Is there haterade in this cocktail?
A Houston bar feud? Anvil's Bobby Heugel and Hotel ZaZa impersonator tweet itout
There's a high-class bar standoff going down between Montrose cocktail lounge Anvil and Museum District boutique boarding house, Hotel ZaZa.
Anvil owner Bobby Heugel's Twitter account erupted on Monday evening with a string of tweets detailing a spat with an "owner" of Hotel ZaZa who allegedly vandalized Anvil, slandered Heugel and was evicted from the bar. Heugel indicated that this was the second time in which a supposed ZaZa owner was dismissed from Anvil for vandalizing.
The owner of the Bon Appetit-lauded Anvil quoted the transgressor as threatening, "Do you know who I am? I own Hotel ZaZa, and I had to wait 5 mins! We recommend everything in this town; you're never going to make it!"
Heugel himself doubts that the kicked-out lounger was in fact a hotel head honcho, suggesting that "someone should really tell that place to get control of these people."
Are Hotel ZaZa impersonators on the loose in Houston?
Mark Sullivan, who represents the hotel, tells CultureMap, "The owners of ZaZa are actually based in Oklahoma City, and the partners are all based in Dallas. None of them are in Houston right now."
"There's a lot of hearsay revolving around these types of situations," Heugel says. "I'm skeptical that this owner of the Hotel ZaZa is actually an owner. But when you travel with a group of people, and that group claims to be affiliated with an organization, it affects peoples' impressions of the establishment."
Heugel attests that the bitter actions of the ZaZa "owners" are against the norm of Houston's hospitality culture.
"It takes a collective effort to make Houston an interesting place to live and visit," he tells CultureMap, "so this is unfortunate."
He continues, "I do think that the community in Houston is so close and tight-knit — it's unique and special in the hospitality industry. We're more supportive and more interactive than almost any other major city."
This isn't Heugel's first brush with Twitter confrontation. He's also taken Yelp to task: In May, when the website allegedly created an unofficial (and misrepresentative) Facebook page for Anvil that directed browsers straight to Anvil's Yelp entry, Heugel accused Yelp of extortion over the course of 10 tweets.
Of course, a number of lawsuits have been filed around the country, accusing Yelp of extortion.
Now, Heugel's not afraid to assert his disappointment with Hotel ZaZa, tweeting: "I will never recommend that hotel to anyone ever again. I can't believe how rude and over the line people associated w that place can be ..."
Heugel has no regrets, stating, "I did what I wanted to do," but he's not typically a bitter guy, maintaining, "Twitter is just a medium for people to talk."
Earlier on Monday, he tweeted about the "beautiful day!" and, "I wish Anvil and Houston were like this every night. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now than standing behind the bar here."
We certainly won't be seeing Bobby sipping on a barstool at Monarch Bar. And if the boisterous crowds (and "5 min wait") at Anvil on a Monday night is any indication, Anvil has already made it.