San Antonio? Really?!
Esquire's Best Bars list completely snubs Houston: Bayou City's top bartenders are fighting . . .
Esquire magazine's 2013 Best Bars in America list lands on newsstands this week with plenty of love for Texas . . . with the glaring exception of Houston.
That's right, H-Town has been beaten out by Austin, Dallas and San Antonio on drink writer David Wondrich's annual roundup.
"Whoever made this list clearly wasn't going to the right places," quips bartender Hank Mattice of Clutch City Squire, a self-proclaimed "dive" with a flair for mixed drinks (Muddled Margarita, anyone?).
"This is such a great city for eating and drinking. Looks like Esquire just had to give all the other guys a chance."
Along with OKRA, Captain Foxheart's and Goru & Gun, Clutch City is helping to turn the downtown Market Square neighborhood into a foodie hotspot. Cocktail guru Bobby Huegel, whose Anvil made Wondrich's list in 2012, will be adding a mezcal bar as well as a beer and wine joint to the area by the end of the year.
"I'm thinking that Houston's just one of the big dogs now," laughs general manager Matthew Bradshaw of restaurant and tequila bar El Gran Malo, which just launched a new drink menu as it prepares to open a second location near — you guessed it — Market Square Park.
"This is such a great city for eating and drinking. Looks like Esquire just had to give all the other guys a chance."
Click here for the full national list, which includes Austin's Cloak Room, the punky Windmill Lounge in Dallas and the vintage Esquire Tavern in San Antonio.