place your bets

Hot Heights-area patio bar rolls out cool casino nights with Bellagio-caliber tables and Vegas vibes

Quick: name the most authentic, Vegas-worthy casino setup in Houston. Is it an ultra-private room at Tilman Fertitta's Post Oak palace? Maybe a new speakeasy from red-hot restaurateur Ben Berg?

Actually, arguably Houston's most authentic, Vegas-styled casino action (public, anyway) is at popular patio bar Patterson Park. This Heights-area hot spot with White Oak Bayou views isn't known for being posh or for a James Bond vibe. No, this new high-end casino floor is nestled in a party spot favorited by a young, bike-friendly, dog-friendly crowd who dig cornhole and other bar games and catching sports on the big screen.

Huh?

“Well, we had to come up with something new, something to set us apart,” Lonnie Schiller, a partner in Patterson Park, tells CultureMap as we check out casino night there. “You know there are a lot of patio bars in Houston.”

A realtor friend linked up Schiller — who founded CultureMap in 2009 and is behind Cafe Express, Cafe Annie, and The Grove — with Daniel Kebort, a businessman with a big-time, global casino background. Kebort founded Ridotto, a firm that sets up casino floors that rivals anything in Vegas all around Texas.

A Wynn-worthy casino floor

Faster than a roulette spin, Patterson Park was home to an expertly designed craps table and two blackjack tables worthy of The Wynn or anything on the Vegas Strip. (These tables are made by the same manufacturer that services big casinos all over the globe.)

Patterson Park casino Blowing on dice for good luck: highly recommended.Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

Patterson Park casino blackjack table The high-energy crowd keeps the games fun. Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

On our trip, crowds packed the long craps table and rocked their best casino moves, even blowing on dice for good luck. The blackjack tables are also a blast, with players dropping bets and dealers working the table and building the hype with fist-pumping cheers on big wins.

Wheel cool gaming

Patterson Park casino roulette wheel Watching the wheel spin and ball bounce as the exquisite roulette table hand-made in England. Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

The real kicker — as we discovered — is Kebort's roulette wheel, crafted by the iconic Cammegh company. Hand-made in England and considered the finest custom wheels in the world, the Cammegh outfit in Patterson Park comes complete with a laser eye and digital display board.

Ridotto's Cammegh roulette wheel in Patterson Park is so authentic and legit, it's required to be registered with the Department of Justice. “This is most likely the only DOJ-registered wheel in the state of Texas, Kebort tells CultureMap. “You won't find equipment of this quality in Louisiana or Oklahoma, nor will you find it in most Las Vegas resorts.”

We packed the table and held our breath as the roulette ball to bounced on the wheel. The chic cocktails, dramatic bets and spins, and high-end table made the room feel totally Bellagio.

How is this even legal?

Okay, so: Patterson Park may have the best high-end public casino experience in Houston — and potentially, Texas. But last we checked, gambling is illegal here. Right?

“Yes, gambling for money is illegal,” Kebort acknowledges. “Playing games for pure entertainment and fun is different. Our games will have no cash anywhere. Customers do use a credit card to buy 500 chips for $20 for their time at the tables. If they win, there are small inexpensive prizes. But mostly it’s for the fun and bragging rights. Plus, the tables are Las Vegas quality and the dealers are very friendly — even happy to teach the intricacies of each game.” (Anyone who's been to Vegas recently knows that's not always the case there.)

Even then, Schiller — who has made a living giving people what they want — wasn't sure about setting up a grand, expensive casino floor with no big cash payouts. Would anyone actually come?

“I was skeptical,” recalls Schiller. “I had just gotten ChatGPT, and so I asked i if people would play blackjack, roulette, dice, and games like that for only very small inexpensive prizes. To my surprise it said 'yes' — for many reasons: the thrill and excitement, competition, novelty, trying to beat the odds irrespective of the monetary rewards.

Patterson Park casino chips woman's hand Ridotto's table are world-class and even the chips are patented. Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

For authenticity, Kebort uses casino chips that are actually patented. His patent, he says, protects the idea of using a casino style chip to represent the tickets in a traditional arcade like Dave and Busters. These tickets also function as the chips on the tables to mimic a true casino experience.

Each ticket value matches traditional dollar values in a casino (red chips are 5 tickets instead of $5, green chips are 25 tickets, black chips 100 tickets, and purple chips 500 tickets instead of $500.) “This gives the players an authentic experience and thrill of winning without the inherent risk found when gambling in a traditional casino environment,” says Kebort.

Schiller says the crowds showed up just one week after Kebort and Ridotto set up shop. “People come to play and get quite animated, even yelling and celebrating when they win.” Prizes also include one-of-a-kind fashion and travel books from Schiller and his wife's collection.

A cool spin on Vegas vibes

Patterson Park casino sign You'll swear you're on the Strip. Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

The big Strip-styled sign, patented casino chips, and top-quality tables make for such a Vegas vibe that Schiller and his team are already shaking up their cocktail menu with drinks like the 007 Martini — shaken, not stirred, natch — and more to come. Patterson Park is a casual scene, but Schiller may throw a dressy, Casino Royale-themed party where players can show up in their best James Bond and Vesper Lynd fits. Whatever it takes to keep partiers spinning the roulette wheel and rolling the dice.

“Of course we just want them to buy drinks,” Schiller says. “But so far it’s working!”

Photo by Marco Torres/ @marcofromhouston

The craps table is Wynn-worthy.

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Casino nights at Patterson Park are expected to run through July 31. Get more information at Patterson Park online.

Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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