Keep Feeling Fascinators

Houston's hottest restaurants and bars run for the roses with Kentucky Derby parties, specials, and surprises

So many May weekend events in Houston, so little time. Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Coronation parties. As if this weekend couldn't get any more jammed, it's also the annual Kentucky Derby.

Not that Houstonians needed a reason to dress up and celebrate with cocktails and food, but those looking to tie in that kind of revelry with Derby watching will have plenty of choices. Here are some of our favorites. All events take place on Saturday, May 6.

Brenner's on the Bayou
Get dolled up in Derby best and head to Houston's iconic steakhouse for its annual Wine Fest. From 2:30 to 5:30 pm, stroll the grounds and take in samples from more than 40 wine makers while enjoying bites from fellow Landry's restaurants such as Brenner’s on the Bayou, Grotto Downtown, McCormick & Schmick’s, Cadillac Bar, Willie G’s, and Babin’s. The event offers a dessert station and a hat contest with grand, second, and third prizes. General admission is $150, with a $250 VIP option available. Buy tickets and learn more.

Eight Row Flint
Held at the bar's original location in the Heights, guests will enter through a floral archway where they'll find an afternoon of Derby delights. The best hat wins a Makers Mark gift basket, and a raffle allows attendees to bet on a winning horse. Get $10 Makers Mark 90 Smashes or Makers Mark 46 Juleps. Photo opp areas, music, and more highlight the celebration.

E’terie Bar & Grill
This Woodlands gathering spot has a host of mint julep specials to mark Derby Day. Choose from the PBJ Julep, made with Screwball whiskey and cranberry juice; the traditional Old Forester Mint Julep made with bourbon and simple syrup; or the Diplomatico Julep made with rum, simple syrup and chocolate bitters. They're $11 each, and the special runs from open to close.

EZ's Liquor Lounge
Champagne lovers, this one's for you. This retro-inspired bar in the Heights is blowing out bubbles with prices such as $100 Larmandier Bernier Blanc de Blanc, $60 Pierre Gimonnet, $250 Krug, and $70 Charles Heidsieck. In addition, the bar will serve Kentucky Hot Brown sandwiches made with smoked turkey from Truth Barbeque.

Photo by Emily Jaschke

Julep goes all out for Derby Day.

Heights Bier Garten
The 7th Annual Kentucky Derby Party features games and a best-dressed contest (for couples and dogs) with a grand prize of four tickets to the Houston Polo Club. In addition, attendees will find food and cocktail specials, a DJ, live band, and a 360 photo booth. Festivities run from 1-10 pm.

The Heights Social

Heights Social Kentucky Derby (Bow) tie one on at The Heights Social with contests, a 360-degree photo booth, and more. Photo by Dylan Minor

The newest Heights hot spot on W. 20th Street start the Derby Day party at 3 pm. Look for Derby-themed drinks, a menu dedicated to Churchill Downs, and even a best-dressed contest. (The winner of the ladies contest will receive a complimentary bottle of rosé wine; the lucky gentleman will receive a complimentary bottle of Woodford Reserve.)

More contests include a “Champs for the Champion” contest, where each reserved table will pick a horse racing in the Derby; the winner receives a complimentary bottle of champagne to toast the winner. Be sure to snap those fits in the 360-degree photo booth.

Julep
Fittingly for an establishment named after the event's signature cocktail, Alba Huerta's James Beard Award-wining cocktail bar goes all out for Derby Day. Held from 1-6 pm, guests can expect a live set from DJ G Funk, music by Bulbo Houston, and a cigar stand from 1502 & Sterne Fine Cigar Company. Food options include tacos from El Topo, food and drink options in The Parlor, and desserts by Fluff Bake Bar. Naturally, the bar will serve plenty of mint juleps. Derby hats and bowties encouraged and welcomed. $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Buy tickets online.

Julep Houston Kentucky Derby Julep's Derby Day parties are always epic.Photo by Emily Jaschke

Permission Whiskey
Another standout bash takes place at this whiskey-obsessed bar in the Heights. Permission's 3rd Annual Kentucky Derby Party invites guests to get "Down and Derby" with a broadcast of the race, live music, a trumpet player, Derby-themed roses, a festive hat contest, and other surprises. Makers Mark representatives will be there, handing out branded swag, and advance-purchase admission includes a cocktail. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased in person before Derby Day. For table reservations, email the bar. The event kicks off at Noon and runs to 7 pm.

