Houston’s only location of fast casual seafood restaurant Flying Fish may have closed in November, but its space at the corner of 19th St. and Durham Dr. won’t be empty for much longer.
Beginning sometime in April, it will be home to a cocktail bar called The Kid, a new offering from the company that owns Flying Fish, craft beer bar the Flying Saucer, and burger spot Rodeo Goat. Asa Hanrahan, beer director for multiple locations of The Flying Saucer, will serve as a co-owner and operating partner of The Kid.
Asa Hanrahan will operate The Kid.Courtesy of The Kid
Hanrahan tells CultureMap that he had his eyes on the building at 1815 N. Durham Dr. when it was still a tire shop. When Flying Fish closed, he submitted a plan to the company’s owners to transform it into a cocktail bar that blends the best attributes of their existing concepts, including Dallas’ acclaimed Meddlesome Moth, with some of Hanrahan’s own ideas. Bringing together those components into a new offering also helped guide the bar’s name.
“We liked the idea of it being our baby, the newest member of our family. It’s got a little of all of them in it, so it’s our kid,” Hanrahan says. Later, he adds, “The biggest point is that it’s a bar’s bar. Taking the stuff we do best as a company and putting it into one location.”
Hanrahan adds that one of the things the Flying Saucer does well is serve specific styles of beer in proper glassware, which enhances their flavors and improves the customer experience. The Kid will take the same approach to cocktails by focusing on classics and making them properly. Its cocktail menu is still being finalized, but Hanrahan has a clear vision for what he plans to offer.
“I want to have classic cocktails with the right vessel,” he says. “Something that’s easy to execute, tastes great, and looks great when it hits your hand.”
Notably, the bar will only have five beer taps. Hanrahan isn’t quite ready to divulge what he’ll be pouring, but The Kid is located near top local breweries such as Eureka Heights, Great Heights, and Brash.
Like the Flying Saucer, The Kid will serve food, including some of the burgers from Rodeo Goat, its sister concept in EaDo. “I think Rodeo Goat’s the best burger in the city. I’m very proud of what we put out there. I’m very excited to be serving it from a different spot in town,” he says.
The Kid’s cocktails and burgers will be served in an environment that aims to find a happy medium between Houston’s upscale cocktails bars and dive bar-style neighborhood spots. “I don’t want it to be so over-the-top that you get the snootiness of mixology, but I don’t want it to be so dirty that I wouldn’t take my family there. I want to meet in the middle,” he says.
