The Houston bar scene continues to emerge from pandemic disruption with high-proof convictions, from no-frills beer-and-a-shot joints to temples of discerning mixology.
Our list of top tipple establishments are bars first, not restaurants with welcoming bars (there are plenty of those). Here are 25 joyous places to drink now, in alphabetical order.
It’s hard to imagine our wine-loving landscape without the abundant charms of this Midtown enoteca that gets everything right. From the easygoing bartenders to the riches of the global wine list to the delicious dilapidation of the 1920s former dry-cleaners structure, 13 Celsius luxuriates in anti-hip correctness. The long marble bar, the chunky wood tables and chairs, the living room seating vignettes, and open-air courtyard feel like they’ve been here forever (13 opened in 2006). The wine list can be daunting, so do as the regulars do and throw yourself at the mercy of the savvy bartenders and let them lead you through the abundant by-the-glass options or settle on a hand-picked bottle. Be sure to order a bite — tidy sandwiches, excellent cheeses, charcuterie cut on an old-school slicer, nuts and olives all gorgeously presented.
Mary Ellen Angel, longtime general manager of the Original OKRA Charity Saloon, assumed ownership of the lofted Downtown bar in 2021, renaming it but keeping its do-good values. Every cocktail comes with a ticket that customers can use to cast a vote for one of several Houston-based nonprofits; at the end of each month the winning organization gets 100 percent of bar profits after expenses. But that’s only part of the fun. There are games, screens for sports watching, real-deal happy hour specials, food (hello, waffle fries, corndogs and jerky!), the occasional drag bingo, and plenty of well-made drinks. Those might include the Desert Daisy (sotol, blood orange, grapefruit soda), Finally Famous (mezcal, lime, chartreuse, hibiscus) and Crossfaded (gin, watermelon, jalapeno syrup, mint, lemon), as well as a frozen margarita or Paloma. Gotta love a bar where Dolly Parton reigns as a spirit guide.
Bartender Bobby Heugel ushered Houston into a new era of cocktail appreciation when he opened the game-changing Anvil in 2009. It is still the standard bearer for the craft and an incubator for bartending talent. Behold its list of 100 world classics, which can be shaken and stirred on the fly by any of the expert staff at any time by memory. The atmosphere is always lively, the drinks pitch perfect. The Pliny’s Tonic – a sprightly gin and mint quencher with a smidge of habanero tincture for bite — should be served at every bar and restaurant in town.
When the Beaux-Arts-style La Colombe d’Or hotel/restaurant reopened last year after a $10 million makeover, it included a swell new bar that instantly struck a chord. Thoughtfully designed by Rottet Studio – think black leather chairs, a green/black marble-topped bar and walls of green/black/white geometric print – Bar No. 3 befits the mansion setting. It’s an ideal place to dress up, conduct special rendezvous, and play your best to-the-manor-born aspirations while sipping bubbles or house cocktails such as the La Colombe (gin, chile liqueur, grapefruit, cucumber), Shalom (aged rum, Aperol, egg white, orgeat, bitters), or East of the Pecos (tequila, mezcal, green chile cream, orgeat, pineapple). Don't miss the chips and charred onion dip, either.
Useful and fun describes the Heights “bar with food” from James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu and bartender wiz Bobby Heugel. The vibe is casual, a former filling station turned into a snug neon-lit indoor bar space with a wrap-around outdoor area, most tables covered from the elements. The bartenders are artists. Consider an original cocktail such as the Catch My Drift, made with dark rum, toasted coconut, red plum, cherry madeira and chamomile. Or go classic (pro tip: Hurricanes are half off if it’s raining). Gorgeous mocktails, too. The postage-stamp-size kitchen, now run day-to-day by Vic & Anthony’s alum Michael O’Connor, churns out top-restaurant-quality food. We always order the fresh-herb-laden bowl of octopus and shishito peppers, and cacio e pepe on Pasta Tuesday. Our favorite time to visit is in the middle of the afternoon, as all cocktails are half off before 5 p.m. Sorry, boss!
