Aisle Love H-E-B Forever

H-E-B unveils merchandise for brand super fans, available exclusively at one store

H-E-B merchandise store open in Kerrville

H-E-B merch will start rolling out to other stores next year.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

Sometimes when H-E-B does something awesome, we just want to wear it on a shirt. Making fresh pizza, tamales, and sushi in stores? Partnering with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation? People who get that feeling can now act on it with a pilgrimage to the grocery chain's Kerrville store.

This small city, the birthplace of H-E-B, was chosen to launch the company's new line of H-E-B-branded merchandise, in celebration of its 117th anniversary. The merch will roll out to other Texas stores in 2023, but for now, there’s only one place to get sneakers that say, “Follow me to H-E-B.”

The new H-E-B Brand Shop, located inside the Kerrville store on Main Street, has themed merchandise from the traditional (T-shirts, socks, stickers, and mugs) to the nearly inexplicable (baby clothes, tortilla-disguised beer koozies, and badge holders).

Koozies and other stocking-stuffer-type merch from the H-E-B Brand Store. Photo courtesy of H-E-B

Some of these are just delightfully simple expressions of love for H-E-B and, by extension, being Texan; some are cute gag gifts for friends who sing the grocery store’s praises; still others are just convenient options to have on the way to, say, a last-minute beach trip when someone needs a shirt with better coverage and an insulated cup.

The history angle comes in for a few products, like a shirt featuring an old storefront and a koozie with cowboy boots and the number 1905, but most of the items look modern and quippy, if not entirely straightforward. One shirt says “Risk it for the brisket queso,” which is a lot more normal to wear than “I [heart] H-E-B Meal Simple Tex-Mex Brisket Queso Dip.”

H-E-B brand store Super fans snag T-shirts at the new H-E-B Brand Shop.Photo courtesy of H-E-B

“At H-E-B, we’re always looking for ways to offer our loyal customers exclusive, quality products, and with H-E-B Brand Shop we’re excited to give our superfans opportunities to celebrate and show off their passion for all things H-E-B,” said an H-E-B Group department vice president Sabina Israelian-Garcia in a press release.

Shoppers anywhere can view the nearly 60 branded items from the mobile app, as long as they select a store where H-E-B Brand Shop has rolled out.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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