• Home
  • popular
  • EVENTS
  • submit-new-event
  • CHARITY GUIDE
  • Children
  • Education
  • Health
  • Veterans
  • Social Services
  • Arts + Culture
  • Animals
  • LGBTQ
  • New Charity
  • TRENDING NEWS
  • News
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • Home + Design
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Innovation
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • subscribe
  • about
  • series
  • Embracing Your Inner Cowboy
  • Green Living
  • Summer Fun
  • Real Estate Confidential
  • RX In the City
  • State of the Arts
  • Fall For Fashion
  • Cai's Odyssey
  • Comforts of Home
  • Good Eats
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2010
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2
  • Good Eats 2
  • HMNS Pirates
  • The Future of Houston
  • We Heart Hou 2
  • Music Inspires
  • True Grit
  • Hoops City
  • Green Living 2011
  • Cruizin for a Cure
  • Summer Fun 2011
  • Just Beat It
  • Real Estate 2011
  • Shelby on the Seine
  • Rx in the City 2011
  • Entrepreneur Video Series
  • Going Wild Zoo
  • State of the Arts 2011
  • Fall for Fashion 2011
  • Elaine Turner 2011
  • Comforts of Home 2011
  • King Tut
  • Chevy Girls
  • Good Eats 2011
  • Ready to Jingle
  • Houston at 175
  • The Love Month
  • Clifford on The Catwalk Htx
  • Let's Go Rodeo 2012
  • King's Harbor
  • FotoFest 2012
  • City Centre
  • Hidden Houston
  • Green Living 2012
  • Summer Fun 2012
  • Bookmark
  • 1987: The year that changed Houston
  • Best of Everything 2012
  • Real Estate 2012
  • Rx in the City 2012
  • Lost Pines Road Trip Houston
  • London Dreams
  • State of the Arts 2012
  • HTX Fall For Fashion 2012
  • HTX Good Eats 2012
  • HTX Contemporary Arts 2012
  • HCC 2012
  • Dine to Donate
  • Tasting Room
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • Charming Charlie
  • Asia Society
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2012
  • HTX Mistletoe on the go
  • HTX Sun and Ski
  • HTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • HTX New Beginnings
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013
  • Zadok Sparkle into Spring
  • HTX Let's Go Rodeo 2013
  • HCC Passion for Fashion
  • BCAF 2013
  • HTX Best of 2013
  • HTX City Centre 2013
  • HTX Real Estate 2013
  • HTX France 2013
  • Driving in Style
  • HTX Island Time
  • HTX Super Season 2013
  • HTX Music Scene 2013
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2013 2
  • HTX Baker Institute
  • HTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • Mothers Day Gift Guide 2021 Houston
  • Staying Ahead of the Game
  • Wrangler Houston
  • First-time Homebuyers Guide Houston 2021
  • Visit Frisco Houston
  • promoted
  • eventdetail
  • Greystar Novel River Oaks
  • Thirdhome Go Houston
  • Dogfish Head Houston
  • LovBe Houston
  • Claire St Amant podcast Houston
  • The Listing Firm Houston
  • South Padre Houston
  • NextGen Real Estate Houston
  • Pioneer Houston
  • Collaborative for Children
  • Decorum
  • Bold Rock Cider
  • Nasher Houston
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2021
  • CityNorth
  • Urban Office
  • Villa Cotton
  • Luck Springs Houston
  • EightyTwo
  • Rectanglo.com
  • Silver Eagle Karbach
  • Mirador Group
  • Nirmanz
  • Bandera Houston
  • Milan Laser
  • Lafayette Travel
  • Highland Park Village Houston
  • Proximo Spirits
  • Douglas Elliman Harris Benson
  • Original ChopShop
  • Bordeaux Houston
  • Strike Marketing
  • Rice Village Gift Guide 2021
  • Downtown District
  • Broadstone Memorial Park
  • Gift Guide
  • Music Lane
  • Blue Circle Foods
  • Houston Tastemaker Awards 2022
  • True Rest
  • Lone Star Sports
  • Silver Eagle Hard Soda
  • Modelo recipes
  • Modelo Fighting Spirit
  • Athletic Brewing
  • Rodeo Houston
  • Silver Eagle Bud Light Next
  • Waco CVB
  • EnerGenie
  • HLSR Wine Committee
  • All Hands
  • El Paso
  • Houston First
  • Visit Lubbock Houston
  • JW Marriott San Antonio
  • Silver Eagle Tupps
  • Space Center Houston
  • Central Market Houston
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Travel Texas Houston
  • Alliantgroup
  • Golf Live
  • DC Partners
  • Under the Influencer
  • Blossom Hotel
  • San Marcos Houston
  • Photo Essay: Holiday Gift Guide 2009
  • We Heart Hou
  • Walker House
  • HTX Good Eats 2013
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2013
  • HTX Culture Motive
  • HTX Auto Awards
  • HTX Ski Magic
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2014
  • HTX Texas Traveler
  • HTX Cifford on the Catwalk 2014
  • HTX United Way 2014
  • HTX Up to Speed
  • HTX Rodeo 2014
  • HTX City Centre 2014
  • HTX Dos Equis
  • HTX Tastemakers 2014
  • HTX Reliant
  • HTX Houston Symphony
  • HTX Trailblazers
  • HTX_RealEstateConfidential_2014
  • HTX_IW_Marks_FashionSeries
  • HTX_Green_Street
  • Dating 101
  • HTX_Clifford_on_the_Catwalk_2014
  • FIVE CultureMap 5th Birthday Bash
  • HTX Clifford on the Catwalk 2014 TEST
  • HTX Texans
  • Bergner and Johnson
  • HTX Good Eats 2014
  • United Way 2014-15_Single Promoted Articles
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Houston
  • Where to Eat Houston
  • Copious Row Single Promoted Articles
  • HTX Ready to Jingle 2014
  • htx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Zadok Swiss Watches
  • HTX Wonderful Weddings 2015
  • HTX Charity Challenge 2015
  • United Way Helpline Promoted Article
  • Boulevard Realty
  • Fusion Academy Promoted Article
  • Clifford on the Catwalk Fall 2015
  • United Way Book Power Promoted Article
  • Jameson HTX
  • Primavera 2015
  • Promenade Place
  • Hotel Galvez
  • Tremont House
  • HTX Tastemakers 2015
  • HTX Digital Graffiti/Alys Beach
  • MD Anderson Breast Cancer Promoted Article
  • HTX RealEstateConfidential 2015
  • HTX Vargos on the Lake
  • Omni Hotel HTX
  • Undies for Everyone
  • Reliant Bright Ideas Houston
  • 2015 Houston Stylemaker
  • HTX Renewable You
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • Urban Flats Builder
  • HTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Kyrie Massage
  • Red Bull Flying Bach
  • Hotze Health and Wellness
  • ReadFest 2015
  • Alzheimer's Promoted Article
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Professional Skin Treatments by NuMe Express

