Downtown Bar Boom Continues
Hottest block on Main Street? Breastaurant-style bar may join downtown boom
Looks like the last free space on the 300 block of Main has been claimed. Located next to Clumsy Butcher concepts The Pastry War and the upcoming Nightingale Room, 312 Main has a TABC application notice posted in its window. According to the filing, the preliminary name is "Bar Materia," which sounds like a name deliberately designed to thwart google searches for "Bar Material," but perhaps that will change before it opens.
A CultureMap source reports that the owners are also partners in Sugar Land's Big Ben Tavern but calls to Big Ben to confirm have yet to be returned. The restaurant describes itself as a "farm-to-table GastroPub," although the Facebook pictures make it look like a Brick House-style sports bar/breastaurant.
If the rumor is true, Bar Materia breaks the trend of 2013's other openings on the block in that it isn't connected to any of the partners of the Original OKRA Charity Saloon. Up to now, all of the other bars and restaurants, including Goro & Gun, Bad News Bar and Little Dipper, have all been connected to the owners of the Saloon, which has earned national attention for donating all its profits to charity.
Combined with the news that Prohibition is leaving the Galleria for downtown, Bar Materia suggests that 2013's downtown boom will continue into next year. Now that the OKRA-affiliated bars have established a beachhead, other operators can bring their own concepts.
But will downtown support such a seemingly suburban place? Only time will tell.