First Look

New Midtown bar with great elevated views vows to be free of any attitude — or dress code

More details are emerging on Midtown's newest "American craft beer" bar. Fidan Baca, partner and marketing manager for ownership group KCH Entertainment, is sharing exclusive photos and info on the soon-to-open 3rd Floor Bar with CultureMap.

A recent tour of 3rd Floor's digs revealed that the Washington Avenue competition appears far afield, but places like Midtown's Dogwood and Drinkery might want to worry. They could notice a change in foot traffic when 3rd Floor opens its doors in what Baca predicts is "less than a month" in an elevated spot at 2303 Smith Street.

Baca shrugs when asked if he or other partners felt hesitant to compete with neighboring bars like Pub Fiction, Celtic Gardens and Shot Bar though. It's all good to him. KCH owns and operates those bars too. 3rd Floor is just their latest.

"We wanted to make a place as casual as we can."

“It’s a very different environment," Baca says of the new bar. "It’s not a sports bar or a patio bar and the offerings are different and that’s good for the whole area. “

3rd Floor Bar, designed Studio Red Architects of Houston, figures to be one of those places you just have to visit to know its worth. The space is relaxing and floor to ceiling windows offer amazing views of the city — no matter where you decide to park yourself. If you get tired of sitting, you can let the sweet automatic glass doors lead you to one of the two patios.

One patio sits above Pub Fiction's patio and overlooks the Medical Center and the Galleria area and the other faces Hadley Street for a stunning view at downtown.

“We wanted to make a place as casual as we can," Baca says, "so people can socialize, hangout with great beer and great wine.“

3rd Floor will not have a dress code. It is a come-as-you-are environment complete with community tables, custom-made furniture and shuffleboard, all adding up to a rustic urban feel.

As CultureMap previously reported, Baca assures that the bar will only sell "American craft" beer, saying, "If we can't get it, we will make it ourselves." While the bar's Facebook page touts 50 varieties of wine and of beer, Baca says (with a straight face) that there actually will be "48" selections of each.

The bar also plans to feature four pre-mixed cocktails on tap that were created by a certified mixologist. Baca is keeping those drinks under wraps, but he did allow that happy hour specials are in the works.

Chef Jared Estes, previously of Nordstrom Bistro, will create the food menu and make his own bread. Cheese boards will be on the menu and what Baca calls "hand-wiches" will be made in-house with Estes's fresh baked bread and ingredients from "around the world." (The American-only mantra just applies to the beer, apparently.)

With the bar nearly staffed and only minor details left to fix, 3rd Floor seems primed to open.

“Nothing is finalized, but we are working on picking a charity to join us in the grand opening," Baca says. "We will have a soft opening and see where we need to work out the kinks, then we will have the official grand opening.

"Just keep checking (for a date). We are big on social media so . . . to be continued.”

When it opens, Midtown's 3rd floor Bar will offer 48 varieties of wine and 48 varieties of beer.

Courtesy photo

When it opens, Midtown's 3rd floor Bar will offer 48 varieties of wine and 48 varieties of beer.

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Chris Cusack explains

Houston bar owner speaks out about surprise arrest for health code violations

Photo by Sergio Trevino

Chris Cusack owns two locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse.

Certainly one of the most unusual interactions between a restaurant and City of Houston officials took place on Wednesday, May 6 when Betelgeuse Betelgeuse owner Chris Cusack was arrested for health code violations at his location on Washington Avenue.

News of the arrest spread quickly across social media over the weekend. Now, Cusack is ready to tell his side of the story.

Cusack, whose time operating restaurants in Houston goes back more than 15 years to Down House and its affiliated restaurants such as Hunky Dory and D&T Drive Inn, tells CultureMap the problem began on Monday, May 4 when a health department inspector came to Betelgeuse Betelgeuse and asked to see the restaurant’s grease trap.

The only problem is that location has never had a grease trap. Prior to becoming Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, it was Liberty Station, a pioneering bar in Houston’s craft beer and craft cocktail scenes. In the early days, Betelgeuse served food from a food truck. More recently, it prepares its food next door at The Bell and Crane. Cusack acknowledges he didn’t share this information with the inspector.

“Usually I’m a charmer with the health department, but I was a little defensive. She kept asking me. I said, ‘ma’am, we don’t make food here,’” he explains. “The tone wasn’t my finest moment, but there was no name calling or anything like that. She said, ‘where does the food come from?’ I said, ‘it doesn’t matter where it comes from. It’s produced in a commercial kitchen.’”

Cusack says he knew there would be a follow up, but he was shocked when the inspector returned two days later with more colleagues from the health department, TABC inspectors, and Houston Police Department officers.

“I got somewhere between 21 and 25 citations,” Cusack says about the return visit. He got dinged for everything from graffiti in the bathroom to a missing Harris County tax stamp on the photo booth he leases from a vendor (it has both State of Texas and City of Houston stamps, Cusack says).

One inspector told Cusack he needed a food dealer’s permit. He showed the inspector that a food dealer’s permit had been issued for the restaurant's address under the former food truck’s LLC but not to the LLC that operates Betelgeuse Betelgeuse. Cusack says he had renewed the food truck’s permit in March, but that wasn’t good enough for the inspector. In Cusack’s telling, he was arrested for not having the permit, since it was also flagged as missing in an inspection from October 2025. He's the only person he knows who has ever been arrested for a misdemeanor violation of the health code.

Cusack says he spent 21 hours in the Harris County Jail. When he got out, he says he was contacted by a more senior official within the Health Department. Once Cusack confirmed he owned both LLCs, he was told he could reopen. Both locations of Betelgeuse Betelgeuse have been operating normally since Friday, May 8.

Cusack maintains he never knew about the October 2025 inspection, which is why he renewed the food dealer’s permit for the food truck’s LLC rather than applying for one under Betelgeuse Betelgeuse’s LLC. “There’s no paper trail that shows I was given this information,” he says. “I did not get the email [from the Health Department].”

As for why things got so out of hand, Cusack theorizes he was a victim of Houston Mayor John Whitemire’s crack down on “reckless behavior” on Washington Avenue and stepped up enforcement on bars generally that led to the temporary closure of near northside cocktail bar Rabbit’s Got the Gun.

Cusack says he’s a “huge supporter” of efforts to reduce crimes like street racing, drug dealing, and sex trafficking along Washington and in its surrounding neighborhoods. Still, he feels targeting by the city for being impolite to a health inspector.

He plans to fight both the arrest and the citations in court. “I want the charges dropped, and I want it expunged completely from my record. That’s the first thing, and I’m going to try very hard to do it,” he says.

“That’s going to end up costing thousands of dollars just to deal with the sheer volume,” he adds.

CultureMap contacted Mayor Whitmire’s office. A representative said the mayor was not aware of the situation and has no comment on an open investigation.

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