    TubeTini

    A gay bar for straight people: Midtown's new Wonder Bar is a wonderfully hotmess

    Caroline Gallay
    Feb 11, 2011 | 4:10 pm
    • Entering Midtown's Wonder Bar is to travel to another, very confused dimension.
      Photo by Marcy de Luna
    • If you try a TubeTini, it has to go here before it gets to your lips.
      Photo by Marcy de Luna
    • The urinals are kitchy, to say the least.
      Photo by Marcy de Luna
    • And the bartenders are buxom.
      Photo by Marcy de Luna

    "@Wonderbar_HTX my drink is stuck. Also, I think your urinal is coming onto me."

    Such would be the type of honest tweet broadcast on one of Wonder Bar's multiple screens. The Midtown bar — a new concept by Darren Van Delden, the same guy behind Red Door and Drake — had its grand opening Thursday night after several weeks of a soft-opening phase, and it's pure schtick. Urinals with mouths, bank tubes shuttling drinks around the bar, hidden streaming video cameras, public tweets via bar screens — it's cool, but it's confused.

    One lap inside and you're not sure exactly where you are. There's a portrait of Adam with an actual leaf pinned over his crotchal area (which later investigation will reveal is a small camera, which broadcasts the faces of its intrepid discoverers to the bar), an archway smattered with oil paint, a wall of household objects canvassed in white and arranged nonsensically. On one wall, there is a mural of what appears to be a subway platform. All around, bartendresses bounce.

