Secrets of the TABC Reports

Secrets of the TABC Report: Steak 48 sizzles in liquor sales; patios and nightclubs make a comeback

Few CultureMap stories have resonated with readers more strongly than 2014's Secrets of the TABC Report series. Spread over a series of three articles in 2014 that used the Mixed Beverage Tax Receipts data published by the State Comptroller's Office to expose a few of the hidden truths behind dining trends, the columns remain topics that readers most frequently ask me about.

Despite requests to bring the column back, I never wanted it to become stale. Recently, new trends have emerged that made it seem like the right time.

A note on the name: although the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission isn't responsible for sharing this data with the public, the "TABC Report" moniker is a piece of restaurant industry jargon that reflects its connection to liquor sales. All establishments that serve hard liquor are included in the report; bars and restaurants that only serve beer and wine — a list that includes places like Underbelly, Uchi, and Oxheart — are not listed. This article primarily considers the July 2016 data published last week, but it also includes data from other reports when its relevant.

Before diving into the data, keep in mind that liquor sales don't take into account costs such as rent, ingredients, and labor. A bar or restaurant could have low liquor sales and still be doing well financially, or have high liquor sales and still be struggling. Still, people in the restaurant industry use these numbers as a benchmark to compare how their business is faring relative to its peers. With that, let's dive in.

River Oaks District is booming, and Steak 48 is leading the way

If the luxury cars out front and the constantly packed bar weren’t sufficient evidence of its success, Steak 48’s sales in July attained a level that even Houston’s most successful restaurants don’t reach in December, which is the month when holiday celebrations take restaurant earnings to their highest point of the year. The almost 14,000-square-foot steakhouse reported approximately $627,000 in sales. To put that into perspective, consider the following:

The next two highest revenue steakhouses, Pappas Bros. on Westheimer, and Vic & Anthony’s, combined for about $689,000 in sales, or roughly 10 percent more than Steak 48 sold by itself. Pappas Bros. December sales of $604,000 correlate more closely to Steak 48’s July performance.
The four Clumsy Butcher cocktail bars — Anvil, Julep, the Pastry War, and the Nightingale Room — reported approximately $478,000 in sales. Six of the seven Treadsack concepts (less D&T Drive Inn) reported $389,000 in combined sales.
With $339,000 in sales in June and $55,000 in sales in May (during its soft-opening and preview events), Steak 48 has already sold over $1 million of alcohol in less than three months.

While Steak 48 is clearly leading the way at the luxurious mixed-use development, the other restaurants in River Oaks District are also performing well, especially compared to their peers in other Texas cities. The iPic Theater reported $256,000 in liquor sales, while its siblings in Austin and the Dallas suburb of Fairview reported $118,000 and $106,000.

In Houston, Toulouse had alcohol sales of $146,000, and its sister restaurant Taverna reported $111,000. As points of comparison, Toulouse’s Dallas outpost had $85,000 in sales, and Taverna’s Austin and Fort Worth locations reported $60,000 and $48,000 respectively (the Dallas location only serves beer and wine). Even Hopdoddy's $66,000 in sales ranks third among the company's eight locations behind the two Austin outposts. Clearly, their parent companies should be happy with the decision to open in Houston.

Going forward, I expect Le Colonial's luxurious upstairs lounge to cut into Steak 48's numbers (at least a little bit) and propel it into second place in the District. It's probably too small to earn over $600,000 in a single month, but the first few months will be worth tracking.

Houstonians love patio bars

Houston’s summer weather may be unpleasant, but Houstonians seem to love drinking at bars that offer lots of outdoor space. In a number of inner loop zip codes, patio bars are leading the way. No wonder even popular establishments like Pub Fiction and Royal Oak are remodeling to add more outside seating.

In Midtown (77004), Axelrad reports $261,000 in sales. In 77006, which combines Montrose and Midtown, the top four highest selling bars — The Dogwood ($431,000), Little Woodrow’s ($330,000), La Grange ($261,000), and Irish Cowboy ($242,000) — all use outdoor space as part of their appeal. The pattern holds true in the Heights (77008) where Cedar Creek ($193,000) and Eight Row Flint ($168,000) are two of the top three.

Of course, Kirby Ice House, the Upper Kirby bar with a massive backyard, has captured plenty of its customers’ dollars. Its July sales of $372,000 are impressive, but that’s down from $484,000 in May and $431,000 in June, which demonstrates that even the most popular patio bars are somewhat weather dependent.

Nightclubs are back

For those inner loop zip codes where patio bars aren’t at the top, a nightclub probably is. While the idea of loud music and the velvet rope will never appeal to some people, overall, Houstonians can't wait to dance the night away. In 77002, Clé’s Vegas-style glitz generated $532,000 in sales, which is good for the fourth most liquor sales of any licensed establishment in Houston. That's a lot of bottle service! No wonder the owners are already working to transform a former church into another nightclub called Spire.

Elsewhere in Midtown, Rich’s ($158,000) and VrSI ($132,000) are also performing well despite only being open a few nights per week. In downtown, Boots ‘N Shoots reported sales of $177,000 only puts it behind Vic & Anthony’s, The Flying Saucer ($202,000), luxury hotels, and sports and concert venues like Minute Maid Park and Revention Music Center. The Commoner/Boulevardier twins reported $99,000 in sales while only being open for 10 hours per week on Friday and Saturday nights.

On Washington Avenue, three nightclubs rank in the top five: Kung Fu Saloon ($437,000), Dallas import Concrete Cowboy ($241,000), and Aura ($223,000). Maybe Hughes Hangar should have tried to stay open a little longer to catch the area's resurgence.

