Congrats to the Downtown Bar Scene (Houston, Spring: 2014, hotels, living)

[htxtx]

Texas Monthly published their list of the top 10 new bars in Texas and four of the top ten are located downtown (Market Square Park area).

The List: Texas

Also, downtown / Market Square will be getting a New Orleans style cafe by April:

The Honeymoon Is Set to Open Downtown This Spring - Coming Attractions - Eater Houston

[Schumacher713]

All bars I could take a nap in.

[979Texan]

I'm not going out of my way to go to a bar in Downtown Houston anytime soon despite living ~10 minutes away. As a rule of thumb you should not pay attention to what Texas Monthly dictates is "cool."

[Schumacher713]

There are way better and more fun bars to go to in Houston. I did a downtown tour of most of the bars there over Christmas break. It was not by choice, but my friend loves those bars. Then again different people like different places. They are mostly quiet and dark bars with craft beers and good mixed drinks. I just think there are cooler bars with more character. These bars don't even slightly represent Houston.

[Neo45]

Downtown bars are good for trying good beer and relaxing And possibly talking to older cougars at the hotels LOL

[14Bricks]

Originally Posted by Neo45

Downtown bars are good for trying good beer and relaxing And possibly talking to older cougars at the hotels LOL

Hopefully ones that have some money.

[jr1038]

Originally Posted by Schumacher713

All bars I could take a nap in.

That confirms how little time you've spent in any of them then. OKRA in particular is jam-packed every time I go - and it's getting to the point where it's too crowded to enjoy.

[crono_clone]

Very cool, I love these bars! Also excited about the new cafe that's planned; I really hope it has lots of curb appeal to help tie the whole block together.

Another thing that we should applaud is the level of collaboration that they have going on in the downtown bar scene. I don't see that anywhere else in Houston, especially not in the gayborhood where one owner (Armstrong) is basically cockblocking the rest of his competitors.

[crono_clone]

Originally Posted by Schumacher713

There are way better and more fun bars to go to in Houston. I did a downtown tour of most of the bars there over Christmas break. It was not by choice, but my friend loves those bars. Then again different people like different places. They are mostly quiet and dark bars with craft beers and good mixed drinks. I just think there are cooler bars with more character. These bars don't even slightly represent Houston.

If anything they represent the "old" Houston, which is pretty appropriate since they're all in the historic district. They have plenty of historic character and I love that about them. At Dean's, they still have the very first electric elevator in Houston, which they had converted into a seating area. The bartender was explaining to us that it was designated as an "outdoor" elevator, which is why it had an ashtray built in to the wall.

There was also a very creepy painting of a clown that had been stuck in that elevator for 30 years until they opened it up last year to refurbish it as a seating area. The bartender showed me where they had hung it, and I pretty much couldn't sleep that night because I kept seeing the painting when I would close my eyes, lmao!

[Spade]

Good to see downtown continue to improve. Would love for Houston to have a vibrant center like other cities.