Max’s Wine Dive in the current trendy Heights area of Houston has a great menu. It is a mixture of gourmet style comfort food with Texas influenced ingredients. The crowd is young and the place is packed with people.  Yet, they try to take the pretentiousness away from the food. Waiters wear shirts that say Champagne and Fried Chicken. I couldn’t agree more. I love fried chicken and who says I can’t have champagne with it? It actually complements quite nicely. Welcome to foodiedom. Throw out your traditional ideas of what is acceptable with food and go with it. In the words of Andrew Zimmern, “If it looks good, eat it!”  Fortunately, Max’s does taste great! The fried chicken is fantastic! The batter has buttermilk and jalapeno which gives it a wonderful flavor. It comes served with a chipotle honey. Always fun to add a small bit of spice to sweet. Complement your chicken with the Max and Cheese. This is Max’s version of macaroni and cheese with cavatappi pasta tossed in truffle cream. On the Texas side of things, try the milk braised Texas wild boar served over homemade artichoke gnocchi and topped with goast cheese brulee. You’ve never had anything quite like it. If you are out to impress and money is no object, order the kobe beef burger and top it with foie gras. Hey, you only live once. Max’s also has a nice selection of wines and you can purchase wine to take home. Try the Petite Petit. Sure there are elephants on the label and it looks a bit like the circus, but remember we are throwing out those notions of what food and wine should be. This petite sirah packs a lot of bang for the buck. You are now on the way to finding your inner foodie.

Max’s wine dive has now opened a new location in Austin as well. Enjoy