Industrial-chic Camerata was a breath of fresh air when it opened in Montrose in 2013 – a laid-back spot where serious wine-geek ambition could be enjoyed by connoisseurs and budding oenophiles alike. The enthusiastic, knowing staff is ready to lead guests wherever their desires choose with a daily-changing list of small-batch bottles and by-the-glass options organized from lightest to fullest body. Coming here is an educational adventure. There’s also a small selection of nibbles, including meat and cheese platters, and sandwiches from Paulie’s, the Italian restaurant that owner Paul Petronella runs next door. Camerata recently began a sake program, too.
Bad News, in regulars’ parlance, might properly be called a saloon for all its dark wood paneling and a long bar. The unmarked den set above a law office downtown feels well-used; and it is, especially by after work and before Astros games. The bartenders excel at classics; try the pristine Manhattan or a Negroni. At happy hour, a $5 martini is both ridiculously affordable and life affirming. And that balcony looking up and down Main, with a coupe in hand, provides the a certain type of I’m-the-king-of-the-world elation.
Bedecked in candles, the 1,500-square-foot space near the new Stages theater is a stylish setup with a U-shaped bar, high tops and clubby booths and banquettes. Everyone here seems ready for a glossy magazine photo shoot, sipping fancy bubbles and snapping selfies. The house espresso martini is a thing of beauty, as is the Leonardo, a coupe of icy vodka, dry vermouth and a single Sicilian green olive speared with a metal pick. Table service champagne is available ($300 to $1,100) when you’re set on blowing the night into a million golden pieces. Expensive? Yes, but Clarkwood’s scene delivers something for which Houston seems happy to shell out.
Much has changed at this glamorous graphite box since Esquire tapped it as one of the 25 Best Bars in America for 2022. Founding barkeep Steven Salazar has departed, and with him his recipes. Current lead bartender Devin Courtney and his lieutenant, Minh Nguyen, are making the rarefied boutique experience less mannered and more welcoming to the Spring Branch neighborhood. You no longer have to book ahead to enjoy drop-dead cocktails conjured from walls full of lab equipment and house-made tinctures, cordials and ferments. A handful of signature drinks still bear prices from $25 to $35 (house cocktails are $16). But you get your money’s worth in sheer delight from ideas like Courtney’s purist Antoine Gibson, with its tiny pickled beet cubes and dropperful of caramelized onion elixir. The pinxto-style snacks are fun, too. Like its sister tasting menu restaurant, Degust, Diversión is open Thursday through Saturday only.
Caffeine and cocktails. That’s the simple double bill at this wee bar and patio in Midtown. But DT’s charms go beyond expectations for quality coffee (its java program employs Houston fave Greenway Coffee) and inventive hooch. Snug on a funky corner at the Ensemble/HCC MetroRail stop, it shares the same bohemian spirit as neighboring Winnie’s and Continental Club. With engaging bartenders and slightly Polynesian décor, customers can partake in cocktails such as the Rocket Surgery (gin, rum, orange juice, coconut), Captain’s Orders (rye, vermouth, allspice dram, bitters, absinthe), Category Four (bourbon, apricot, grapefruit, honey, lemon, mint), and frozen versions of the Paloma and Suffering Bastard. The bar’s spiked coffee cocktails and espresso martinis are top-notch, too.
This north of Heights bar opened in 2015 with a simple premise of classic drinks made well and without the artifice that gripped the new era of craft cocktail bartending. Johnny’s feel like the buddy you always wanted in your corner. It’s a great place for classics: Old Fashioned, Martini, Daiquiri, Sidecar, Gimlet, Tom Collins and Manhattan. Food comes from trucks and interesting chef pop-ups, often to raise money for charity. And come the holiday season it turns into the immersive, over-the-top Santa-land experience called Miracle Bar.
