Three local cocktail hot spots are competing to be named the "People's Best New Bar for 2014" by Food & Wine magazine. F&W editors selected newbies Half Step and Qui and not-quite-as-newbie Midnight Cowboy to represent our fair city.
But, in a cocktail democracy, or a cocktailocracy, the competition for best bar can be stiff. In addition to competing against each other, Qui, Half Step and Midnight Cowboy join a list of some of the most celebrated cocktail lounges in the country, including Bar Sardine and Pouring Ribbons in New York City, Imperial in Portland, Harlowe in Los Angeles and ABV in San Francisco.
Other Lone Stars bars on the short list include Brooklynite in San Antonio, and Julep and Captain Foxheart’s Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge, both in Houston.
The competition is open for voting now through September 30 and the regional winners will be announced on October 2. The bar with the most votes overall will be named Food & Wine's People's Best New Bar 2014.
Our advice is to get sipping. After all, you should learn about the candidates before you cast your ballot.
Rosie Flores and Robert Plant are hitting the road together again.
An Austin guitarist is embarking on a musical journey with one of rock's biggest icons — for the second time. Rosie Flores will be a special guest on Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant's 2026 Saving Grace tour. Austinites can see the show on Saturday, March 21, at ACL Live at the Moody Theater; then they can spread the word to friends across the country.
According to Flores' tour calendar, she kicks off the tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on March 14, and wraps it up in New York, New York, on April 7. She'll be joined by Austin drummer Chris Sensat and bassist Tommy Vee from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to form her band; singer Suzi Dian will accompany Plant.
Flores, who was born in San Antonio and has lived in Austin for many years, is known for her rockabilly style, both in sound and fashion. She is almost always pictured with a guitar, but she is also a singer and songwriter. At 75 years old, she is still playing live regularly outside of the major tour with Plant.
Although Flores certainly knows her niche, her rockabilly reputation doesn't flatten her appeal; she consciously pulls from many genres that she reckons all fit under the umbrella of "American roots music" in a video for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). In 2024, the government organization presented her with the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, their highest honor for folk and traditional arts.
Flores opened 16 dates on Plant's tour in November 2025. Her stylistic fluidity with rock-and-roll roots is a great complement for Plant's style, which since his Led Zeppelin days has mellowed out and drifted deeper into folk rock. (Led Zeppelin, many would argue, was already at least a cousin to folk rock.)
“Opening for Robert Plant last fall with my Rockabilly trio was one of the greatest honors of my life,” said Flores in a press release. “We're thrilled to have been invited back for the Spring tour. And I'm excited to once again get to see Robert with singer Suzi Dian and their killer band performing songs from their latest release, Saving Grace."
Saving Grace is Plant's 12th studio album, presenting covers of songs by blues artists like Blind Willie Johnson, as well as Plant's take on traditional tunes. It was released in September of 2025 and reached No. 1 on the U.K. Americana Albums chart and No. 17 on the U.S. top album sales chart.
Tickets to the Saving Grace Tour are available via rosieflores.com.
