When the proprietor of Catbirds, a fixture of Houston’s Montrose neighborhood since 1995, determined to cease operating the bar, Bobby Heugel and his enterprise companion Peter Jahnke stepped in. Heugel, who owns and operates a number of of Houston’s pioneering cocktail bars, had been a frequent visitor at Catbirds, and did not need to see it go. “It was a bar that we might all go to after we received off work after making fancy cocktails,” he says.
Heugel runs Anvil, Refuge and Higher Luck Tomorrow amongst different Houston cocktail bars—and now, two neighborhood bars. (“I’m form of delicate to the phrase dive,” he says.) Along with Catbirds, which he and Jahnke gave a lightweight refresh to earlier than reopening on the finish of 2023, the pair has additionally taken over Blue Lagoon, a 45-year-old establishment whose proprietor was in her 70s and able to retire.
Throughout the nation—from Lucy’s in New York Metropolis to Gilly’s Home of Cocktails in San Diego—profession bartenders and restaurateurs are preserving longstanding neighborhood bars, persevering with their legacy. For Heugel, taking up these institutions isn’t nearly sustaining the areas and satisfying the regulars, but in addition guaranteeing that the life’s work of the earlier proprietor continues previous their very own retirement. “It occurs with different companies on a regular basis, however I believe we’re simply so used to bar turnover that we don’t take into consideration the bar business the identical means,” he says.
Right here, Heugel shares, in his personal phrases, the significance of preservation over redevelopment, the right way to win over skeptical regulars and one of the simplest ways to “Robin Hood” your solution to low-cost beer costs.
Blue Lagoon [has] been a bar since 1968, which is kind of previous for Houston. We do not have lots of bars like that. Our landlord at our restaurant, Squabble, within the Heights, was the owner there, and he had gone month to month with the woman who owned it. She was in her seventies and he saved looking for somebody to lease it for one thing new. He saved making an attempt to get us to show it into a flowery cocktail bar. And in some unspecified time in the future I used to be simply form of like, you realize, issues have gone very well for us at Catbirds—what began off as simply an try and protect a bar that we love become what I believe has turn out to be one of many extra widespread bars within the metropolis—so we form of thought that we would be capable to do the identical factor with Blue Lagoon.
I’d say the large three issues are: Hold the employees, so long as they’re good folks they usually’ve been there that lengthy—they in all probability actually love the bar and that’s the toughest factor to get employees members to do. All people that works for us [at Blue Lagoon] labored for the bar beforehand, we didn’t lose anyone. Be value delicate—should you’re gonna take over a bar like this and you realize you’re gonna carry new folks in, use that cash to maintain the costs decrease for the individuals who have been there for therefore lengthy. And actually attempt to concentrate on the origins of the bar and make the bar really feel prefer it’s from that interval.
Bars like this are simply inherently value delicate. They simply are. So after we took over Catbirds, we lowered the costs on issues that have been there earlier than, after which we launched new issues that value extra—like bringing in additional spirits, you realize, giving folks the choice to spend more cash on whiskey in the event that they wished, and educating folks the right way to make some actually fundamental cocktails with recent lemon and lime juice. We name that Robin Hooding, after we can take your cocktail cash and use it to maintain the beer low-cost. We’re making an attempt to promote one out of each 20 drinks as a cocktail. That is actually, actually low quantity versus Anvil, the place cocktails are 90 p.c of our gross sales.
We undoubtedly carry stuff that we might by no means carry in our different bars as a result of it is one thing that is actually vital to folks at these institutions. We supply pickle vodka and Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka and different issues like that, which definitely don’t have a house at Anvil, however have a house right here.
We did not do lots of renovations at both place, however we did declutter them. We did carry some new decor in, not quite a bit, however possibly a 3rd of what is hanging in every bar is new. One of many guidelines I’ve is: No white gentle within the bar, it’s all coloured. At Blue Lagoon there’s no LED neon, it’s all period-specific neon. So all issues that will come from that period. After we have been cleansing up Blue Lagoon within the again, we discovered previous unused neons from the 80s. And I used to be like, why didn’t anyone ever hold these up?
The regulars have been very, very skeptical of us at first, which I believe is extraordinarily affordable, each due to our background and since a lot in Houston goes away. We discuss gentrification just about in each main metropolis in the USA, however I believe Houston is on a wholly completely different stage as a result of there’s no zoning. I believe Houston is simply so disposable for each developer. There are definitely issues with gentrification, I’m not making an attempt to downplay that, however I believe every part is up for grabs, not simply decrease priced areas, and due to that, individuals who go to older institutions are persistently nervous that they’re going to go away.
You actually, actually, actually must let folks discuss what you’re doing proper and unsuitable in a means that I’ve by no means skilled earlier than. We hung up a bunch of lights within the yard of Blue Lagoon and Peter and I walked away, and after I got here again two of the regulars have been on the ladders inspecting our work. It’s simply form of a part of it—these folks care about this place that you simply now assume you personal, however it’s in lots of methods their second residence, and so that you simply have to essentially be receptive to all of their very, very, very countless feedback about what might and couldn’t be extra ideally suited for his or her function. I’m actually not complaining, they’re simply very protecting of their bar. And that’s the primary signal that it’s in all probability an amazing bar if folks care that a lot about it.
