HOUSTON — Sorry Austin. GQ Magazine just dubbed Houston the “new capital of southern cool.”
Houstonians have known for a while that we live in a pretty cool (and blazing hot) place with some pretty fabulous people.
Now it seems, the rest of the country is in on the secret and GQ is the latest to jump on the Bayou City bandwagon.
No worries. We’ll scoot over and make room. We’re a pretty friendly bunch here. (unless you’re a Cowboy fan or rude driver)
PHOTOS: 11 reasons Houston is cool
Photos: 11 reasons Houston is cool
Like Anthony Bordain before them, the GQ writer noted our deliciously diverse restaurant scene:
“With its mix of exploding immigrant communities and ambitious, sophisticated variations on upscale dining, Houston had decisively shrugged off its reputation as a city of steak houses and chains to become increasingly mentioned as one of the nation's great restaurant cities. In these pages, David Chang called Houston the next food capital of America. This year, it earned two spots on my annual list of Best New Restaurants, a distinction shared only with New York City and Los Angeles.”
GQ also paid tribute to our resiliency after Hurricane Harvey: “…The cracked-open metropolis that the rest of the country gazed upon in the immediate aftermath of Harvey was clearly one of deep communal ties, fierce civic pride, and wells of creative energy. Something special, it became clear to those who might not have been paying attention, was going on here.”
Buffalo Bayou Park, the Cistern art installation and Discovery Green got a shout-out, as did Montrose, Bun B and The Orange Show.
But a businessman who has shops in Houston, Austin and Dallas seemed to sum up our cool factor the best when he told GQ: “Austin is like your young, hip millennial brother who always knows the latest cool thing. Dallas is the metrosexual middle brother that nobody really wants to spend time with. But Houston is the older, cooler sibling—he's got some miles on him, he's been through some stuff, but he totally knows what's cool and what's not.”
Bottom line: Austin’s hipsters are trying very hard to be cool. Houstonians don’t have to work at it. And Dallas isn’t even part of the conversation.