Houston

1. Restaurants: Check out http://www.b4-u-eat.com/
   
   Houston's restaurants are affordable and absolutely delicious, and this web site separates the best from the good. Once we found it, we checked it every time we went out. Our favorites:
   • El Publito (Guatamalan / authentic Mexican, Montrose area, amazing grilled seafood with tropical fruit, ask to sit in their outdoors area if there's space, romantic)
   • La Griglia (Surprisingly reasonable for best-italian-restaurant-in-town food, romantic)
   • Cafe Malay (out west a bit (near Beltway 8) but absoultely amazing food, Malaysian, incredibly well-prepared, not greasy at all, amazing seafood). Out of this world.
   • The Istanbul Grill (on Morningside in Rice Village, romantic)
   • Nit Noi (in Rice Village, Thai, best Thai food we had in Houston)
   • Alexander the Great Greek (Greek, Galleria Area, romantic)
2. Jewish Community: The Jewish Community in Houston is a like a small town within a city (and there are probably 100,000 Jews here). Everyone knows each other and people really do try to help each other. There are only a few big congregations, and much of the lives of Jews in Houston revolve around them. There is a huge push to set people up with each other.
   • Join mailing lists. (a) the JCC, (b) Beth Israel young people groups, (c) Emanuel's young people groups, (d) Beth Yeshurun's young people's groups, (e) Rice Hillel
   • Join the JCC and a synagogue (Beth Israel, Emanuel, Beth Yeshurun, and United Orthodox are the big ones)
   • Get some fresh Challah at Three Brothers Bakery (a center of Jewish life in the Myerland suburbs)
   • Go to "Run for the Rose" (end of March-ish) is a charity run in honor of Marnie Rose, a friend of mine growing up, and the entire Jewish community turns out for it.
3. Cool Dating Ideas / Generally fun things to do
   • One of the coolest places in Houston to go is on top of the parking garage right by the Transco Tower (if they still let you up). It's an amazing view of Houston.
   • Sammy's night club on Thursdays. Really great night club, if you like that scene. Thursdays is the Spazmatics (an 80's and 90's group), which are really good and get a really good crowd.
   • Miller Outdoor Theater is a really good place to go on a date, because it is outdoors, you can walk in the park before hand, it's really grandiose being around the museums, and afterwards, you can go to a cafe in the area (I recommend: the Black Labrodor or Brasil)
   • Walking (or running) in the morning on Saturday and Sunday around the 3 mile loop at Memorial Park. A large fraction of the Jewish community must do this about once a month.
   • The big theaters are the Worthem and Jones Hall, and there are also great places to go downtown, but we don't know them as well.
   • Charity fun-runs happen all the time and are a fun place to have a date.
4. Our favorite other professionals and organizations.
   • Brook Edward M DDS, 6800 West Loop S # 550, Bellaire, 77401 - (713) 795-5841.
     
     Dr. Brook has been my dentist for years, and I have to say he's the best, mainly because of his dental hygienist, Lee. I honestly cannot say enough about this dentist. Such a wonderful practice.
   • Troop 806: If you are Jewish and have a son, you should make sure he gets a chance to be in Troop 806. It's one of the most formative and best experiences of my life.
   • Gurney Stephens, CPA: The best accountant in Houston. Helped me get my company's books in order with such a phenomenal amount of patience. 281-578-0000
   • Judith-Ann Saks Rosenthal's Artwork: Our mother, and admittedly a shameless plug. You should really check out her paintings. They actually look a lot better in real-life than they do on her web site saksart.com, and she specializes in painting commissioned works. She actually painted the bicentennial project for the Port of Houston, the heritage collection for the Daughters of the American Revolution, and has pioneered a unique type of abstract art.

1. Be very careful of police downtown, as well as in Bellaire and West U. They'll pull people over going just a few miles an hour over the speed limit, especially at night, and downtown, they've very sensitive to watching people leaving clubs and arresting them for DUI. We were lucky enough not to have a bad experience here, but we have some friends that have, so you have to really watch out.