Alba Huerta, the creative force behind this boutique bar on Washington Avenue, has fashioned a sophisticated lair for her distinctive ode to Southern cocktail traditions. The menu is steeped in Huerta’s fanciful takes on classics built with history-rich spirits, especially where rum, bourbon, rye, cognac and brandy are concerned. Punches, sours, swizzles and juleps make nice with newer, quixotic potions on the ever-changing list. It’s a great first-date spot, with a well-appointed enclosed outdoor area. Huerta, author of “Julep: Southern Cocktails Refashioned,” won Outstanding Bar Program at the 2022 James Beard Awards
From its perch on Market Square downtown in a structure dating from 1847, La Carafe looks south to modern skyscrapers. Inside, time appears to have stood still. The walls of the creaky, pocket-size wine-and-beer-only bar are cluttered with framed pictures and portraits, barely discernable in the appealing semidarkness. The bar’s wooden planks are notched and nicked from decades of reverential carving by customers. A hulking 1914 brass cash register still keeps an accurate till as jazz plays on the vintage jukebox. It’s a scene set in amber. Bring real money (cash only) and an appreciation for a slice of sepia-toned Houston.
Tiki love hits full stride at this nifty little bar where rum rules and the South Pacific vibe comes as easy as the trade winds. Lit by green banker lamps at the bar and fishnet-cosseted orbs overhead, the mood effervescent thanks to the sassy, high-spirited servers who are game to whip up all manner of classic tiki cocktails, some in decorative vessels, festooned with paper parasols, fruit, flowers and tall straws. Yup, that means Mai Tai, Zombie, Painkiller, Navy Grog, Singapore Sling and Planter’s Punch. There are drinks for sharing too: bird bath bowls of rum-swirled punch. Other tiki attempts have come and gone in Houston. Lei Low joyfully perseveres for good reason.
We like all of Houston’s gay bars: the scruffy Ripcord, the anything-goes Eagle, the rambling JR’s Bar, the friendly George, and the posh South Beach club recently restored to its disco-era fabulosity. But Michael’s Outpost has it all: it’s a cabaret, piano bar, and drag show extravaganza that is divey, homey, and LGBTQ proud. Nothing fancy behind the bar, except good-natured bartenders ready to whip up your favorite drinks. Bring your best Broadway show tunes belting lungs for the piano session sing-alongs and your dollar bills for the drag queen thrills. Before you know it, you’ve been here hours, your voice is hoarse, and you can’t wait to return to this palace of fun and falsies.
This low-key cantina and umbrella-clad patio on the near Northside is a colorful piñata hiding unexpected treats. Behind the casual neighborhood vibes and ice-house setup lurks a serious cocktail program administered by the talented Lainey Collum, who mixes everything from frozens to classics to modern, Latin-themed drinks with aplomb. A killer five-buck smash burger from chef/partner Steve Ripley seals the deal—along with the standup queso, salsa and chips, plus daily Texican specials. Solid tap list? Check. And get this: they’ll be spreading the love way outside the Loop by opening a second location in Conroe this fall.
Behind the raspberry pink façade on Lower Westheimer lies one of our favorite funky dives, a shabby and slightly decrepit whiskey den that has zero intention of gussying up for anyone. Behind the bar, liquor bottles rest on what look like homemade shelves; pictures and framed portraits hang crooked on the walls; mismatched furnishings seem unsteady; and pinball machines make lazy pings within faded darkness. It’s the Grey Gardens of Houston bars. Grab an American beer and a shot (the whiskey selection is vast) and settle in. There’s a patio out back presided over by a grinning Kool-Aid man sculpture, tell him we say “oh yeah.”
Carissa and Kenneth Stephens channeled their passion for wine to create their own, which is poured at their “urban winery” and tasting room of the same name. Featuring their wines produced and bottled in California’s Napa Valley, Lodi and Russian River Valley, Pur Noire is ideal for after-work and pre-theater sips. Reservations are recommended to enjoy tastings such as the Pur Noire Grand Flight ($40 per person), Pur Collection Tasting ($30), and the bargain Pur Matinee Tasting ($20) with the genial staff. Customers can work their way through the proprietary pours of Tempranillo, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. Be sure to take home a bottle since the limited-production wines often sell out.
With its own stanchion-framed entrance on the side of Anvil in Montrose, Refuge is accessed by stairway into what is surely Houston’s darkest bar. Let your eyes adjust to the playground — it fills up almost from the moment it opens at 5 p.m. (reservations can be made online) — where bow-tied bartenders ply their chemistry. The thrills are many: Texas Porte Old Fashioned (Texas whiskey, rum, toasted honey, pecan bitters), FernGully (vodka, lemon, cassis, maidenhead fern tincture) and the Slow Beat Century (gin, sloe gin, lemon, red beet juice, cacao), to name a few. Meticulous details abound, if you can see them: custom glassware, linen coasters, flower vases, branded citrus ice cubes. Service goes above and beyond.
