fancy a wager?

Beloved Houston brewery makes sudsy World Series bet with D.C. beer house

Saint Arnold has made a big bet on the Astros.

Courtesy of Saint Arnold Brewing Company

Houston's oldest craft brewery is making a big bet on the Houston Astros. Saint Arnold Brewing Company, the reigning CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Brewery of the Year, and Washington's DC Brau Brewing Company have made a wager on the outcome of the World Series.

If When the Astros win their second championship, Saint Arnold will receive cases of DC Brau's signature brews like Joint Resolution, Brau Pils, On the Wings of Armageddon, and "some cool stuff from the barrel room," Saint Arnold chief marketing officer Lennie Ambrose tells CultureMap.

In the unlikely event of an Astros loss — the team is the biggest betting favorite since 2007 — DC Brau would receive some of Saint Arnold's finest brews, including Art Car IPA, Orange Show, Lawnmower, and a few treats from the brewery's barrel room.

"While craft brewers love drinking their own beer, getting beer from another independent brewery as a payoff for a baseball bet tastes a little better, somehow," Ambrose added in a statement. "We're pumped to try some selections from DC Brau after the Astros sweep the Nationals!"

The exact means and timing for distributing the rewards has yet to be determined, but Ambrose says he expects that both Saint Arnold employees and fans will share in the bounty.

In the meantime, Astros die hards who can't score tickets to the game are invited to root, root, root for the home team at the brewery's restaurant and beer garden. All of the games will be shown on a massive, 16-foot screen.

houston-astros craft-beer

the slow life

Casual Houston coffee shop pokes into new Sawyer Yards location

Photo by Becca Wright

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Houston’s next Slowpokes is ready to make its debut. The coffee shop and cafe will open its eighth Houston-area location in Sawyer Yards this Friday, March 20 (1501 Silver St. Bldg. B).

As CultureMap reported in January, Slowpokes claimed the former Maven Coffee space when Maven decided to exit the cafe business to focus on coffee products such as its cold brew concentrate. Slowpokes owner Mazen Baltagi tells CultureMap that the cafe made some key changes to give the space the proper look and feel.

“The flow of the restaurant is different. We pulled the bar back from the front door. The point of sale location is different,” Baltagi says. “Aesthetically, we put our Slowpokes touches on with different tiles. The upholstery is different. The lighting is different. We added cedar wood and lowered the ceiling a little.”

Even though he swapped out Maven’s granite countertops, the initial feedback from friends has been that it still feels a little fancier than the typical Slowpokes build out.

“It looks a little more refined than our other locations, but that’s because the space was already beautiful. It definitely has a Slowpokes appeal to it,” Baltagi says.

While the decor may be a little more upscale, the food and drinks will be familiar to anyone who’s visited the cafe’s other locations. Slowpokes serves coffee, beer, and wine that are paired with a diverse food menu built around sandwiches, flatbread pizzas, and breakfast items. Those three beverages are represented by three mascots: a turtle named Mash (beer), a snail named Tasker Alexander (wine), and a sloth named Patches (coffee).

First opened in Garden Oaks in 2016 by owner Mazen Baltagi — a Houstonian hospitality veteran who’s a partner in establishments such as Christian’s Tailgate and Winsome Prime — the all-day concept has grown to locations at Levy Park in Upper Kirby, Spring Branch, and West University Place. It opened a location in the East End last year.

“When a good opportunity presents itself, sometimes things just end up working out how they’re supposed to,” Baltagi added in a statement. “We strive to create environments where people can gather over great coffee or wine, and we look forward to meeting all our new neighbors.”

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