Frosé in Houston

Heights cocktail bar embraces 2016's coolest drink trend: Are you ready for frosé?

Frosé has arrived at Canard.

Courtesy photo

Ask any tastemaker, and they'll tell you — 2016 is the summer of frosé. That's right, the grown-up slushie made with rosé wine is suddenly everywhere. Don't believe it? Consider the following:

Bon Appetit has already declared it to be so, and the trend masters at Buzzfeed are offering up a recipe that blends frozen rosé with lemonade for the Frankenstein-esque frozémonade. Drinking it is described as "maybe the most Brooklyn moment of my life," by the article's author. Eater DC's guide to finding frosé in our nation's capital ranked as the site's fourth most-read article in July.

Even Houstonia published a ponderous, 1,200-plus word personal essay about frosé in which the author spends hours making a batch before ultimately overcoming her snobby ambivalence about wasting good wine and taking a sip. In the end, she's forced to concede that frosé is "actually quite refreshing."

Of course it is, silly! Drinking rosé makes the summer's heat more bearable. Freezing it and adding a little lemon juice isn't going to make it worse. But making your own is clearly for the birds.

Enter Canard. The Treadsack Group's cocktail bar understands that people need refreshment to beat the heat, and they got a clue that Houstonians love rosé earlier this summer when an event at Hunky Dory attracted enough people to fill its spacious patio.

"We had the frozen machine, we had the wine, we had to bring the frosé," Treadsack CEO Chris Cusack tells CultureMap. "There are a number of recipes floating around on the Internet, but ours was an easy call. At Canard we already make a chamberyzette, strawberries soaked in blanco and dry vermouths, so we added that to rosé wine in a 2:1 ratio. We top it with ruby port, but we also offer any number of our amazing liqueurs to float on top." Cusack says his favorite floater is apricot liqueur, but others have enjoyed lychee and rose liqueurs, as well.

However it's served frosé is a hit. Canard has only offered the concoction for a few days, but it's been the bar's best-selling cocktail since it hit the menu.

Leave the self-doubt to the wine snobs. Embrace the present. Drink frosé!

drinks trends cocktails wine the-heights

Farewell, ElRo

Creative Montrose pizzeria will shutter after only a year-and-a-half

Photo by Julie Soefer

ElRo Pizza & Crudo

An acclaimed Houston pizzeria will soon serve its final pies. ElRo Pizza & Crudo will close after service on December 31.

In a post on Instagram, chef-owner Terrence Gallivan thanks his staff for their dedication and his customers for their support. “We hope to see you all over the next couple weeks. Come celebrate with us,” he writes.

Open since June 2023, ElRo intrigued diners who enjoyed Gallivan’s work at pioneering Houston restaurant The Pass & Provisions. At ElRo, the chef served a modified version of the Provisions pizza recipe alongside crudos and shareable small plates such as arancini and housemade sausage. It earned four nominations in this year’s CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, including Best New Restaurant and Chef of the Year.

Sadly, Gallivan tells CultureMap that business has seen “a steady decline in business for many months.” Recently, the restaurant had tried a number of initiatives to draw in diners, such as steak night on Tuesday and fried chicken on Saturday.

The early announcement gives diners two weeks to make one more visit (or two) to the restaurant before it closes. Customers may want to time their visit for happy hour, which takes places from 3-6 pm Tuesday-Friday. It includes half-off glasses of wine, $4 draft beers, $9 select cocktails, and food specials.

Gallivan adds that he doesn’t know yet what his next move will be. Hopefully, he’s got one more comeback in him. Houston is a more fun town to dine in when Gallivan is cooking in it.

news-you-can-eat pizza closings