permission granted

Permission Whiskey owner promises cool new tune at jazzy Heights cocktail bar

Peter Nolan recently began operating The Ready Room.

Photo by Hierarchy Advertising

A cocktail bar in the Heights has quietly undergone a change in management. Permission Whiskey & Service Co. owner Peter Nolan recently added The Ready Room to his portfolio.

Nolan, who opened Permission in 2020, tells CultureMap that Ready Room owner Ken Bridge approached him about taking over operations at the bar. He adds that he and Bridge, whose interests include Korean steakhouse Mapojeong and successful local chain Pink’s Pizza, know each from Nolan’s time working at Ready Room before he opened Permission.

Even better, Nolan met his business partner at Permission while working at Ready Room.

Opened by Bridge and bartender Peter Clifton in 2018, Nolan sees Ready Room as a companion to Permission that serves more familiar cocktails in an intimate environment that’s anchored by live music. Changes to the interior will be limited, but he plans to expand the patio with more greenery and make it cigar friendly.

“It’s a really good ship. It just needs a captain,” Nolan says. “It’s a beautiful little bar. We knew right away since we had a history there.”

If Nolan is Ready Room’s new captain, then general manager Himanshu Desai is his first mate. Desai, who earned a CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Bartender of the Year nomination for his work at Musaafer, is known for both his friendly demeanor and utilizing culinary techniques in his cocktail recipes.

“He’s ridiculously fantastic,” Nolan says about Desai. “He’s definitely the vibe we’re looking for. He’s a host but also a creator. We’re super excited to see what happens with that.”

One thing he’s learned from talking to regulars is that they like being in an environment with live music but still want to be able to talk to their friends. To facilitate that environment, expect smaller ensembles centered around the space’s piano who can enhance the ambiance without dominating the room. At the same time, he doesn’t want the environment to be too staid.

“If people want to get up and dance, we’ll move the tables,” he said. “If you want [the band] to play your favorite song, we’re on it.”

Ultimately, Nolan envisions a symbiotic relationship between the two bars. People could start their night at Permission, grab dinner at a restaurant like Coltivare or Karne, then end the night at Ready Room. He’s confident the two bars will each find an audience.

“I think Permission is one of the best bars in the country. If we do what we do, I think Ready Room will sail alongside that ship,” he says.

“It will be one of the best jazzy music joints in all of Houston. I want it to be a destination for sure.”

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New York Times critic awards Houston restaurant 2 stars in glowing review

Courtesy of ChòpnBlọk

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Let’s just call 2025 the year of ChòpnBlọk. In a review published Tuesday, December 16, the New York Times has awarded the Houston restaurant two stars (“very good”).

Written by chief restaurant critic Tejal Rao, the review touts many of the same qualities that the Times already praised when it included ChòpnBlọk on its list of America’s 50 best restaurants.

Rao writes that she usually avoids restaurants that serve food in bowls, but she’s impressed by the way that chef-owner Ope Amosu has put a West African spin on the concept.

“For inspiration, Ope Amosu looked to the kind of chain restaurants that were built to scale, where flavors are often subdued to appeal to the broadest possible audience, focus-grouped to death. But the delight of ChòpnBlok is in its sure sense of self, its lively, multidimensional cooking and clear, delicious vision for modern food from the Black diaspora,” Rao writes.

She singles out specific dishes, including the Nigerian red stew with short rib, the Black Star bowl with shrimp, and the signature Motherland, made with chicken, greens, and plantains. “It’s utterly simple, but draws you in for more with the mouthwatering twang of not-too-much MSG — an international shortcut to building umami that tends to be used carefully, and layered with other forms,” she writes.

The review also touches on the way Amosu switched the restaurant from counter service to full service — described as “warm, informal, and quick with the jokes” — and his time working at Chipotle to learn the basics of the restaurant operations.

A two-star review is only the latest instance of ChòpnBlọk receiving national attention. In addition to the Times 50 best list, Esquire recently named it one of America’s best new restaurants. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand designation for 2025. Amosu earned a semifinalist nomination for Best Chef: Texas in the 2025 James Beard Awards.

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