Penny Quarter shutters

Acclaimed Montrose cafe and wine bar suddenly shutters due to COVID-19

Penny Quarter has closed for now.

Photo by Jenn Duncan

The disruption caused by COVID-19 has brought the closing of another restaurant. Penny Quarter, the Montrose cafe and wine bar, has “closed indefinitely,” co-owner Bobby Heugel announced via social media on Sunday, May 31.

“Penny Quarter is particularly vulnerable to what’s happening,” Heugel tells CultureMap. Our model there is trying to sell more casual items at a lower price point in large quantities over an extended amount of hours. COVID-19 really hurts that business model.

“We have three employee groups: kitchen, barista staff, and bar staff. For us to support that many people at higher wages with insurance, we need the space to be busy at all times. It’s just not possible under the current circumstances.”

Heugel, a current James Beard Award finalist as the owner of Anvil Bar & Refuge, partnered with James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu to open Penny Quarter in August 2019; it functioned as a companion to Anvil, its sister concept next door. The duo co-own two other concepts in The Heights: Better Luck Tomorrow and Squable.

Penny Quarter, a CultureMap Tastemaker Award nominee for Bar of the Year, operated as a coffee shop in the morning and afternoon before switching to more of a wine bar in the evenings. Yu and Better Luck Tomorrow chef Natasha Douglas collaborated on a “nutritious” menu with a focus on vegan and vegetarian options. Acclaimed bartender Sarah Crowl (Coltivare) joined the project in February to fortify its cocktail offerings. Despite its short run, Heugel says he feels good about what his team created at Penny Quarter.

“We don’t feel like we missed the mark on the concept,” Heugel says. “We adjusted the menu and pushed that change creatively, but we didn’t change a whole lot about the space . . . We feel like we were opening a business that was successful and was paying its investors back.”

While Penny Quarter is gone for now, Heugel emphasizes that the closure may not be permanent. If diners once again feel comfortable sharing a space all day, it could come back. For now, Heugel says the company will utilize the space for cocktail events and as a supplement to Anvil, which is currently limited to 25-percent capacity.

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ps, we're closed

Houston's most pretty-in-pink restaurant quietly closes in Upper Kirby

Photo by Jenn Duncan

You'll see a lot of pink at PostScript.

PostScript, Upper Kirby’ posh pink restaurant, has quietly closed, CultureMap has learned.

Although the restaurant is still accepting reservations on OpenTable — and is, as of this article’s publication, listed as open on both Yelp and Google — reports circulated on social media this weekend that it had abruptly canceled diners’ Mother’s Day reservations. In addition, its dining room in the Shops at Arrive mixed-use development has been emptied of furniture.

PostScript opened with considerable fanfare in February 2024. Owners Veeral Rathod and Obi Ibeto, brought their experiences as partners in the Dallas-based GAP Hospitality to the project, which operates establishments such as XOXO Dining Room, Lyla, and Drai’s Dallas. Particularly inspired by XOXO Dining Room, they created an ode to pink that included pink exterior and interior walls, a pink quartz bar, and a pink grand piano. “Push for Champagne” buttons added to the lively spirit.

Chef Bryan Caswell created the menu. Best known for his pioneering Gulf Coast seafood restaurant Reef that closed in 2019, Caswell’s menu included fried chicken with hummus, oysters three ways (raw, roasted, and fried), a sushi roll, and the double smoked pork chop that was a Reef staple. A doughnut topped with caviar became a customer favorite.

Since Caswell was only consulting on the project, he left a couple of months after opening. Latuli, Caswell’s new Gulf Coast-inspired restaurant in the Memorial area, is expected to open soon.

CultureMap has reached out to PostScript via email, phone, and Instagram message for comment on the decision to close the restaurant. We will update this article if they reply.

PostScript’s closure follows that of Cru, which ended a 13-year run in December 2024. On the other hand, Kira, a sushi hand roll concept from Houston’s Comma Hospitality that’s also located in the development, is thriving, having earned the No. 4 spot on Texas Monthly’s list of the state’s best new restaurants. The development is also home to beloved Indian restaurant Pondicheri, an outpost of the steakhouse chain Eddie V’s, and top tier Houston shopping destination Tootsie’s.

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