For two years, Don Kirrin Snack House has been an oasis of icy cold drinks and hot snacks in the East Aldine District. But their reputation for quality and creativity draws customers not only from the Aldine area, but from as far as the Woodlands, Conroe, or Katy. “There are a lot of refresquerias around Houston, but [...]
Vance Dixon is on a natural high as we roll up on him in his little strip mall community center at Charriton and JFK. The previous day had seen him hosting a voter registration drive, and among those who signed up to vote for the first time was Dixon himself. “We had Rock the Vote [...]
Pretty much any time you research the history of a “new” Tex-Mex dish -- breakfast tacos and fajitas, for example -- your trail will end somewhere in the Rio Grande Valley. In days gone by, those dishes would first be adopted in San Antonio, from whence they would then be taken first to Houston and [...]
Natives of Houston are Houstonians and the people of Dallas are called Dallasites, but by what name do the people of Aldine prefer to be referred? What is the label for locals, or in the words of writer, historian, baseball scholar and word expert, what is Aldine’s “demonym?” That’s the word Dickson popularized for this [...]
By Christina Autry A native to East Aldine, Adriana Hinojosa knew that the community where she grew up was the place she wanted to establish her business. For the past six years, Hinojosa has provided a space for women to have fun and get fit in a welcoming environment. From Zumba to her Keeping it [...]
By Christina Autry Safety and community engagement remain among our top priorities in the East Aldine District as we navigate the COVID-19 crisis. We have seen the community rally together in a big way, from the actions taken by our partners in the Town Center development, to the dedication of our local police officers, to [...]
A hybrid taco truck / taqueria mix, and the original of three in the Greater Houston area, El Trompo Loco #1 offers spit-roasted / grilled tacos of a type brought to Mexico by Middle Eastern immigrants relatively recently -- in the words of Texas Monthly taco editor Jose R. Ralat, they are far from some [...]
Looking today at the bustling economies, robust social safety nets, stable governments, and overall quality of life of the Scandinavian countries, it’s hard to believe that only a little more than a century ago, northern Europe was an economic, political and religious basket case. Back in the 1880s, when Aldine was first coming together, only [...]
As with so many fast-growing cities in the 1950s south, Greater Houston and especially Aldine saw much of its population growth coming from country folk moving in from the backwoods, seeking better job and educational opportunities and a little more excitement. For teenagers in the early 1950s, a good deal of those thrills came from [...]
Watching the slow expansion of a Houston-area Mexican dining establishment is one of the joys of long-term life in the metropolis. Today, La Mexicana is an institution in the Montrose area, complete with three indoor and one outdoor eating areas and a bar. On my first visit there, in the 1980s, it was a cramped [...]
