Moon Over Fajita Flats

I just got back from a quick Houston visit with my folks. We dined at Fajita Flats, their favorite Tex-Mex restaurant/watering hole on Fondren just south of Westheimer. The food is quite good and not too expensive, but perhaps even more importantly, the staff make you feel both welcome and uninhibited.

You'll sometimes see margarita-fueled diners stand up and start dancing to the jukebox, which features an obvious but surprisingly enjoyable selection of upbeat tunes everybody knows, like "Y.M.C.A.," "Macarena" and "Livin' La Vida Loca." Despite that, it's all good-natured enough to where you can bring your kids and not worry about them seeing some horrible display of drunk-ass buffoonery.

When it's your birthday, the jukebox stops and they play an ancient version of "Happy Birthday to You." I'm pretty sure it's the one you hear when Connie and Raymond Marble mail a turd to Divine in Pink Flamingos). Then your server puts a giant sombrero on your head and makes you ride a stick pony around the restaurant while people snap their napkins at your backside. Last night, one of the guys celebrating a birthday stood up on a chair and mooned his entire family. Now that's good all-American fun right there.