THE NOW with CRIS: Steaks, Stetsons & Style

I'm Christina Cooker and you're watching The Now. Today we're indulging, shopping, getting a little Western and exercising our right to have an opinion. Now we start at Steak 48 where I had what might just be the best of something that I've ever eaten. in my whole life and trust me that's saying a lot. Then we're heading to Hunt and Bloom where extraordinary gifts and home decor are anything but ordinary. Seriously you've never seen a store like this. And next we're getting a little western at Magnolia Mercantile where vintage finds, fabulous western wear, and customizable hats let you create a look that's all your own. Then we're discovering Bolt's fine art or beautiful original artwork proves that you don't need a millionaire's budget to bring home something special. And then finally, a new episode of Chris in the Closet. It's food, fashion, fine art, and a little freedom of speech. I'm gonna do something different today, guys. I'm gonna get in the kitchen. Yes. Right? Look what I have. Extra large. Did you warn them? I did. Okay. It's coming in hot. I'm proud of myself right now. You are. I did that. You cooked that perfectly. I've had three children. Nice and medium. And I'm like, you know what? It's up there with that. It is. Right? I know. It's so beautiful. So beautiful. Chef, we are turning up the sexy appeal on the Now with Chris today. I'm very excited to be here at Steak 48. You walk through the door, and you just feel like, ah. I've had the luxury of being here before. I've only hung out at the bar, but still a great time. Absolutely. So what sets us apart, so we have our owners that are James Beard Award winners, which is awesome. It's amazing. All about taking care of our employees and our guests to start off the night. Everything's fresh every day. We have our own trained butchers in-house that do all the butchering for us, our fresh seafood. Look at this. Yeah. Nice. I know. I was like where did this come from? Those are huge. It's huge. Look at the stone crab here as well. Oh my goodness. Right. I'm like is that even called? It's almost as big as your hand. It is. Now that I've touched it I guess it needs to go. We gotta start off with the toaster. Okay let's do. Are you a toaster? We got stone crab here, we got blue point oysters, we got our colossal shrimp. Colossal, accurate. And here's some crab legs, king crab legs. Oh, you're going to have to help me with that. Yes, look at that. Okay, dip, dip, dip, there you go. Dip, dip, dip, dip, dip. I love that. Shrimp cocktail. Oh, that is so good. Somebody's got to talk. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mmm. The horseradish. Creme fraiche, our sorbet and caviar. And you just pop the whole thing in your mouth? You just pop the whole thing in your mouth. Okay. Ready? Down the hatch, cheers. One more toast. Oh, wow. I like the way you work. This is our ghost shrimp New York that we're gonna cook off. Okay. We have our special seasoning here. It's a top secret. I'm trying to see if I can, my sniffer can sniff it out. I cannot. And we're going to go over here. 1,800 degrees. I like my medium rare. Medium rare. Newing-ish. Just like that? Just like that. Okay. We're going to close it up for a little bit. Look at our marinara sauce. It's been cooking all morning. Oh, my goodness. Woo! Oh, we Italians. You cooked it perfect medium. Thank you. We got a crab and shrimp mac and cheese, lovely pasta shells with our cheese sauce. Look at that. Beautiful king crab right on top. I'm getting overwhelmed. Little big pieces on there. Oh. Oh. King crab and shrimp. Bye, guys. Okay, so king crab and shrimp mac and cheese. Yes. Whoever decided to do that. Mmm. Whoa. I think you dip one on each. Right? Don't double dip though. No, I'm not double dipping. I'm going to dip this side and that and that. Or I have a better idea. Watch me eat two. Okay. Here we go. So we dip like that. Yes. Okay. And then dip. I'm double dipping. Now we got to try an oyster. This is going to be a disaster. It is. I put it. It's like. Yeah. I know where this is going. Okay. Ready? Mm, I knew it was me. Thought over the place. I thought it was still in my mouth. We will edit that part out, trust and believe. It's This is user error, guys, user error. I've barely even touched a pumpkin yet. I'm not ready for an ornament. I haven't lit my candle yet, people, sit down. Right, I haven't even lit my pumpkin chai candle. I am so excited to be here. And as we were just talking off camera, like I've been in Houston for a very long time, know a lot of things. And how did I not know about this? We are at our brick and mortar retail store in Houston. And I say we're in River Oaks, Upper Kirby area. On Westheimer, we're in our fourth brick-and-mortar location in four years, which is insane. And I'm surprised I'm still standing. No. But, yeah, we've just kind of moved along, and we were kind of hidden before, and now we're kind of branching out into a bigger space, our biggest. We're not moving again. