Whole Foods Targets Houston

Whole Foods targets location near Heights for its first low-price supermarket in Texas

Whole Foods Market's new 365 chain is geared toward millennials.

Photo courtesy of Whole Foods

Houston is one of the first five cities to get a branch of 365 by Whole Foods Market, the "streamlined, value-oriented" grocery chain aimed at millennials.

The Houston store will be located at Interstate 610 and Yale, and is the first 365 by Whole Foods Market store in Texas, according to spokesman Michael Silverman. "We haven’t announced the timetable for the opening of the Houston store," Silverman says, but store openings are scheduled through 2017.

The Houston location will be at the northeast corner of Yale and Loop 610, near the Heights, Garden Oaks and Oak Forest neighborhoods, in a new complex called Yale Marketplace.

The company has also secured leases for 365 by Whole Foods Market locations in Bellevue, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and Santa Monica, California. The first 365 store will be located in the hipster Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

In a release, Jeff Turnas, president of 365 by Whole Foods Market describes the concept as having "a fresh format and a unique product assortment."

"We think 365 will offer convenience and value while providing the quality standards and transparency that consumers love and expect," he says. One of its selling points is lower prices on natural and organic products.

According to the release, the first locations will open in the second half of 2016, and the company plans to double the number of 365 by Whole Foods Market store openings in 2017.

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Half-off 100 cocktails

Iconic Houston cocktail bar brings back happy hour for first time in 5 years

Courtesy of Anvil

The Southside is one of Anvil's 100 classic cocktails.

One of Houston’s most enduring cocktail bars is giving customers a deal to start the new year. Happy hour is coming back to Anvil.

Beginning Tuesday, January 7, Anvil will open at 2 pm instead of 4 pm. Along with the new opening time comes the return of happy hour for the first time since 2020.

The deal is very straightforward. All of the cocktails on its 100 classics list will be half-off from 2-5:30 pm Monday-Friday.

“The happy hour at Anvil was such a big deal, and we haven't had it since Covid. We wanted to bring it back,” owner Bobby Heugel tells CultureMap.

As its name implies, the 100 classics list includes staples such as the pisco sour, margarita, martini, and Old Fashioned. Considering all of them except one, the labor-intensive Ramos Gin Fizz, are regularly priced between $13 and $15, that means customers will only pay $7.50 or less for their drinks.

Opening at 2 pm allows the bar to add two new bartenders to its roster, giving everyone on the team a little more schedule flexibility. Bringing back happy hour will keep those bartenders busy. It’s also a gesture of goodwill to customers.

“I think happy hours are good for bars to show they want to give not just take. There’s a lot of take in Montrose currently. We want to give a little bit.”

Heugel has long been an advocate for aggressively-priced happy hours. Both Squable and Better Luck Tomorrow, Anvil’s sister concepts in Thorough Fare Hospitality, offer similar half-off happy hour deals. It’s his somewhat subtle way of encouraging other bar owners to be mindful of their prices.

“Happy hour at Anvil reminds people that cocktails don’t have to be as expensive as they’ve gotten in the city,” he says. “I like pushing back. I like trying to stay a little grounded with it. It’s just ridiculous what’s happened with cocktail prices, and it’s bad for cocktail bars. It just is.”

Anvil will celebrate its 16th anniversary in a couple of months. Although veteran bartender Brandon Choate just took a new job at Nancy’s Hustle, many of the bar’s other employees have been with the company for seven years or more. Heugel is proud of that status and eager to remind patrons that the bar is in top form.

Courtesy of Anvil

The Southside is one of Anvil's 100 classic cocktails.

“It’s a better place than its ever been. It’s a better place to work at than its ever been,” Heugel says. “I think the cocktails are better. We have more ingredients than ever before. More things to work with.”

cocktails happy-hours anvil