<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  It&amp;#039;s a strange destiny that brings an Italian kid from Rochester, New York, to open a restaurant in Houston, but that is what Michael Dei Maggi, who with his tattoos and snap-brim hat looks a little like Johnny Depp, did after stints at un-illustrious places with names like The Lighthouse Inn and Max&amp;#039;s Wine Dive. In Houston he has opened a place he calls &amp;quot;Rat-Packish,&amp;quot; meaning it looks like a swanky Texas lounge where the boys might have dropped by for a few stiff drinks, rigatoni with meatballs, and prime rib \u2014 if Houston hadn&amp;#039;t been a dry town in the &amp;#039;50s. The Rockwood Room has the look down pat \u2014 a good long bar, big leather booths, and pretty waitresses who say, &amp;quot;How y&amp;#039;all doin&amp;#039; tonight?&amp;quot;  Together with his partner Derek Black, who&amp;#039;s a Level 2 Certified Sommelier (do they give out colored belts for that?), Dei Maggi pushes the lounge idea beyond the Texas norm, featuring concoctions like the Purple Haze (Stoli Raz, O.J., cranberry juice, and Champagne float), the Sterling Cooper (Woodford Reserve, dry vermouth, Benedictine, and orange peel), and \u2014 according to Esquire \u2014 the best Manhattan in America. The wine list is every bit as impressive, with scores of small estate bottles under $50 \u2014 and kept in the Argon gas-protected contraption pictured above. I think Dei Maggi makes hands-down the best fried chicken in Houston, along with a terrific Texas beef-and-onion soup crammed with prime rib and smoked provolone; he braises pork belly in Coca-Cola (it&amp;#039;s a Southern thing \u2014 find out why  right here) with sauerkraut cooked in Shiner Bock beer, then browns a marshmallow on top. The damn thing is delicious. The most expensive dish on the lunch menu (Kobe meatloaf) is $19. At dinner (a fussy filet mignon with crabcake and lobster hollandaise), $39.  The Rockwood Room 5709 Woodway Drive Houston (832) 251-3663  therockwoodroom.com 27 Other Restaurants Where Men Eat &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a7312/rockwood-room-houston/>