100 Houston Bars

Anvil's head guy creates list of 100 great Houston bars to try in 10 days

Never let it be said that Bobby Heugel doesn't care about his customers.

With Anvil Bar & Refuge closed for approximately 10 days to undergo some much needed renovations to its bathrooms and back of the house areas, its head guy came up a list of 100 Houston bars to visit in the interim.

The list contains the following categories:

Other Clumsy Butcher affiliated bars (examples include Julep, The Pastry War; Heugel is president of Clumsy Butcher)
Bars Doing the Cocktail Thing (Bad News Bar, Moving Sidewalk)
Bars with Tasty Wine Lists (13 Celsius, Camerata)
Bars to Drink Craft Brews At (D&T Drive-Inn, The Flying Saucer)
Your More Democratic Bar Destinations (Boheme, Cottonwood)
Dives You Should Visit While You Take a Break From Fancy Cocktails (Alice's Tall Texan, D&W Lounge)
Bars With Great Food and Drinks (Batanga, Beaver's Ice House, aka, restaurants)

The list isn't comprehensive — Stone's Throw deserves a little love on the cocktail side and one can't talk craft beer without mentioning Moon Tower Inn — but it does accomplish two important goals.

First, it celebrates the diversity of Houston's bar scene. Second, the recommendations function as both a bucket list for the educated Houston drinker and a push to check out a new spot or two. For example, while I find myself current with both restaurants and cocktail bars, I am completely deficient on dives — only eight out of 16 — a situation I plan to correct soon.

With a designated driver, of course.

Meanwhile, follow the progress of Anvil's rebuild over on Instagram. Heugel has promised to share tips of the build along the way; for example, "if you aren't insisting that your contractors build all the walls in your establishment on concrete curbs, you're missing a real chance to prevent long term water damage from mopping and other spills."

Not many business owners would give shout outs to his competition and offer suggestions to others. Give Heugel credit for going the extra mile and ensuring his customers are properly refreshed while Anvil rebuilds.

See the full list below:

100 BARS YOU SHOULD VISIT WHILE ANVIL IS CLOSED!
Listed in no particular order and roughly categorized to give you a general idea of what they're about.

OUR OTHER AFFILIATED BARS IN HOUSTON:
The Hay Merchant
Julep
The Nightingale Room
The Original OKRA Charity Saloon
(In Collaboration with Our Industry Friends)
The Pastry War
The Wine Bar at Underbelly

BARS DOING THE COCKTAIL THING:
Barringer
Capt. Foxheart's Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge
The Commoner / The Boulevardier
Johnny's Gold Brick
Lei Low Bar
Moving Sidewalk
Prohibition Supperclub & Bar
Spare Key
Wooster's Garden

BARS WITH TASTY WINE LISTS:
13 celsius
Camerata at Paulie's
MAX's Wine Dive
Public Services Wine & Whisky
Sonoma Retail Wine Bar & Restaurant
The Tasting Room Wine Cafe

BARS TO DRINK CRAFT BREWS AT:
D & T Drive Inn
Houston Flying Saucer
The Ginger Man Houston
Mongoose Versus Cobra
The Petrol Station

YOUR MORE DEMOCRATIC BAR DESTINATIONS:
Bar Boheme
CharBar
The Continental Club, Houston, TX
Cottonwood Houston
The Davenport
the dirt
Double Trouble Caffeine & Cocktails
Etro Lounge
Fitzgerald's
The Flat
Grand Prize Bar
Houston Watch Company
KHON'S wine.darts.coffee.art
La Carafe
La Grange Houston
Ladybirds
Last Concert Cafe
Liberty Station
Little Dipper
Onion Creek Cafe
Poison Girl Cocktail Lounge (Be sure to ask Jonas about the free birthday shots!)
Red Lion
Reserve 101
Rudyard's
Sassafras
Simone on Sunset
Walter's Downtown
Warren's Inn
West Alabama Ice House
Under the Volcano
Valhalla at Rice University

DIVES YOU SHOULD VISIT WHILE YOU TAKE A BREAK FROM FANCY COCKTAILS:
Alice's Tall Texan
The Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club
Big Star Bar
Catbirds Lounge & Patio Bar
Cecil's Pub
D&W Lounge
Griffs
Jimmy's Ice House
Kay's lounge
Keneally's Irish Pub
Lola's Depot Houston Texas
Lone Star Saloon
Notsuoh
Numbers
The Rose Garden
Shiloh Club
Shoeshine Charley's Big Top Lounge
Sunnys Bar

