My Week of Whataburger

The latest TM stories. ͏ ͏ ͏ ››͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ››͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ [Join TM BBQ Club and enjoy special perks at TM BBQ Fest, and all year long.](   Aug 08, 2023 [My Week of Whataburger]( Food & Drink [My Week of Whataburger]( When I first arrived in Texas, I didn’t get the fawning over Whataburger. I tried to understand by eating 21 straight meals there. [READ STORY](   IN OTHER NEWS Critters [One of the World’s Rarest Whales Swims off the Texas Coast. Only About Fifty Are Left.]( Just as scientists begin to understand the Rice’s whale, environmentalists contend in a lawsuit that it may be threatened by a proposed offshore oil terminal.  [READ STORY]( [One of the World’s Rarest Whales Swims off the Texas Coast. Only About Fifty Are Left.](     BBQ Joint Reviews [Nearly Everything Has Improved at This Fort Worth Barbecue Joint, Making It the Best New Spot in Town]( While Brix Barbecue isn’t exactly “new,” its myriad upgrades—including a brick-and-mortar—have made it worth revisiting. [READ STORY]( [Nearly Everything Has Improved at This Fort Worth Barbecue Joint, Making It the Best New Spot in Town](   SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER   [Don't Miss Out!]( Stay up-to-date on everything Texas for [only $1 a month](. Limited-time, introductory offer. [SUBSCRIBE](   MORE OF THE LATEST [The Monkeys Who Died to Fight COVID]( Health [The Monkeys Who Died to Fight COVID]( Texas Biomedical Research Institute helped subdue the coronavirus and has big plans for combating future disease threats—with controversial help from its thousands of research primates. [READ STORY](   [Alan Palomo of Neon Indian Is Set to Return With His First Album in Eight Years]( Music [Alan Palomo of Neon Indian Is Set to Return With His First Album in Eight Years]( A deep dive into the song “Nudista Mundial ’89,” from Palomo’s new album, ‘World of Hassle,’ out September 15. [READ STORY](   [Meet Artist Nestor Topchy, the Mad Genius Hidden in Houston Heights]( Art [Meet Artist Nestor Topchy, the Mad Genius Hidden in Houston Heights]( Behind a rim of freeze-dried giant bamboo and scraggly trees, in a Houston Heights neighborhood caught between old apartments and new townhomes, lies the compound that has been artist Nestor Topchy’s laboratory for twenty-odd years. His place is a natural habitat for wildlife and his own wildest dreams; if there could be such a thing as a postapocalyptic Utopia, this is what it might look like. Topchy, keenly attuned to relational histories, thinks of it in more archaeological terms, like an ancient ruin below grade, denying the urban grid around it. I visited the property ahead of what looks like, finally, a breakout moment in Topchy’s career. This summer the Menil Collection is presenting his Iconic Portrait Strand, an ongoing project of small paintings that are contemporary takes on Byzantine icons. (His first solo exhibition at a major museum, it’s on view now through January 21, 2024.) Topchy has been making these portraits of friends and acquaintances for as long as he’s been the keeper of this land, using a historically accurate, many-layered technique he learned from St. Petersburg masters. He likes to go as far back in art history as he can with his work, and “then live it,” he told me. Lanky and boyish at sixty, Topchy keeps his salt-and-pepper hair neatly cut. The first thing you notice about him, though, are the bushy eyebrows that swoop far away from his face, giving him a countenance that wavers between clown and mad genius. Wit is integral to his practice. [READ STORY](   ONE MORE THING Sports [Simone Biles Won’t Say It Yet, but She’s Gunning for Paris 2024]( After topping the field in her return to competition, the gymnastics GOAT appears to have her sights set on next summer’s Olympics. [READ STORY]( Hit the Road With Us With a state as big and varied as Texas, it’s helpful to have a guide. [Sign up]( for On the Road With TM, Texas Monthly’s new newsletter, delivering travel diaries, tips, trips, and itineraries from our editorial staff to your inbox every other week. [GET THE NEWSLETTER](   Today in Texas history... The first Whataburger opens in Corpus Christi in 1950.   TRENDING ONLINE - [The 25 Best New and Improved BBQ Joints in Texas]( - [Inside the Fight for a Hidden Hill Country Treasure]( - [The Queen of Highland Park]( - [For $40, You Can Get an Excellent Steak Dinner Off a Dirt Road in the Panhandle]( - [One of the World’s Rarest Whales Swims off the Texas Coast. Only About Fifty Are Left.]( [Subscribe to Texas Monthly]( [Surf’s up, prices are down!](   Subscribe for our lowest introductory offer all year for $1 per issue. [SUBSCRIBE](   [Subscribe]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( You are receiving this message because you signed up for our newsletters. Want more? Check out [our other newsletters](.   P.O. Box 1569, Austin, TX 78767 [View Online]( [Unsubscribe](