Last Night's Gala Eater Houston Party at Bad News Bar

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• T-shirt time
• Yes, you may have a shirt
• They promised to read the site if we gave them shirts
• Eater contributor Rachel Ann Brill with editorial director Amanda Kludt
• Eater co-founder Lockhart Steele with former Houston editor Amber Ambrose
• Lock and Amanda sporting the shirts
• Urban Harvest market manager Tyler Horne and Houston Press critic Katharine Shilcutt
• Former Oxheart sommelier Justin Vann, photographer to the stars Chuck Cook, Eater Houston editor Eric Sandler
• Food by Goro & Gun #andgun

[Photos by Lockhart Steele, Amanda Kludt and Gary R Wise]

Over 150 Eater readers, friends and fellow travelers gathered last night at new downtown cocktail den Captain Foxheart's Bad News Bar and Spirit Lodge for a Gala Eater Houston Reader Party. Bartenders Justin Burrow, Sebastian Nahapetian and Aaron Lara kept the crowd happy with old fashioneds and dacquiris. In addition to the drinks, next door neighbor Goro & Gun supplied superlative foodstuffs in the form of goat cheese cups, brussels sprouts, fried chicken livers on mini-shrimp waffles and—the hit of the night—a raw hamachi preparation cribbed from chef David Coffman's time at 17 restaurant. Attendees exited into the night sporting imited-edition, super swanky Eater Texas t-shirts. A good time was had by all.

1) Feast chef Richard Knight worked the room, accepting compliments on the news that his new restaurant with Down House chef Benjy Mason will keep him in town.

2)Taking a different approach, as suits a man in a suit, former Oxheart sommelier Justin Vann remained staunchly tight-lipped about his next move, despite attempts by Eater editorial director Amanda Kludt, in town from New York City as part of a frenzied week-long sprint across Texas, to lull him into a false sense of security based on their mutual love of Sherry.

3) Eater co-founder Lockhart Steele, also in from New York, spent a goodly portion of the evening on the bar's patio overlooking Main Street, where he met a group of energy traders who kick their day off at 6am with a refresh of Eater Houston. (Hello, gents. Thanks for coming out. Greetings, too, to our new friends in the wild world of LNG.)

4) Houston's food writers turned out in force. Press critic Katharine Shilcutt dropped by with boyfriend Joshua Justice before their next stop. Chronicle writer Sarah Rufca made an appearance after a party for the paper's employees. Former Eater Houston editor Amber Ambrose traded hugs with both Kludt and Steele. My Table Magazine's Phaedra Cook worked the room and husband Chuck Cook was, for once, out without his massive camera rig.

5)PR professionals Kimberly Park and Dragana Harris caught up with Urban Swank's Shanna Jones and Felice Simmons. Arbitrary critic Catherine Martin awarded Bad News -2 for the night's humidity but stuck around the entire time.

6) For those who missed the evening, a very small supply of Eater Texas t-shirts remain. Anyone got a good idea for how we might equitably distribute them?