BARS WITH GREAT FOOD AND DRINKS:
Batanga
Beaver's Ice House
Benjy's in the Village
Brooklyn Athletic Club
Cafe Brasil
Caracol
Coltivare
Cuchara
Down House
El Big Bad
Goode Company Seafood
The Honeymoon
Hugo's
Kata Robata Sushi + Grill
Love & Squalor at Weights and Measures
Lowbrow
Mockingbird Bistro & Wine Bar
The Original Ninfa's on Navigation
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse
The Pass and Provisions
Pax Americana
Pico's Mex Mex
The Queen Vic Pub
Sanctuari Bar at Triniti
Uchi Houston

Anvil is closing for 10 days for some renovations, but Bobby Heugel has 100 suggestions for where to drink in the meantime.

News_Anvil Bar & Refuge, exterior, night

Photo by Julie Soefer/Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau

Anvil is closing for 10 days for some renovations, but Bobby Heugel has 100 suggestions for where to drink in the meantime.

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Ready. Set. Go.

Exclusive: New cocktail bar from Houston hospitality stars coming to the Heights

Courtesy of Thorough Fare

Bobby Heugel and Jacki Schromm are opening a new bar in the former Ready Room space.

The Heights’ growing bar scene will soon welcome a new addition with serious cocktail cred. Anvil owner Bobby Heugel has partnered with bartender Jacki Schromm to open a new cocktail bar in the former Ready Room space (2626 White Oak Drive) in the Heights, the duo tell CultureMap.

Slated to open in the fall, the still-unnamed cocktail bar will be the latest project from Thorough Fare, the hospitality company Heugel operates in partnership with James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu. The group’s portfolio also includes Heights restaurants Squable and Better Luck Tomorrow; cocktail bars Anvil and Refuge; neighborhood bars Catbirds and Blue Lagoon Club; and Theodore Rex, Yu’s fine dining restaurant in downtown that earned a Bib Gourmand designation in the Michelin Guide.

The new bar will also be Heugel’s first new concept since opening Refuge in 2022. However, since Refuge evolved out of Tongue-cut Sparrow, Heugel’s Japanese-inspired cocktail bar, it retained certain elements from its predecessor. The new project aims to bring a fresh perspective to Houston’s cocktail scene.

Bobby Heugel Jacki Schromm Ready Room The new bar is expected to open this fall.Courtesy of Thorough Fare

“While I love Refuge and still think it’s one of the best bars we’ve ever done, it was a continuation of some disjointed history,” Heugel says. “It’s exciting to do a cocktail bar where we get to talk about a fresh concept, fresh ideas — really update those ideas for where the scene is at today.”

Partnering with Schromm is a key source of those new ideas, Heugel explains. Since moving to Houston from Boston in 2019, she worked with Heugel at both Better Luck Tomorrow and Anvil. Currently, she’s the general manager of Reserve 101, the downtown cocktail bar known for its extensive whiskey selection, knowledgeable staff, and extensive inventory of vintage spirits. Schromm describes Heugel’s invitation to partner with him as “a shock in the most delightful way.”

“I think it’s every bartender’s dream — when you’ve worked in X amount of spaces with X amount of owners — you start to think, I could do this,” she says. “I thought that was still five-plus years away. We’re jumping into it maybe a little sooner than what my goals were, but it’s incredibly exciting.”

First opened by restaurateur Ken Bridge in 2018, the Ready Room distinguished itself with its intimate atmosphere, vintage decor, and live music. Permission Whiskey owner Peter Nolan took over operating the bar in 2023. The bar closed last year when Bridge shuttered his Korean restaurant Mapojeong, ending his lease on the property that also includes Ready Room. Neither Heugel nor Schromm are ready to share specifics about the bar’s concept, but Schromm promises it will be a welcome addition to the Heights.

“What this cocktail bar will become is something that we don’t have in the Heights yet,” she says. “I think it will be a really fun and exciting addition to the Heights community.”

Schromm has about a month left at Reserve 101 before she devotes her full attention to the new bar. She’s eager to make a splash in a neighborhood that’s recently welcomed new additions like Starduster Lounge and The Kid — and she recognizes how meaningful it is to work with a partner who has a track record as solid as Heugel’s.

“It does not sit lightly with me. This is an incredible opportunity,” Schromm says. “I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling from the moment that we talked about it. It’s a really rewarding feeling to be recognized like that. Just feeling really blessed and grateful.”

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