In the Loop for November 8, 2026

Things to do this week

1. Jonas Brothers, Sunday, November 8, 7:30 pm, Toyota Center, tickets from $79. The pop trio's Toyota Center stop caps off a week that is otherwise pretty quiet on the big arena concert front, and a band with this many generations of fans in the building tends to make for one of the louder, more fun crowds of the season. If you have been looking for an excuse to finally use those nice seats you bought months ago, tonight is it.

2. Houston Ballet Nutcracker Market, Thursday through Sunday, November 12 to 15, Reliant Center, tickets through Houston Ballet's website. Now in its 45th year, this is the market that effectively opens the Houston holiday season, hundreds of merchants selling festive fashion, home decor and gourmet treats under one roof, and it has raised more than 100 million dollars for Houston Ballet since it started. Go on a weekday morning if you want to actually browse, the Wells Fargo preview party Wednesday night and the fashion show luncheons later in the week draw the biggest crowds.

3. Green Mountain Energy ICE at Discovery Green, opens Friday, November 13, downtown, skating is 18 dollars including skates for a 75 minute session. The park's outdoor rink kicks off its season with the annual Frostival, and it is one of those very Houston things, skating outside in November weather that is usually still warm enough for a light jacket. Mondays run a cheap skate rate of 9 dollars if you want to try it without committing to full price first.

4. Disney On Ice, Magic in the Stars, November 12 to 15, NRG Stadium, tickets through Ticketmaster. The touring ice show builds its story around a wish made under the stars and pulls in characters from Frozen 2, Wish, Encanto and Aladdin, with a sing along moment featuring Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Multiple showtimes run across all four days, so there is a decent chance one lines up with nap schedules if you are working around little kids.

Family: Standing Tall, A Texas Tree Festival, Sunday, November 8, starting at 9 am, Houston Botanic Garden, included with general admission at 12 dollars for adults and 8 dollars for kids, students, seniors and military. The garden's fall tree festival has in past years combined tree themed crafts, a baby tree giveaway with Trees for Houston, walks out to see the native trees on the grounds and a visit from the Houston SPCA's Wildlife Center ambassador birds, so expect a similar lineup this year. It is a nice, low key option if the week's other picks feel too big and crowded for where you are at right now.

Pet: Petco Love Jump Into Joy, National Adoption Weekend, through Sunday, November 8, Reliant Arena, free to attend. More than 1,500 dogs and cats from shelters across the area are on site looking for homes, and adoptions on the final day, today, are free. Even if you are not in the market for a new pet, it is worth a walk through if your kids have been asking for one, since it is a low pressure way to see what that conversation would actually look like.

Restaurant pick

Tony's Italian Deli, 1700 City Plaza Drive, City Place, Spring. This East Coast style Italian hoagie shop just opened its third location, following the original in Tomball and a second in Montgomery, and it has the kind of local following that outlasts trends, the late Houston Chronicle columnist Ken Hoffman praised it years ago, and it once ranked No. 1 on Yelp's Top 100 Places to Eat nationally. The sandwiches, which the shop calls Carnegies, are named after Italian American celebrities, think a Sylvester Stallone built on capicola, ham, salami and provolone, or a Frank Sinatra with soppressata and Genoa salami, alongside soups, salads and a dessert case with limoncello cake, tiramisu and cannoli.

It is purely a sandwich counter, no pizza, no pasta dinners, no alcohol, which makes it an easy, fast option for a family lunch without turning into a whole production. Owner Lori Hutchison said the City Place crowd "welcomed Tony's in an amazing way" in its first stretch, and with hours running 10:30 am to 8 pm Monday through Saturday, it is a solid new answer for anyone north of the Loop who did not want to drive all the way to Tomball for a good hoagie.

Four articles

Food

Aroma opens Saturday, November 14, in the former Tavola space at 1800 Post Oak Boulevard, and it is the newest concept from the Bastion Collection, the restaurant group behind Le Jardinier, Cafe Leonelli and the cocktail bar Moon next door. The chef behind it, Salvatore Martone, is Bastion's executive pastry chef, trained under Joel Robuchon and best known in Houston for dessert work, but Aroma is built around his other obsession, dough. The sourdough crust starts from a starter Martone has kept alive and feeding for 55 years, ferments for up to 72 hours, and bakes in an oven imported from Italy for about two minutes a pie.