Every big city needs a place that whiskey connoisseurs can call their own and this no-frills, brown spirits Downtown mecca is Houston’s. Reserve 101’s whiskey selection includes more than 400 bottles from 14 countries. Bartenders are eager to guide visitors through special reserve barrel sips. But cocktailians can be happy here too, with classics such as the Whiskey Sour, Harvey Wallbanger and the New Orleans juice known as the Hurricane. Reserve’s house Old Fashioned is a beautifully calibrated merger of blended Beam bourbons, turbinado sugar syrup and bitters.
It was perhaps inevitable that a stylish wine tasting room and retail shop opened in the gentrifying East End last year. Roots seems to have been plopped by magic into a still-gritty stretch of Leeland; its clean-lined, light-soaked space fills up with hipsters and curious oenophiles eager to work their way through its wall of self-serve dispensers stocked with bottles of natural, biodynamic, and women-produced wines. Check in with a host who will swipe your credit card and hand you a digital key card that will unlock your waiting wine glass to 1-, 3- and 5-ounce pours of nearly 60 wines from its daily changing roster. Small, printed tasting notes come with each bottle. It’s all given a boost by a food menu of beautifully composed salads, ceviche, cheeses, and an amazing Juicy Lucy burger.
Destination-quality craft cocktails are the currency at this under-the-radar establishment where Clear Lake City meets the Houston city limits. The presiding palate is space scientist Pasha Morshedi, whose smart young staff executes a rotating 7-page drinks list with precision and good cheer. Morshedi and business partner Deedee Killen came through the pandemic by selling cocktail elixirs, constructing a handsome new patio and launching a small, high-quality snack menu. (The house-made hummus, tinged with cumin and sided with spicy green zhug, is noteworthy.) Good news: they’re about to double the capacity of their small, pretty room by expanding into the space next door.
Downtown is rife with places to grab a drink. But those living and working in Houston’s gulch of apartment and office towers eventually find their way to this dive where pretense is nowhere to be found. The well-stocked bar is especially flush in flavored vodka; there are $1 Jell-O shots in rainbow colors; the juke box is always on; and the popcorn’s free. Low prices and a come-as-you-are friendliness — the bar is as welcoming to Astros fans as it is to Gay Pride revelers and white collar executives — account for Sunny’s popularity. Yes, Virginia, there is a Sunny. And if you happen to catch her bartending you’ll meet the definition of Texas sass.
Look for the yellow door on Elgin between Main and Fannin in Midtown and you’ll find an inviting patio that leads to this snug, funky dive where cold beer and faultless cocktails rule. Industry peeps like it here. It’s easy to see why. There are frozen options — the Shotgun Wedding is made with tequila, cantaloupe, Aquavit and lime; Montezuma’s Downfall is a slurry of rum, mezcal, mango, pineapple, lime, honey and fresh herbs — as well as a guava Paloma and an exemplary South Side (gin, lemon, sugar and mint). Bartender Brook Lightfoot recently won a local cocktail competition for the Official Drink of H-Town, an elixir called Punch Drunk Love. The daily “Power Hour” from 4 to 5 p.m. features $5 frozens and $2 well drinks. Can’t beat that; this Dog has bite.
Opened in 1928 as a working purveyor of ice blocks that segued into a real-deal ice house, this Montrose staple enjoys tremendous allegiance from bikers, dog lovers, college students, day drinkers, sports fans and neighbors. The outdoor compound serves only beer and limited mini-bottles of wine. If you’re hungry, grab tacos from the justifiably famous Tierra Caliente truck across the street or hope the tamale guy passes through. The face of Houston has changed dramatically over the years but West Alabama Ice House is a constant.
Get the Bay Area's best journalism delivered to my inbox daily
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Notice.
The ultimate guide to eating in Houston's Asiatown
36 hot new restaurants set to open in Houston this year
Your insider's guide to Houston's secret restaurant menus