Boo!

A ghost story brews at Saint Arnold's: Spooky sightings, mysterious laughter andmore

It was Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner who first mentioned the ghosts that supposedly haunt the brewery.

While it's not the first place one thinks of for a haunting, the former warehouse that has been home to Saint Arnold's since 2009 was built in 1914, giving it plenty of time to accrue a ghost or two.

According to Saint Arnold's marketing manager Lennie Ambrose, the first unexplained sightings were from one employee's young daughter, who on two different occasions claimed to see "kids" running around the brewery when there weren't any others there.

As brewer Dennis Rhee recounts one sighting,

Philip Dagger, our packaging manager, and his 2- or 3-year-old daughter Sydney were in the brewery's beer hall one night. Dagger was sitting at one of the tables while Sydney was playing near one of the corners of the hall. All of a sudden she points to an area near the windows that separates the beer hall from the brewhouse and shouts, "Hey Daddy! Kids!" Dagger looks over to where she is pointing but sees no one. Still, Sydney is insistent that there are children in that corner and continues to say, "Kids!"

While he says he is still skeptical and doesn't believe in ghosts, hearing the story from Dagger made Rhee reconsider another experience he'd had while working alone late one night.

I was cleaning out the lauter tun (one of the brewing vessels) late one night (probably around 2 or 3 a.m.) towards the end of a 12-plus hour shift. While squeegeeing and hosing out the spent grain, I started hearing some noises that sounded a lot like children's laughter.

I paused for a moment, thinking that the noises might have been caused by the echoing of my movement in the lauter tun. The laughter was still there. Since I was the only person in the brewery at the time, I poked my head out of the manway to see who was out there. No one. I was a little spooked, so I quickly finished my tasks, locked up, and got the hell out of the brewery."

Ambrose says other employees have heard singing and seen mysterious shadows at night. With the building used for years as an HISD food storage facility, Ambrose likes to joke that the young ghosts are the kids that died from eating meals stored there.

There is another possible explanation for the ghosts, though. In 1912 the entire neighborhood was burned to the ground in a fire started by two hobos trying to keep warm behind a bar about a block away from the current site of the brewery. Perhaps the spirits of anyone that may have died in the fire migrated to the warehouse when it was built two years later.

Have you ever seen anything spooky at Saint Arnold's? What are you favorite local ghost stories?

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ps, we're closed

Houston's most pretty-in-pink restaurant quietly closes in Upper Kirby

Photo by Jenn Duncan

You'll see a lot of pink at PostScript.

PostScript, Upper Kirby’ posh pink restaurant, has quietly closed, CultureMap has learned.

Although the restaurant is still accepting reservations on OpenTable — and is, as of this article’s publication, listed as open on both Yelp and Google — reports circulated on social media this weekend that it had abruptly canceled diners’ Mother’s Day reservations. In addition, its dining room in the Shops at Arrive mixed-use development has been emptied of furniture.

[Update: After the publication of this article, PostScript's management provided CultureMap with the following statement:

We are saddened to announce the closure of PostScript HTX.

We sincerely thank our patrons for their loyalty and support. It has been an honor to serve you and be part of your special moments. The people and culture in Houston are first class. We wish you all the best and hope our paths cross again in the future.]

PostScript opened with considerable fanfare in February 2024. Owners Veeral Rathod and Obi Ibeto, brought their experiences as partners in the Dallas-based GAP Hospitality to the project, which operates establishments such as XOXO Dining Room, Lyla, and Drai’s Dallas. Particularly inspired by XOXO Dining Room, they created an ode to pink that included pink exterior and interior walls, a pink quartz bar, and a pink grand piano. “Push for Champagne” buttons added to the lively spirit.

Chef Bryan Caswell created the menu. Best known for his pioneering Gulf Coast seafood restaurant Reef that closed in 2019, Caswell’s menu included fried chicken with hummus, oysters three ways (raw, roasted, and fried), a sushi roll, and the double smoked pork chop that was a Reef staple. A doughnut topped with caviar became a customer favorite.

Since Caswell was only consulting on the project, he left a couple of months after opening. Latuli, Caswell’s new Gulf Coast-inspired restaurant in the Memorial area, is expected to open soon.

CultureMap has reached out to PostScript via email, phone, and Instagram message for comment on the decision to close the restaurant. We will update this article if they reply.

PostScript’s closure follows that of Cru, which ended a 13-year run in December 2024. On the other hand, Kira, a sushi hand roll concept from Houston’s Comma Hospitality that’s also located in the development, is thriving, having earned the No. 4 spot on Texas Monthly’s list of the state’s best new restaurants. The development is also home to beloved Indian restaurant Pondicheri, an outpost of the steakhouse chain Eddie V’s, and top tier Houston shopping destination Tootsie’s.

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