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Fourth time's the charm. Fourth time's the charm. It better be. It better be, right. So, yeah, this is our little, I call it a jewel box, even though we're a little bit bigger than a jewel box now. So when you walk through these doors, my eyes are like... So, when people walk through the doors, tell everybody a little bit of what they will find. So, I have been in the home furnishings industry for almost 30 years, unfortunately. Not unfortunately being in the home industry, but unfortunately, if I'm old enough to... No, hey, we're here to live. We're here, yeah. I've always been a collector. I collect old things, new things, all things, expensive things, inexpensive things. I think mastering the mix is what makes a space great. And so, I just started collecting in Houston. When we first moved here, I didn't know a lot of people and I was like, you know what, I'm going to launch a vintage and antiques business online only just kind of as a side hobby. I have the unfortunate problem of overbuying because I like a lot of stuff so when you come in here you're going to see a lot of stuff that takes a while you should have seen the smaller shops it was this is this is nothing compared to them yeah but when you walk in you're going to see everything from vintage chinoiserie vases to an artisan I found in Europe who hand makes ceramics So I always want to have something, give our customers access to beautiful decor for any holiday. So we really roll it out when fall comes along, out comes the pumpkins, the, you know, the feathers, everything that tells the story of fall. When Halloween comes around, we call it our spooky shop. We have fun things for Halloween and then Thanksgiving. We want you to be able, we love hosting. I love hosting. I want to be able to provide you with everything that you need to make a beautiful Thanksgiving table. Oh, see, we would be a good match because I'm not good at that, but I do love to feed people. So I've got the food part. I'll set the table. You make the food. Cool. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now we get to shop. Yeah. Shop. I feel like I need to shop. I was looking at my mantle. I'm sure it's It's pitiful. Oh. Coming up, we're getting our Western on at Magnolia Mercantile, where vintage fashion meets custom cowboy hats. Then we're discovering affordable masterpieces at Foltz Fine Art. And then another Chris in the Closet. We'll be right back. I have a new place to shop, everybody. There's a lot of things I love to do in life. The top of the list, eating good food. Okay. Shopping. Love it. Right? Yeah. Tell everybody where we are. So this is Magnolia Mercantile. We are a specialty boutique here in the upper Kirby River Oaks area where I make custom hats and have a gorgeous curated selection of clothing. When you walk through these doors, you see the most beautiful boots and jackets and dresses and clothes. I mean, you've got everything. It's essentially one-stop shopping for rodeo season. Get one to two of each item in each size, and once they're sold out, they're sold out, and I never reorder. Yeah. So girls would come and be like, okay, what do you have this week? What do you have this week? Yeah. Because it's always changing. So if you want to go somewhere and not have every single person wear the exact same thing, come here. Exactly. Right? You also make some other stuff here. Yes, so I do custom cowboy hats, so you get fitted for your hat, I can steam and shape it up for you. We have a whole hat consultation where you get to pick out everything, we chat through all your colors, vibe, ribbons, we build it all there for you and get to take it home the same day. So this is where you get to customize all the hats, I have a few examples here now. So, like I said, I hand-dyed all the silk ribbons, so each shade of pink, like you're never going to get the same hat twice. Okay. The inside is so beautiful. I mean, these are really, really nice hats. Oh, yeah. So, when we come in, we'll get fitted for it, right? You do, yes. You get fitted, and then you pick out what you want to go on it. Absolutely. And then you've got something really cool with the branding. We can brand them. I have over 100 different branding options that you can choose from. Okay. This place is called a persa place, right? So per a place and within it are all these different really neat, one-of-a-kind places to shop, see art, and what you have here is just really, really neat. Where does this come from? When did you decide you wanted to do something like this? That's a very long story but it's very fun. I was living in New York City working a corporate marketing job and I lost my job due to COVID and so I had a midlife crisis at like 24 and decided to move to Jackson Hole where I was working a retail shop on the square. I lived in my boss's basement and we worked essentially for a ski pass. Yeah. It was so much fun and I really wanted his custom cowboy hat. And I could not afford one because I was like eating ramen noodles as a luxury meal. Yeah. And I was like, I can do that. And so I did. And like my good friend wanted one, and that was really it. And then my parents were like, OK, COVID's over. Like, let's go get a real job. Yeah. And so I moved outside of Austin to Marble Falls. I started doing marketing there. It was lovely. I just wanted something more creative. So I started doing hats again. Like went official and got an Instagram account. Yeah. And like blew up. Definitely check out my Instagram, but all my hats are by appointment only. So you book online for the hats, but the boutique stays open full time. Okay, perfect. Good to know. All right, so I love when you can turn a passion or hobby into like