Texas Highways Asks Readers To Pick Their Top Comfort Food Establishments In Texas

List to make up the next Texas Top 40 reader’s choice of best restaurants, cafes, diners

AUSTIN – Building on last year’s theme of Texas Top 40 Destinations, Texas Highways magazine begins 2015 by once again inviting readers to vote – this time for their Top 40 Comfort Food Destinations in the Lone Star State.

“We had a very enthusiastic response from readers last year when we asked them to vote for their Top 40 Texas Destinations in celebration of the magazine’s 40th anniversary,” said Editor Jill Lawless. “This year, we’re asking them to once again vote for something that is near and dear to Texans’ hearts, namely Texas comfort food establishments.”

This year, nominations will be collected over a period of several months with all 40 dining destinations being revealed in a single Texas Highways issue next fall. Votes and suggestions can be submitted at texashighways.com/comfort or letters@texashighways.com. Submissions also may be mailed to P.O. Box 141009, Austin, TX 78714-1009.

Also featured in the January issue is Hilltop Gardens in Lyford where visitors will find one of the nation’s largest public collections of aloe on 12 acres of botanical gardens. The nearby Inn at Hilltop Bed & Breakfast is also explored revealing a relaxing oasis surrounded by farmland and palm trees.

Readers also will discover a “prehistoric trail” between Waco and Glen Rose where dinosaurs and mammoths once roamed. According to writer Kathryn Jones, “within a 70-mile drive, visitors can see the mammoth excavation site, a re-created shelter of some of the area’s earliest human inhabitants and dinosaur tracks left in an ancient seabed.”

The journey continues as Texas Highways Editor Matt Joyce and photographer Will Van Overbeek guide readers to the East Texas Piney Woods. Most of the woods were harvested 100 years ago during the region’s bonanza days. In Jasper County, what used to be a bustling mill town is now part of the Sawmill Hiking Trail. Visitors can walk a 2.5-mile path between the Boykin Springs Recreation Area and Aldridge.

There’s much more in the January issue, including Granny Clare’s Citrus in Harlingen; a weekend in Port Arthur; and Jacoby’s cafes in Austin and Melvin where travelers will find classic comfort food like chicken-fried steak and home-battered onion rings.

Subscribers began receiving the January issue on Dec. 17; the digital edition was released on Dec. 19; and the hard-copy issue is on sale today at hundreds of newsstands statewide, including H-E-B, Target, Walmart, Randall’s and Barnes & Noble.

About Texas Highways Magazine
Founded as a travel magazine in 1974, Texas Highways has been inspiring travel in Texas for 40 years. Today, Texas Highways has 200,000 subscribers and 400,000 monthly readers across the United States and around the world.

Texas Highways’ mission is to encourage travel to and within the state. According to estimates from the Texas Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism division, travelers to and within Texas in 2013 spent more than $67.5 billion, an increase of 3 percent over 2012. This directly supported 601,000 jobs and generated $4.7 billion in state and local taxes.

To learn more about Texas Highways, visit www.texashighways.com. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.