One of Houston’s most enduring cocktail bars is giving customers a deal to start the new year. Happy hour is coming back to Anvil.

Beginning Tuesday, January 7, Anvil will open at 2 pm instead of 4 pm. Along with the new opening time comes the return of happy hour for the first time since 2020.

The deal is very straightforward. All of the cocktails on its 100 classics list will be half-off from 2-5:30 pm Monday-Friday.

“The happy hour at Anvil was such a big deal, and we haven't had it since Covid. We wanted to bring it back,” owner Bobby Heugel tells CultureMap.

As its name implies, the 100 classics list includes staples such as the pisco sour, margarita, martini, and Old Fashioned. Considering all of them except one, the labor-intensive Ramos Gin Fizz, are regularly priced between $13 and $15, that means customers will only pay $7.50 or less for their drinks.

Opening at 2 pm allows the bar to add two new bartenders to its roster, giving everyone on the team a little more schedule flexibility. Bringing back happy hour will keep those bartenders busy. It’s also a gesture of goodwill to customers.

“I think happy hours are good for bars to show they want to give not just take. There’s a lot of take in Montrose currently. We want to give a little bit.”

Heugel has long been an advocate for aggressively-priced happy hours. Both Squable and Better Luck Tomorrow, Anvil’s sister concepts in Thorough Fare Hospitality, offer similar half-off happy hour deals. It’s his somewhat subtle way of encouraging other bar owners to be mindful of their prices.

“Happy hour at Anvil reminds people that cocktails don’t have to be as expensive as they’ve gotten in the city,” he says. “I like pushing back. I like trying to stay a little grounded with it. It’s just ridiculous what’s happened with cocktail prices, and it’s bad for cocktail bars. It just is.”

Anvil will celebrate its 16th anniversary in a couple of months. Although veteran bartender Brandon Choate just took a new job at Nancy’s Hustle, many of the bar’s other employees have been with the company for seven years or more. Heugel is proud of that status and eager to remind patrons that the bar is in top form.

  

Courtesy of Anvil

The Southside is one of Anvil's 100 classic cocktails.

“It’s a better place than its ever been. It’s a better place to work at than its ever been,” Heugel says. “I think the cocktails are better. We have more ingredients than ever before. More things to work with.”