The menu runs from traditional Neapolitan pies to a contemporary section with a carbonara pizza, a brisket and barbecue pie, and a sausage and beef calzone, plus classic pastas, appetizers and ice cream sundaes, with a happy hour offering 15 dollar pizzas. Aroma is meant to be more casual and more affordable than Tavola was in the same space, with room held open for walk ins rather than requiring a reservation. Martone put it simply, "we put a lot of time and care into the dough, but once the pizza gets to the table, I just want people to enjoy it."

Real Estate

Northwoods Industrial Park, a 2.7 million square foot campus of 64 buildings spread across about 230 acres in Northwest Houston near Highway 290 and the Sam Houston Tollway, just sold in what Stream Realty Partners is calling the largest known industrial campus sale in Greater Houston by both square footage and acreage. The seller, Texas Development Company, sold to a joint venture between the Adkisson Group and PCCP. The park sits outside the 100 and 500 year floodplains, has its own Union Pacific rail spur, and every building comes with bridge cranes rated from 5 to 75 tons, the kind of heavy industrial infrastructure that is genuinely hard to find anywhere else in the region right now.

Stream's Jon Farris, who represented the seller and will lead leasing going forward, called it "truly a one of one asset that would be nearly impossible to duplicate," pointing to the combination of crane capacity, power access, yard space and labor availability driving demand. He also credited Travis Land of Partners Real Estate, who represented the buyer, with bringing the deal together, a nice note on a transaction that closes out a career.

Mortgage Rate Update: Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the 30 year fixed mortgage rate at 7.18 percent for the week of November 5, down from 7.24 percent the week before, a third straight weekly decline that has now pulled the rate down from 7.40 percent in mid October. Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater called it a continued "downward trajectory" that is "improving the environment for prospective homebuyers." Not everyone expects the slide to continue in a straight line, the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mike Fratantoni has said the recent spike higher this fall was "probably a little bit overdone" and still forecasts rates holding in the low to mid 7s into next year, while Fannie Mae's own forecast runs a bit higher than that. Three weeks of relief in a row is the clearest sign yet that this fall's climb has genuinely broken, which is why it gets a fuller mention than usual this week rather than the typical one line note.

Greater Houston

Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order Friday, November 6, limiting when Houston police officers contact federal immigration authorities, a change he tied directly to Tuesday's election results. Under the new policy, HPD officers will no longer contact ICE solely because someone has an administrative immigration warrant during a routine stop that does not lead to an arrest. Officers will still notify ICE when someone is arrested for a jailable offense and has that kind of warrant, at which point Harris County authorities take over any later decisions once that person is in jail. This is the mayor's own executive order, separate from the ordinance City Council passed back in April restricting HPD and ICE contact, which Whitmire had previously sought to amend.

Whitmire was candid about the politics and the money both. "I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community," he said, adding, "I also do this knowing that elections matter." He also acknowledged the financial risk, state officials have threatened to withhold more than 110 million dollars in public safety funding over the city's existing restrictions, and said plainly, "we cannot run the city government without state and federal grants, bottom line. I understand there's risk. I will take that risk and I know I'm doing right." Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said the directive is being read at every roll call this week and that body camera footage will be reviewed for compliance, while FIEL Houston's executive director Cesar Espinosa called it a real moment of relief for immigrant families, "today Houston won. Today our community can breathe easier."

Opens and Closings

Openings lead this week. Casalu opened October 23 at 1001 Missouri Street in Montrose, a listening lounge from Lutfi Rukab, who also co owns Brookstreet BBQ next door, built around a genuinely serious stereo setup, custom German speakers, a rotary mixer, local and regional DJs spinning everything from jazz to disco. Rukab said he built it to fix a problem he kept running into around town, "when we go out in Houston, I get a headache or we have to scream," and the food and drink menu leans Mediterranean and Palestinian, hummus, labneh and cocktails built on date and cardamom syrup. Separately, The Riot Cafe opened October 14 at 1925 Washington Avenue, an all day cafe next to the newly reopened Riot Comedy Club, serving coffee and pastries from early morning before shifting into a bar and show menu by night, including breakfast croissant sandwiches, pizza and panini options, and a bread pudding made from apple fritters and blueberry muffins.

On the closing side, Good Game Sports Club in the Heights closed after its final night on November 1, just short of a year in business at 1919 North Shepherd Drive. The owners have said they are looking for a new location rather than closing for good, which is a better note than most closings end on.