Houston Restaurants Offer Dwight Howard Free Food to Sign With Rockets

Houston's restaurants are joining the movement to recruit free agent, All-Star center Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets by offering him free food. Radio host Sean Pendergast started the #DwightAThon after he learned that the Dallas locations of chicken finger chain Raising Cane's had offered Howard free food to sign with the Mavericks. Thinking that Houston restaurants could top chicken fingers, he put out the call and Houston restaurants responded accordingly.

Pendergast's biggest get is the Kolache Factory. The local chain has offered Howard free kolaches (tentatively up to a dozen per week) for the length of his Rockets contract, and they'll giveaway one free kolache to all customers on July 15 from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. if he signs outright. Marketing director Andrew Eller tells Eater that "We made the offer because we really do think it will help. Houston has something that no other city can offer, and that's great kolaches on every corner."

Pendergast says he's also successfully recruited Beef N Bun BBQ (free barbecue sandwiches) and sports bar Nick's Place (free calzones). Seeing the call on twitter, burger temple Hubcap Grill responded with an offer of free burgers and fries.

Considering that the Rockets are expected to offer Howard a max deal that will run about $20 million per year, a little free food may not be the deciding factor. Still, it couldn't hurt. If it works, hey, free kolaches!

Update: Radio host Lance Zierlein has also joined the cause. He tweets that Howard will now also receive free food at Papa John's, the Egg & I, Firehouse Subs and Genghis Grill.

· Sean Pendergast [Twitter]
· #DwightAThon [Twitter]
· Dwight Watch 2013: Kolache Factory Ups the Ante for Dwight Howard [Hair Balls]
· Kolache Factory [Facebook]
· Hubcap Grill [Twitter]
· Slim Thug Is Doing His Part To Get Dwight Howard To Sign With Houston [Deadspin]

[Dwight Howard/Facebook]