by owner of BRC and Ruggles Green.  They had cleaned out the yogurt machine so we end up getting the packaged frozen mango custard from the refrigerator.  I ask Petite Sweets man to recommend one in each category, so we get the pumpkin spice macaron, carrot cake ball, bacon and something mini cupcake, I forget it's been at least a week since my visit, sorry.  We split them all and the only thing we thought was good was the macaron.  I mean, everything was so cute I was excited to be there, but the carrot cake ball was too wet and thick.  The mini bacon cupcake was just not good.  The frozen custard was ok.  Very disappointing experience.  Though my tasting experience wasn't very good, I'd probably give it another go. This time, pick my own favorite flavors.  The displays are really well done, very pleasing to the cupcake, sweets and everything-cute connoisseur!  :)

Texas Cupcake Co.

I just love when people drop off cupcakes at our office.  These were actually not bad and so festive!

Quickie at Sprinkles

Get your mind out of the gutter!  It was just a quick stop at Sprinks with Jim after lunch fromTiny Boxwood's. I didn't realize they had coffee. I didn't have any but Jim said it was ok. He did say it was super strong, which I think is the best kind of coffee...mm mm.

My little thing to do is to get cupcakes, take them back to the office, and sample with the girls. I have to share my indulgences...share in the guilt!  That's my motto.  I got 4 cupcakes, Raspberry, Coconut Lemon, Dark Chocolate, and Red Velvet. At Sprinks, Dark Chocolate used to be my favorite, but I think I'm back to my lemon roots.  My favorite this time around was the Coconut Lemon, while Jodie and Amanda's was Raspberry. All in all, everything yummy...but Celebrity Cupcakes is still my favorite. 

Oh, and they changed the sign further down, right above the entrance, instead of way at the top of the building.  Not sure why it was so high up in the first place, as it's hard to find the shop if you've never been there.  Moving the sign down near eye level, smart.

Frosted Betty at Home

Frosted Betty is now officially settled in at their new home next to Tulips & Tutus, where I get all my newborn baby gifts. They have the cutest things. FB's part of this shopping center is actually decorated very cute. Curtains made out of sackcloth, wooden barrel bins to hd candies and other snacks. They also have a section of glass encased chocolates.

I've had FB cupcakes a total of 4 times. The first time I liked, noticed a bit of greasiness. The second time the greasiness was confirmed, third time I made up my mind I didn't like FB cupcakes. The fourth time I just wanted to try it again in their new home while I was shopping for John and Renee's new addition, Madeliene. I bought two, brought it back to the office cut them each into fours and everybody hated them, said all they could taste was the Crisco. Ok, it's been officially confirmed.

My office thinks I should tell FB or else they are going to go out of business.  We'll see...

Black Hole (Museum District)

My latest find! Discovered on a chance incident on our way to dinner by taking a wrong turn. Feels totally like a word of mouth place, but come to find out it's a sister of Antidote, opened only 6 months. I'd be impressed if someone brought me here. If you like Antidote, you'll appreciate Black Hole. Similar food, atmosphere, bigger, casual, buried cafe. Love it here!

4504 Graustark St
Houston, TX 77006
Neighborhood: Museum District

(713) 528-0653

I <3 Celebrity Cupcakes

Cupcakes again???  I know, it's scary how often I go. I took Susan by today to pick up some cupcake minis for her and Kirk and ran into an old college friend, Thao and her girlfriend and a total of 3 kids between them. As a matter of fact, while we were all sitting outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and eating our cupcakes another asian girl walks up to the cupcakery.  Wow, all three sets of patrons were asian females. Even yesterday, asian females.  Men...I don't know what it would do for your image hanging out at a cupcake shop with other guys, but that's all I'm saying.

By the way, Thao said Cele Cupcakes is her favorite cupcake spot too. Said she came specifically to try the Italian Cream cupcake, it's new, I had a mini and it's yummy.  It was sweet, has substance, and is moist though it's small.  I just love these minis because they're so easy to eat.  It's not messy at all and in two bites you're done.

Celebrity Cupcake Minis

So cute, I'm going to explode!  I think this is such a great way to sample and have all your favorite flavors.  They're $1.75 each.  I'm a total a cupcake freak and this is my favorite cupcake shop in Houston!  The cupcakes are so stinkin cute, presentation is impeccable and they taste really good too. There's great attention to detail with each cupcake from the moistness and lightness of the cake, sweet and flavorful with all organic ingredients, icing is perfection and the edible decorative fondant is just such a charming finish.

For Sam and Katie...

One for Jodie, two for me...

muahahahahaha...

Sweet Part 2

Ok, so I went back for red velvet, raspberry and strawberry to take to my girlfriends who hadn't heard about Sweet.

So I decided to get some Macaroons because the few people I know have been raving about them. I got the vanilla. It looks like a teeny weeny burger.

It's just bigger than the size of a quarter.  I thought it was really tasty...so I went back...

and got another, this time the Lemon, which I liked better.  It's $1.50 for one and packaging is cute too!

I was hoping to split the cupcakes with my girlfriends, but we couldn't coordinate early enough so I went ahead and had my raspberry.  I thought it was really good.  Raspberries in the cake too.  Icing delicious, cake was really moist and tasty too.  Overall, very pleased with it.  I think the Strawberry cupcake's icing looks much better today than it did yesterday.  So far I'm very pleased with everything I've tried here, I definitely recommend Sweet.

Sweet at City Centre

In the center of City Centre near Yardhouse.  It's a little hard to find since it's not on the most exposed side.  But, just around the corner behind Red Mango and really not a bad space once you know where it is.

Sweet is not to be confused with Sweet Cupcakes that was featured on Cupcake Wars.  They do more than cupcakes, they have macaroons and rock candy, coffee, and more to come, says Sandy.

So far I like the decor, rustic meets posh, love the combination of brick and wood, very cute.

cute little benches, plenty of seating in and out the cupcakery.

Very nice presentation and lots of choices from Red Velvet, Green Tea with Raspberry icing, Vanilla Bean, Peanut Butter (great idea!), Strawberry, and more...too many to remember.  They were all very cute, presentation was great, I wanted to eat them all! 

An explosion of cuteness in a very tasteful way.

And for your furry family members, how thoughtful!

I wanted a Lemon, but they ran out.  At the recommendation of the owner Sandy, who was really nice, I got the strawberry.  It smelled awesome!  I thought it was really good.  There were strawberries in the cake, you can see it in this picture through the cup.  I thought the icing was good too.  I thought it was pretty comparable to my favorite, Celebrity Cupcake's strawberry.  I thought Celebrity Cupcake's icing tastes lighter.  The cake taste about the same.  The only thing I thought gave Celebrity a noticeable point over Sweet's was the presentation of the cupcake.  This cupcake doesn't look as neat, don't you think?  But, just to point out, the other cupcakes were really cute and prices are great at $3 a cupcake!

Just to prove a point on the location comment I made earlier, I was sitting on a bench with my girlfriend Rebecca and eating my cupcake and two girls walked up to me and asked me where I got the cupcake, I told them it was on the other side of Red Mango...case in point. I was very happy with my overall experience from the atmosphere, staff, owner, and product.