    (After seeing an image of the Rocky Horror-inspired urinals online, I promised to procure the maker's info for a friend, but I soon learned the only referral these ladies could make was to their surgeon).

    Drinks fly overhead (most of the time) through pressurized tubes and tables can tweet at the bar or at each other and see their snippets broadcast on the aforementioned video screens, usually adjacent to some face that is faux fellating Adam's little crotch camera. It's madness.

    One friend made the remark, confirmed instantly upon its utterance, that it was "a gay bar for straight people." It's definitely different. It's interactive; it's even creative, but it could be better.

    The tubes, for one, don't actually do much. If you elect to try one of the "TubeTinis" your drink appears shaken and ready to pour, but instead of handing it over, it's put in a sealed container and launched around the bar, before being delivered back to the bartender. It's sort of nifty, but it doesn't do so much "mixing" as adding a good 45 seconds to your wait time. When you're thirsty, that's an eternity.

    And they get stuck. All night and all over the bar, congenial tall dudes thumped on the tubes in an attempt to rescue the marooned drinks. God forbid a drink gets lodged between two walls (a total possibility, since the tubes go through each room and even outside), because I have no idea how you'd dislodge it.

    Given the already-installed tubules, one can't help but think it would make more sense to, oh, I don't know, use them to deliver drinks to your table. Instead of tweeting just to see your tweets on screen, you could tweet drink orders to the bar, or use the telephones (there is one on each table) to phone in your drink orders. It'd be all the more incentive to buy a table.

    For all of Wonder Bar's kook, they've got plenty of kinks to smooth out. But it's worth a visit — you've got to see it to believe it.

    unspecified
    news/restaurants-bars

    most read posts

    Houston documentary maker helps correct biased Texas historical marker

    Shuttered Houston brewery will resume production via new partnership

    Cracker Barrel shutters Houston suburb's biscuit sandwich spot

    traveling on

    Houston restaurant touched by tragedy will close after 2 years in Montrose

    Eric Sandler
    Jul 27, 2026 | 12:22 pm
    Traveler's Cart exterior
    Photo by Jenn Duncan
    undefined

    A Houston restaurant at the center of a tragedy will soon serve its final meal. Traveler’s Cart will close after service on Friday, July 31.


    View this post on Instagram
    A post shared by Traveler’s Cart - Montrose (@travelerscartrestaurant)


    “We’re incredibly thankful to everyone who has supported Traveler’s Cart,” director of operations Ryan Browne said in a statement. “While saying goodbye is never easy, we’re choosing to celebrate everything this restaurant has meant to our team and our guests. We hope the community will join us for one last meal before continuing the journey with us at Traveler’s Table.”

    In the social media post linked above, the restaurant encourages diners to make one last visit this week to say farewell.

    Traveler’s Cart opened in October 2024 as a more casual, more affordable version of its sister concept Traveler’s Table. The restaurant serves an eclectic mix of globally-inspired dishes, including falafel, roti canai with curry, butter chicken samosas, Thai fried chicken wings, and shrimp satay.

    Initially, the restaurant offered counter service. In November 2025, Traveler’s Cart switched to full service to better meet diners’ expectations.

    Sister restaurant Traveler’s Table remains open. It will participate in Houston Restaurant Weeks, where it serve a three-course, $55 dinner menu. Last year, Traveler’s Table made the third highest donation of all participating restaurants, contributing more than $24,000 to the Cleverley Stone Foundation.

    The restaurant adds that it is looking to place its employees in jobs with other restaurants. Those with availability are encouraged to email Browne at ryan@travelerstable.com.

    Traveler’s Cart founders Thy Mai and Matthew Mitchell died unexpectedly in May. The Harris County Medical Examiner determined that Mitchell shot Mai and the couple’s two children before taking his own life. Her family established the Thy Mai Foundation to protect women and children from gun violence.

    news-you-can-eatclosings
    news/restaurants-bars
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Houston intel delivered daily.
    Loading...