raising the bar

Meet the dynamic Houstonians selling vintage barware in the Heights

Kids may be headed back to school, but cooler weather remains on vacation. As people trickle back into town, everyone will be wanting to play catch-up — the most likely venue: home! Whether it’s a large, end of summer extravaganza, or just an apéritif, folks are entertaining…and solo cups need not apply.

Setting up a home bar can be a somewhat daunting task, but knowing where to shop is half the battle. No worries if space is an issue, minor real estate at one end of a table will do just fine in a pinch. Once a space for a bar has been appropriated, it’s time to shop.

On a recent afternoon spent browsing booths at Heights Antiques on Yale, I found myself facing an impossibly delightful menagerie of vintage barware on display. Brightly striped shelving housed dozens of ice buckets, glasses, and candy-colored swizzle sticks, while multi-tiered tabletops were covered with pitchers, collectible ashtrays, and even ice cream sundae dishes.

The variety on display is remarkable. This place has something for everyone — from golf enthusiasts to caftan-wearing Golden Girls types, Baker’s Barware has it covered.

Baker’s Barware is owned and operated by husband and husband team Adam and Jay Hitt. They began collecting in 2015 and decided in 2022 to parlay their shared passion for vintage barware into a business. Aside from their popular Instagram account, they do not sell online. Adam and Jay have over 100 sets of glasses in their personal collection, and they constantly rotate items in their Heights location so that everything stays seasonal.

CultureMap caught up with the Baker’s Barware duo to learn more:

CultureMap: How did you two get into vintage barware?
Adam: By accident, honestly. We started with one set of double old fashioned glasses over 10 years ago. They had red polka dots, matched our personal style, and were unlike anything we'd seen before.

Our curiosity piqued and we quickly started buying more sets of glasses until it turned into a passion for collecting really unique and rare sets. We didn't know anything about barware at the time — the history, the designers, the styles, but we've really traveled far down the barware path over the years. It's been a great journey and we've met so many other barware collectors and resellers along the way. It's really a great community.

CM: What type of bar item is your best seller?
Adam: It's a great question! Double old-fashioned glasses are our best sellers, but we offer so many other types of barware. When we started selling, we initially stocked only vintage glasses and a few ice buckets, but we quickly expanded our selection to cocktail shakers, bottle openers, ashtrays, swizzle sticks, pub jugs — there's really something for everyone. We bring our customers a variety of unique pieces to select from.

Some months we sell a ton of bottle openers, while other months ice buckets are the hot ticket item. We recently had a customer buy over 20 ice buckets, while another customer bought half our collection of Americana barware the day after we put it out! While that's not the norm, we understand our customers are often looking for pieces to compliment their existing collection while other customers are looking to start small. Wherever you are on your barware journey, we probably have what you're looking for.

CM: Your instagram is so fun! Do you have a background in marketing or just a great eye?
Adam: Thank You! That really means a lot. My husband and I have no background in marketing. Our careers are in completely different fields.

While we often use our page to promote items we have for sale, the ultimate goal is to take our followers on a journey. Imagine a person walking through a museum and observing and studying masterpieces from famous artists. They can relate to them and experience the art. For us, vintage barware is art, too — with masterpieces and artists of its own. There were so many designers like Georges Briard and Culver that created incredible designs, patterns, and styles. We hope our page is like that museum.

We want to showcase barware for our followers and have them connect and share their impressions, and maybe buy it as well. We strive to incorporate that digital experience into our physical sales space as well. We intentionally use lots of color and lighting to create a fun space to shop. Today's trends of extreme minimalism and muted color palettes are limiting — especially with current barware designs. You'll be hard pressed to find barware with any real personality in big box retailers, which is why vintage shopping is so much more appealing. We hope the vintage barware we bring is a breath of fresh air for people looking for barware that reflects their personality.

CM: What’s your personal aesthetic?
Jay: Our home is a curated cozy blend of the 1960s ‘East meets West' style, combining Hollywood Regency and Chinoiserie with traditional and modern furniture. My husband’s incredible eye for decor makes our space unique and timeless.

CM: What’s the best way to care for vintage barware?
Adam: The most important questions of all! My selfish response is to never use vintage barware so it never gets ruined, but that takes all the fun out of it. Most of our customers have barware as showcase pieces only, but if you're going to use it, absolutely never put it in the dishwasher, ever. Vintage barware is handwash only! Also, never use hot water, especially if the glass has 22-karat gold or embellishments. Hot water destroys gold and can dull the high gloss finish of colorful designs. This also goes for sponges with abrasive surfaces. Glass scratches.

Simple soap and a light touch is all you really need to clean a glass. Remember that vintage barware isn't made anymore, so while it still serves a practical purpose, we should treat it with respect and love so we can pass them on to future barware lovers.

Insulated ice buckets are the must-have accessory for a front porch iced tea catch-up session with friends and neighbors. Sonic Drive-In recently began selling their famous ice by the bag. Coincidence? We think not!

Courtesy of Baker's Barware

Find colorful glasses at Baker's Barware.

barware home-design shopping sustainability the-heights vintage

they're durable, too

3D-printed Houston housing project cements a more affordable future

Courtesy of Cole Klein Builders

Homes in Zuri Gardens are a hybrid of 3D concrete and traditional wood construction.