Rockhouse Southern Kitchen
This Galleria-area newcomer hosts what it bills as the largest Kentucky Derby watch party in Texas. "Talk Derby to Me" features live music, Derby watching on more than 50 tvs, brunch and lunch menus, and mint julep specials. Derby attire encouraged, and those who do have the incentive of a best-dressed contest. General admission is $30, with early bird and VIP options available. The party runs from 2-8 pm.

The Rustic
The bar's downtown location offers a Derby watch party, with live music before and after the big race. Participate in a best costume contest with prizes. In addition, the bar's signature mint julep will be available for Derby watchers to sip while cheering on the thoroughbreds. The event is free, but RSVPs are encouraged.

Derby Celebrations Houston Derby Parties news-you-can-eat holidays

jaw-dropping jaws

Gigantic 50-foot shark dives into Houston museum for jaw-dropping new showcase of Earth's greatest predator

Sharks! The Meg, The Monsters & The Myths HMNS

Photo courtesy of Houston Museum of Natural Science

Yes, this is actually scale.

By the numbers, the great white shark is one of the most fearsome predators to ever exist on planet Earth. Consider:

Photo courtesy of Houston Museum of Natural Science

Yes, this is actually scale.

The largest great white ever recorded spanned 20 feet – half the size of a school bus — and weighed at least 5,000 pounds.
At any given moment, great whites possess 300 teeth — measuring up to 6.6 inches — and can regenerate and replace up to 20,000 in a lifetime.
Swimming up to 35 miles per hour, a great white can launch itself out of the water like a missile.

But those stats are child's play to the great white's prehistoric predecessor, the megalodon (which literally means "big tooth"), which grew to 65 feet long. Known by scientists and fans as the "Meg," the massive monster will star in Houston Museum of Natural Science's new exhibit Sharks! The Meg, The Monsters & The Myths.

The immersive shark fest opens Friday, May 26 to members and Saturday, May 27 to the general public. Tickets are available online.

Dive into the shark tank

Meant to educate and inspire awe and curiosity rather than hysteria, the new exhibition features six galleries that include live shark tank, 14 life-sized models, interactive and touchable items, dazzling digital displays, fun photo ops, and meg-sized chunks of information about the ocean's apex predators.

Visitors can meet these fin-tastic friends via a 360-square-foot virtual “shark tank,” where sharks of all shapes and sizes (there are eight different orders and more than 500 species) swim by, showing off their sleek shapes, bioluminescence, and grace.

Meet the monster Meg

A giant, life-sized, 50-foot model of a female megalodon — in full swim pose and jaws that easily down an entire refrigerator or a few humans — wide open in a toothy grin. The megalodon's sheer mass compared to humans, its color (gray to reflect the sea wall with a "great white" belly) will be on display for photos and wow moments.

Another gallery takes viewers back more than 400 million years to the earliest sharks and fossilized shark teeth. Each visitor can select a fossilized tooth dating back to the Miocene era to keep as part of the journey.

Some gentle bamboo and epaulette sharks will join stingrays (cousins of sharks), sea urchins, and a host of other sea dwellers in an easily viewable tank, which will offer an up-close-and-personal perspective as to why these creatures are so essential to the ecosystem.

No excursion would be complete without swag, and this one offers up toys, puzzles, t-shirts, magnets, and more at the Island Store, which also houses megalodon teeth, fossilized coral, and a 100,000-year-old giant fossil clamshell.

Fans of these finned friends

While they have survived every mass extinction event in the past 450 million years and have ruled their water kingdom for some 300,000 years, sharks are now in peril by the worst predator of all: humans. Spurred by bloodlust after the release of the 1975 epic film and novel Jaws and other sensational pop culture vehicles, an average of 100 million sharks are killed by humans each year.

Whether for sport, shark fin soup (where fins are cut off while the shark is cast back still alive and left to drown), scientists worry that this decimation could mean the end for many of these astounding creatures. '

“Sharks are remarkably diverse and efficient predators but are more threatened than threatening. In fact, over one-third of shark species are now facing the threat of extinction,” said Nicole Temple, the exhibit curator. “With this exhibition, we hope that our guests are able to explore the misconceptions, mysteries, and mystique of sharks to help pave the way for conservation efforts, as well as explore their unique adaptations and behaviors that continue to inspire scientific innovation around the world.”

“Sharks are critical to maintaining the health of our oceans, which are a huge carbon sink for the planet,” Temple adds. “Really, sharks help keep us alive.”

Consider this a chance to visit to a monstrous meg, snap a selfie, and say thanks.

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Sharks! The Meg, The Monsters & The Myths opens Friday, May 26 (members) and Saturday, May 27 (general public) at Houston Museum of Natural Science, 5555 Hermann Park Dr. For tickets and more information, visit HMNS online.