CorkScrew BBQ On The Move

One of Houston's best barbecue joints has found a permanent home in Old Town Spring

CorkScrew BBQ is having a good week. Being named as one of the top 23 barbecue restaurants in the country by the editors of Time Out New York would be enough cause for celebration. But now its Houston-area fans have something even more important to look forward to.

On Wednesday, owners Will and Nichole Buckman announced that they've purchased a property in Old Town Spring as a permanent home for the barbecue joint that's grown from a simple trailer in a Spring parking lot into a consensus top three Houston-area barbecue destination.

"We didn’t want to move again. We are doing this so we can be permanent," Nichole Buckman tells CultureMap "This is ours. Bought by us in our name, and we will make this our home."

CorkScrew's last day in its current location that consists of a couple of trailers with a seating area of picnic tables covered by a canopy will be August 1. Work will then begin to transform the former Hyde's Cafe into CorkScrew's new location. For Nichole, the biggest benefit of the move is that it put an end to CorkScrew's tenuous lease situation and the prospect that the property it sits on could have been sold to developers at any time. When the Spring natives heard that Hyde's, which is only three-and-a-half miles from their current location, was available, they jumped on it.

Lots of changes

Buckman says the couple plans to make some fairly extensive changes to the space, such as adding garage doors to keep the patio feeling of the current location, but she acknowledges inside seating will be more comfortable for people "when it is 40 degrees or 110."

The new location will bring a host of other, positive changes. First, CorkScrew will add a beer and wine license. Other improvements include increased capacity, which will allow for more advance, bulk orders, dinner service on Friday and Saturday and lunch on Sundays.

"We have to grow sometime. We’re stuffed in there like a sausage. We could have (work for) 10 employees but we only have (room for) six," Buckman says. "It’s like LA Barbecue or Franklin. You get to that point where a trailer just doesn’t suffice . . . We don’t have the prep space. I work out of the pit room as my office."

While the vast majority of CorkScrew patrons have reacted favorably to the news since the Chronicle published it on Wednesday, enough of a minority have expressed concerns about it being too far from The Woodlands that widely read blogger Albert Nurick addressed the issue in his Woodlands Area Foodies Facebook group. "I think Corkscrew has enough of a following that they'll have plenty of business," Nurick writes. "For a less notable restaurant, a move like this would be ill-advised . . . My gut tells me that Corkscrew's reputation will keep them busy. I hope I'm right."

Buckman says she understands those concerns but notes that CorkScrew has always drawn from The Woodlands, Spring and points farther south. The location will be more convenient for a significant percentage of their customers. In addition, finding a stand alone location in The Woodlands that was affordable proved impossible. "We can’t have a strip center business. No one is going to lease to us with two wood-burning pits connected to a building. It’s just not who we are," she notes.

Remain the same

For all the changes coming to CorkScrew, Buckman makes clear that one thing will remain the same. "Will will be tending the pits. We are still going to be 100-percent into the business just like we are now. Us being at the restaurant will be focusing on making everything perfect and not so much on being in the kitchen. He will be the pitmaster and he will be cooking the meat day in and day out."

The Buckmans have spent four years establishing themselves as one of Houston's top barbecue destinations. With a new, bigger, permanent home, they're setting themselves up for decades of success. Hopefully, Woodlanders will find enough reasons to drive a little farther down I-45. If not, the line will be a little shorter for everyone else.

CorkScrew is moving to the space currently occupied by Hyde's Cafe.

Courtesy photo

CorkScrew is moving to the space currently occupied by Hyde's Cafe.

unspecified

welcome to paradise

Veteran Houston bartender shakes up the Heights with new tropical bar

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar exterior

Photo by Eric Sandler

Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.

The woman behind your favorite bartender’s favorite bar has quietly opened a new cocktail spot in the Heights. Called Berwick’s Birds of Paradise, it’s the latest project from Double Trouble owner Robin Berwick.

Berwick tells CultureMap that she began looking for a new project about a year ago. Double Trouble, a coffee and cocktail bar that opened in late 2011, no longer required her full attention. She found an ideal space with the former La Coqueta at 2020 Studewood Street, a standalone building in a prime area of the Heights. Similar to Double Trouble, Berwick took inspiration from tropical destinations for BBOP's (pronounced “be bop”) drinks and design — with some additional flair from the only kind of bar she’s never worked at.

“I might be embarrassed if you print this, but it’s the truth. I have bartended in just about every category of bar: restaurant bar, nightclub, dance club, strip club, dive bar, and Anvil and Poison Girl, the cocktail bars that people knew me from before Double Trouble,” she says.

“The only place I didn’t work that I wanted to was a resort hotel bar. I never want to be responsible for running a hotel, but I wanted to open a bar that felt like it was once attached to a hotel.”

Patrons will notice a screen printed portrait of a woman hanging on one of the bar’s walls. Berwick has decided that it depicts the mythical owner of the non-existent hotel that BBOP is attached to.

“I don’t know her name, but she’s a little spooky and she’s blue. I just look at her and ask her what would she do,” Berwick says.

Berwick worked with Jarred Pruitt and Eli Ashby at Houston builder Pruitt Structures to renovate the space with everything from new plumbing and HVAC systems to a vintage-inspired tile floor and an all-new ceiling treatment. The costs ran a little higher than expected, but Berwick cites her “fantastic investors” who raised the money required to build the bar she envisioned.

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar interior The building received a comprehensive renovation to become Berwick's Birds of Paraidse.Photo by Eric Sandler

The cocktail menu takes a similarly tropical (not to be confused with tiki) theme. For example, the bar’s frozen cocktail is called La Bruha, after a nickname Berwick received from the tradesmen who helped renovate the bar. “It’s a riff on an El Diablo,” she explains, “Tequila, fresh lime juice, spicy ginger beer, habanero tincture, topped with a layer of elderberry liqueur. The ginger surprises people. It’s got a little punch to it.”

Similarly, the Crocodile Tears Martini gets a little island flavor courtesy of Strange Water, a coconut water created by former Houstonian Yael Vengroff, and Grey Goose Citra vodka. “Everybody’s been saying it’s ‘dangerously drinkable,’” Berwick adds.

BBOP’s tidy food menu is overseen by veteran Houston chef Jacob Pate, whose resume includes Coltivare, Good Dog Houston, and the recently-closed Savoir. Current offerings include chicken wings, a smash burger, and a Bikini Sandwich — similar to a Cubano, Pate gives the traditional Catalan-inspired pressed ham and cheese sandwich a Houston twist courtesy of muffaletta compound butter and tomato condiment.

“On the horizon is a house made sausage dog that I’m excited about,” Pate writes in an email. “At Savoir, we had some fun butchery projects that I would like to build upon where it makes sense. Beyond that, the first priority is figuring out how it all fits in our small kitchen and having fun.”

In addition to food and drinks, Berwick is working with Heights cigar bar Nice Ash to stock a humidor for BBOP. Patrons will be able to smoke a cigar on the bar’s patio. Because people will be smoking (among other reasons), BBOP is strictly 21-plus.

The bar opened quietly on July 4. So far, its customers has been a mix of curious neighbors, Double Trouble regulars, and Berwick’s friends in the service industry. After spending so much time on renovations, she says she’s happy to focus on operating her bar.

“I had been used to this high stress level, waiting for the bottom to drop out [during the renovations],” she says. “When the first guests came in, I relaxed. We know how to make drinks.”

Currently, the bar is open Wednesday-Sunday from 4pm - midnight. Days of service and hours of operation will expand once additional employees have been hired.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.