Sunday, April 17, 2005

The Hobbit Cafe


thorin
Originally uploaded by Texas Cooking.
Alicia and I went out last night without a plan or direction. We set out to have dessert and a drink. Simple enough? Right.
We drove past the newly opened Cheesecake Factory. A line of people wrapped around the restraurant. All the teeny boppers on their cell phones spending mom and dad's money. Someone in our party of 2 reccomends that we go in and sit at the bar since all we want is dessert. Dessert at the CHEESECAKE Factory. Maybe it's just me but don't you think that some of those other people in the mile long line have thought of that? Just maybe.
We tool on down the road and jump on 59. We look at all the chain restaurants and replicates and pass. We head downtown and try to scout out a place. We drive down Kirby. We drive up and down Westheimer. We drive down Shepherd. Tension starts to build. We drive back down Kirby. Frustration sets in. Turn onto Richmond and it doesn't look promising but then Alicia says "the Hobbit cafe".
A wooden sign shows Gandalf pointing to the back of a filled gravel parking lot. Oak trees growing up randomly amongst the vehicles. The cafe is nestled in the back, hidden from the busy street. A huge old oak tree grows through the covered deck that wraps around the building.
The cafe itself is extremely quaint, a converted home with old wood and painted in very earthy and rustic colors. We sat inside under a LOTR movie poster and a drawing of Thorin Oakenshield. (Thorin of course is the head dwarf from The Hobbit). I had a Strider, an egg salad sandwich with mushrooms and tomatoes. Alicia enjoyed a Gandalf, avacados and mushrooms under melted monterey jack. Excellent draft beer from microbreweries in houston and austin and a finely picked wine list. A hefewiezen for me and a reisling for Alicia. From what I gather, the Hobbit is frequented by alot of vegans, but there are a lot of items on the menu that do have meat.
For those keeping track, after searching all night for a good place to get dessert, we ended up eating dinner. But the Hobbit was worth it and I still have an entire half a sandwich to eat for lunch today.

3 comments:

loofrin said...

sounds like a hip kinda place.

rebekah said...

huh. i've never even heard of that place, in five years of living in houston. but now that i have, i'm going to run right over ...

you're great...

Jason Maroney said...

you'll love it. it's on Richmond east of kirby after the car dealership. There's a seafood place in the same parking lot and the Mucky Duck is right behind it.