Steak 48's lively bar helped generate over $600,000 in liquor sales in July.

Steak 48 Opening dinners, 6/16, Matthew Greives,Colin Moussa

Photo by Daniel Ortiz

Steak 48's lively bar helped generate over $600,000 in liquor sales in July.

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Trend News

America's hottest food trend is going bananas in Houston

Photo by Vinn Koonyosying on Unsplash

Banana dessert and latte.

After centuries of being taken for granted, the everyday banana is having its moment. This tropical fruit, long prized for its rugged built-in packaging, has emerged on the foodie front as the viral It Flavor, surfacing in some unexpected food and drink, and acquiring the sacred ranking of "buzzy."

In the past two years, banana has risen from lunchbox staple to starring role in upscale desserts, cocktails, and even coffee drinks. That ascent just officially peaked with its debut as a Starbucks flavor for fall '26, appearing in two beverages inspired by freshly baked banana bread: Iced Banana Bread Latte and Iced Banana Bread Chai, available through the fall season and beyond.

When you've scored a flavor designation from Starbucks, you have arrived — and will be embraced by every other coffee chain, from banana bread cold brew at 7 Brew to banana cold foam at PJ's Coffee of New Orleans to banana cold foam at Dunkin'.

According to menu research company Technomic, banana-flavored specials have surged by 70 percent in 2026. Banana bread is being hailed as an “extra hot” trend; after steadily rising since 2024, the flavor has surpassed pumpkin spice over the last two years in online searches.

Old school banana
Banana is hardly new to the dessert world, ruling in classics like bananas Foster, banana bread, banana pancakes, and banana pudding — a dessert that's been championed by Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, whose passion for the pudding has helped get it on the menu of pretty much every barbecue restaurant across Texas.

"I love banana pudding because of the payoff it provides for such a simple recipe," Vaughn says. "Banana pudding requires just three basic elements: The pudding, fresh banana slices, and some sort of cookie, most popularly Nilla wafers. Layer them in the right order, and you'll get layers of textural variation and different intensities of sweetness from each layer."

Vaughn acknowledges that most barbecue joints have added banana pudding.

"Yes, the popularity of banana pudding has grown a bit, but more importantly the banana pudding gets greater attention from barbecue fans and the pitmasters who make it," he says. "The artificial flavors of boxed banana-flavored pudding are nearly extinct, thankfully, so the flavor comes from real bananas."

Using "better" banana is a big factor in its newfound popularity, says chef Casey La Rue, co-founder of La Rue Doughnuts in Dallas and Frisco. La Rue, who worked in top fine-dining restaurants for years, has witnessed the evolution of banana from not hot to ultra hot first-hand.

“Banana used to be a difficult flavor because people associated it with artificial candy, overly sweet syrups, and that fake-banana taste," La Rue says. "Now chefs and coffee shops are using real banana, roasted banana, and more balanced combinations with coffee, caramel, chocolate, and spice."

"It still feels nostalgic and familiar, but the flavor is finally being treated with more restraint and sophistication," he says. "People didn’t suddenly start liking banana — they started getting better versions of it.”

Terrible Love Trrble Latter Terrible Love's Trrble Latte adds banana and chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and crumbled Nilla Wafers. Photo courtesy of Terrible Love

Banana in coffee
Another major influence behind the boffo banana comes from the growing popularity in the U.S. of Asian cuisine — tied specifically to banana-flavored milk, an iconic drink introduced by Korean food & beverage company Binggrae in 1974. Sold in a cute little bottle, it's a childhood staple for generations of Koreans, who were the first to add banana as a flavor to coffee drinks — inspiring Starbucks as well as Coffee Mate and Califa Farms, who both just came out with banana-flavored coffee creamers.

Banana in coffee is now everywhere. Every coffee shop across Texas has a banana latte of some kind: Cafe Duro in Dallas, Smoking Tiger Korean bakery in Carrollton, Bruvana Coffee House in Flower Mound. Cafe Carola, new in Houston, serves a banana bread latte with their own house-made banana purée. Bright Coffee in San Antonio does a popular banana milk latte with espresso and banana sauce they make in house. Terrible Love in Austin features banana in its signature Trrbl Latte, with banana & chocolate syrups, whipped cream, and Nilla wafer crumbles. Matcha shops like Kissa Matcha in Grand Prairie are on the bandwagon, adding banana to their matcha lattes.

banana sundae hai hospitality hai for her Banana sundae from Uchi and Uchiko. Photo by Hai Hospitality

Banana manana
The banana latte trend has spawned a banana rebound in other food groups, like the new banana bread pudding M&Ms and the banana-Nutella bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes. Sonic is all in with a banana pudding shake, banana-pudding soft-serve (blended with vanilla wafer crumbles), and banana pudding cream slush, combining vanilla soft serve with banana flavor and ice.

Habaneros Fresh Mex Cantina in Fort Worth just added banana pudding soft serve; owner Lawrence Caldwell says it's already a smash hit. Austin plant-based restaurant Fabrik recently featured banana creatively in its summer menu with a banana miso mousse with roasted banana compote. Hai Hospitality — whose restaurants Uchi and Uchiko have always been "fruit-forward" — recently whipped up a banana sundae for a charity event in Houston combining banana sorbet with coconut, caramel, plantains, and brûléed banana.

La Rue Doughnuts has had banana on the menu for three months in a row; their September menu features a chocolate-banana-almond croissant, and in August, they did a banana cream pie doughnut.

"My whole life, guests have said they hated banana desserts," La Rue says. "If guests saw a menu prior to dinner and it had banana, they'd request a different dessert. Now, the No. 1 selling items at our shops are all banana."

banana flavor coffee trends