money. Finally. That's just going to say it. Fine art. Let's get started. I love when I come across these places that I had no idea about. Houston is full of just this melting pot of food and art and just so many great things. And come to find out you have been now here in this place, which this area is considered. What do you guys tell people? Persa Place. Persa Place, which is in what area of Houston? It's kind of the Upper Kirby, Montrose, River Oaks all coming together on Westheimer near Shepherd. We have between Greenbrier and Shepherd. And we've been in this location 13 years. We're one of the older businesses that are still in this current location. I walk in and it's just a little bit of everything. Well, our gallery focuses on Texas art and art history. So when you come in every time, it'll be a little bit different. Sometimes it's early traditional Texas, more historic works through mid-century modern, abstract expressionism. And then with contemporary Texas art, that really is all encompassing from more traditional landscape-based work to conceptual abstract contemporary works. Our current exhibition features as a group show on artists painting and inspired by the Big Bend of far west Texas. An outer group show and then the interior show is Terry Supreme, who is a local, really up and coming artist whose work you're seeing surrounding us. In here you also hold special events. You were saying that the ladies come play Mahjong? Yes, yeah. We have a local Mahjong group that regularly plays and we have artist talks and workshops here at the gallery regularly, but we do a lot of different things with groups in the community. We're always happy to host events here. It's a wonderful space. Very welcoming and we were kind of talking off camera about how it can be a little bit intimidating, right? And especially you know you walk in you're like, I'm not going to be able to afford anything. You can. You can. You can. And you even have a special little section where you can extra, extra affordable Yes, we have a back salon wall that's constantly changing out and it tends to be the more affordable end. We also have a bookshop that focuses on Texas art, history, architecture, modernism, and conservation. Very nice. It's important to the gallery. I am ready for election day to be over. Every five seconds, Tuesday's election day. No Sherlock, I don't need a reminder. Look, vote early, save America. What? And then I heard that if you vote early, then the text messages stop. That's a myth. My husband, I said, this is what I heard. And he was like, no, idiot. Why would that be the case? They don't know who's voted. They don't have your cell phone number. Clearly, they do have my cell phone number. He didn't call me an idiot, though I do think that's what he was thinking. We showed up. Tension is thick. People getting shysty with the parking spots. I'm rolling my window down going, calm down. We're all in this together. And then they have all the people and they're yelling and they're pointing. Vote for this person. Vicky, stop screaming at me. You're not going to change my mind. Actually, if I was going to vote for that person, I might not now because you won't lower your voice. Making me feel like I'm in timeout. I didn't do anything wrong. Just trying to be a good citizen. Just trying to vote. Why is everybody so mad? I don't know. The whole thing was very overwhelming. They thankfully have like a whole covered thing so that while we're standing in line, we can be in the cool shade. You know what I don't like? Sorry, this is on topic, but off topic. I don't like fake cops. I don't like people who are not cops that think they're cops. And one lady says, you're from county? Yeah, that's why I'm here. Which is why I just need to make sure because if you're in the wrong place, you're da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. And I was like, whoo, somebody gave that lady too much caffeine. We go up, you have to give your license, right? All I brought in was my phone. Bring in a purse, I'm not gonna, I'm just bringing my cell and my little voting fingers. The lady was, I'm gonna need you to put that cell phone away as soon as we're done here. No problem. I'm gonna need you to find a pocket. Do you have a pocket? I don't have a pocket. I'll stick it in my boot. You wanna watch? I'm gonna watch. Then I walk up with my paper. I feel like voting is like checking a bag at the airport. There's a sticker with the arrows and this has to go here and this has to go there and you have to do this first and this has to be face down. And I'm like, duh duh. So many rules. And I don't do rules. I don't do directions. I don't do instructions. None of it. So finally, I figure it out. It goes in, kind of, partly. Why is it sticking out? I guess it's supposed to stick out. And the guy next to me is like this. Bring me down. I'm not trying to look at who you're voting for. I don't care. And afterwards, it goes, and then I get it, and I'm like, okay. She goes, don't bend it. I'm like, I had one job, and I messed up. Walked over to the little guy, and he said, put it in this way. Now go get your sticker. I know that's why you came. Yes, Bill, that's why I'm here, for my sticker. Have a blessed night. Fun fact, 1896, William McKinley from Ohio campaigned only from his front porch. No bus, just lemonade at his front door. Well done, 25th president.