Houston is putting itself front-and-center to help make sustainable, affordable housing a reality for 80 lucky homeowners in a scalable housing community that will hopefully catch on nationwide. Recently, developer Cole Klein Builders partnered with HiveASMBLD to pioneer what’s touted as the world’s first large-scale, one-of-a-kind, affordable housing development using 3-D printing technology, merging robotics, design, and sustainability.

Located across from Sterling Aviation High School, near Hobby Airport, Zuri Gardens will offer 80 two-bedroom, two-bathroom homes of approximately 1,360 square feet situated in a park-like setting, including walking trails and a community green space.

Homes in Zuri Gardens will hit the market in early summer of 2026. Final pricing has yet to be determined, but Cole Klein Builders expects it to be in the mid-to-high 200s.

Interestingly, none of the homes will offer garages or driveways, which the developer tells CultureMap will provide a savings of roughly $25,000 - $40,000 per home.

Instead of parking for individual units, 140 parking spaces will be provided. Ideally, this small-town-inspired design will provide opportunities for neighbors to meet, connect, and build community.

Each two-story home is comprised of a ground floor printed by HiveASMBLD, using a proprietary low-carbon cement alternative by Eco Material Technologies that promises to enhance strength and reduce CO2 emissions. The hybrid homes will have a second floor built using engineered wood building products by LP Building Solutions. Overall, the homes are designed to be flood, fire, and possibly even tornado-proof.

The Zuri in Zuri Gardens is the Swahili word for “beautiful,” a choice that is fitting considering that the parks department will be introducing a five acre park to the project — with 3-D printed pavilions and benches — plus, a three acre farm is located right across the street. The Garver Heights area, where Zuri Gardens is located, is in what’s classified as a food desert, which means that access to fresh food is limited. Residents will have access to the farm’s fresh produce, plus opportunities to participate in gardening and nutrition workshops—that’s a win for everyone.

With the novelty of Zuri Gardens, it’s no surprise that the neighborhood already has an 800 person waitlist, but with stringent buyer requirements, it’s unclear how many of those 800 will qualify. Developer Cole Klein Builders created Zuri Gardens in partnership with the Houston Housing Community Development Department, who provided infrastructure reimbursements for the roads, sewer lines, and water lines. In return, CKB agreed to push the purchase prices for the homes as low as possible.

Zuri Gardens also received $1.8 million dollars from the Uptown Tourism Bond, 34 percent of which must be used with minority owned small businesses. Qualified buyers must fit a certain area of median income according to HUD guidelines, and must be owner occupied at all times — so no property investors or short term vacation rentals will be allowed.

“They’re trying to bridge that gap to make sure there is a community for the homebuyers who need it — educators, law enforcement, civil workers, etc.,” Cole Klein Builders’ co-principal Vanessa Cole tells CultureMap. “You have to go through a certification process with the housing department to make sure that your income is in alignment for this community. It has been great, and everyone has been really receptive.”

Cole has also brought insurance underwriters to visit the site and to help drive premiums below regular rates for Houston homeowners since homes in Zuri Gardens are not built to traditional standards — claim risks for one of the 3-D homes are extremely low. Tim Lankau, principal at HiveASMBLD, notes that the 3-D hybrid design allows for a more traditional appearance, while having the benefits of a concrete structure: “That’s where the floodwaters would go, that’s where you can hide when there’s a tornado, and that’s where termites would eat. So you get the advantages of it while having a traditionally-framed second floor.”

It’s important to note that Zuri Gardens is not located in a flood prone area, nor did it flood during Hurricane Harvey — being flood proof is merely a perk of a cement house. The concrete that Eco Material Technologies developed is impervious. The walls are printed into hollow forms, which house rebar, plumbing, and accessible conduits for things like electrical lines and smart house features. Those walls are then filled with a foamcrete product that expands to form a “monolithic concrete wall.”

David McNitt, of Eco Material Technologies, explains that his proprietary concrete is made of PCV, and contains zero Portland cement. Instead, McNitt’s cement is made from coal ash and is 99 percent green (there are a few chemicals added to the ash). Regardless, it’s made from 100 percent waste products.

“This is a product that has really been landfilled before,” says McNitt. “It’s coal ash, and it’ll set within 8-10 minutes. It’s all monolithic, and one continuous pour — it’s literally all one piece.”

Eco Material Technologies’ concrete product is impressively durable. A traditional cinderblock wall will crush at around 800 psi, while this material crushes at about 8,000 psi.

“It’s ten times stronger than a cinderblock wall that can withstand hurricanes,” claims McNitt. “I don’t think you’d even notice a hurricane. It’ll be really quiet inside, too — so you won’t get interrupted during your hurricane party. It’s way over-engineered, it really is.”

The second story is built using weatherproof and eco-friendly products by LP Building Solutions. Their treated, engineered wood products come with a 50 year warranty, and their radiant barrier roof decking product blocks 97% of UV rays, and keeps attic temperatures 30° cooler than traditional building materials. These materials, combined with the concrete first floor, will keep heating and cooling costs low — something the folks at HiveASMBLD refer to as “thermal mass performance.”

Courtesy of Cole Klein Builders

Homes in Zuri Gardens are a hybrid of 3D concrete and traditional wood construction.