From the Anvil-exclusive cocktail list to their ability to read minds and build a custom cocktail based on your taste preferences, these guys. No seats, shout to be heard, wait staff that was clearly not interested in new customers lent this place a snobbish feel which was too much at the end of a busy week. Anvil doesn't have bartenders it has bar superheroes. Since we are no longer in the college age crowd, this place just seemed like too much work. That and the noise made us turn around and leave. The drink is even better at the bar in a champagne glass at the bar than a plastic cup (imagine that). I've seen Bobby work it with the airmail at house parties. Advice on the drinks: airmail is my go-to beverage. What disturbed me most is the place smelled like a frat house after a boozy Friday night. The wall o' alcohol is beautifully lit, and the chalkboard near the door lists the special drinks the bartender will whip up for you.
No wait staff (or bartenders or whatever) approached, offered suggestions or in fact, even acknowledged that customers walked in the door.
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The tables were all full so we sort of stood there for a few minutes. So loud, that once inside, I couldn't hear my husband until he shouted at me. We arrived on a Friday a little before 5 and the place was packed (after fighting to find a parking space). After reading the online menu, I was eager to jump in and try some things I had never had before. You may go in expecting to see handlebar mustaches, tweed suits, and ironic suspenders behind the bar, but instead you're more likely to find a decades-old married couple in one booth, a group of young professionals in suits in another, and me-in shorts, a tank top, and flip flops-sitting at the bar, slowly crossing cocktails off Anvil's list.Īnvil Bar & Refuge, 1424 Westheimer Rd., 71, anvilhouston.A friend recommended this place for good, out of the ordinary drinks. It’s that odd combination that makes Anvil so great, even after five years. But the bartenders, fellow patrons, and drinks you’ll enjoy are far from that. This makes Anvil one of the least pretentious bars in our city, in spite of a concept that, admittedly, could be as pretentious as they come.
You don’t have to know that there are half a dozen types of bitters, dozens of variations in flavors of the bourbons lining their shelves, or why they twist that piece of orange zest over your drink, to be able to enjoy one of Houston’s best cocktails-or 100 of Houston’s best cocktails. You can walk up and tell them you want something sweet and fruity, or dry with an oaky bourbon, and they’ll find just want you’re looking for. The staff at Anvil are more obsessed with cocktails than I am. When they ask me what to order, I simply reply with the same comment every time: “Go tell the bartender what you like.” When I bring friends to Anvil who aren't cocktail nerds (as I am), they're always guaranteed to find something to love. After all, an important part of its formidable menu is the so-called “ The 100 List,” named for the 100 cocktails that every connoisseur must try once.īut you don't have to be obsessed with cocktails to truly appreciate Anvil, and you don’t have to know much about these concoctions to enjoy them. But where each of these newcomers makes a name for itself by specializing in one spirit and a handful of corresponding drinks, Anvil made a name for itself long ago serving up every possible old-school cocktail you can think of. Nondescript wines, boring beers, and cloying, overly-sweet concoctions like frozen daiquiris had seen their day.īut is the idea still novel today? With tiki bars like Lei Low, mezcalerias like The Pastry War, and whiskey bars like Reserve 101 popping up around town, it may seem as though the new hotness is a focus on one particular spirit. The idea of serving classically constructed cocktails-that is, cocktails built with only five components: a base (spirits), a modifying agent (liqueur of other flavoring), bitters, sugar or something sweet, and water (or ice)-was novel at the time, hitting Houston just as the cocktail began to make its grand comeback.
Anvil Bar & Refuge first ruffled feathers five years ago when it opened its doors in 2009 serving classic cocktails-and only classics.
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