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 associate 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 wish to see it go. “It was a bar that we’d all go to once we bought 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 sort 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 on these institutions isn’t nearly sustaining the areas and satisfying the regulars, but additionally 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 trade the identical approach,” he says.
Right here, Heugel shares, in his personal phrases, the significance of preservation over redevelopment, tips on how to win over skeptical regulars and the easiest way to “Robin Hood” your method to low cost beer costs.
Blue Lagoon [has] been a bar since 1968, which is sort of previous for Houston. We do not have plenty 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 stored looking for somebody to lease it for one thing new. He stored attempting to get us to show it into a flowery cocktail bar. And in some unspecified time in the future I used to be simply sort of like, you realize, issues have gone rather well for us at Catbirds—what began off as simply an try and protect a bar that we love became what I believe has develop into one of many extra standard bars within the metropolis—so we sort of thought that we would be capable of do the identical factor with Blue Lagoon.
I’d say the large three issues are: Preserve the employees, so long as they’re good individuals they usually’ve been there that lengthy—they most likely actually love the bar and that’s the toughest factor to get employees members to do. Everyone that works for us [at Blue Lagoon] labored for the bar beforehand, we didn’t lose anyone. Be value delicate—in case you’re gonna take over a bar like this and you realize you’re gonna deliver new individuals in, use that cash to maintain the costs decrease for the individuals who have been there for thus lengthy. And actually attempt to give attention to 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 only are. So once we took over Catbirds, we lowered the costs on issues that had been there earlier than, after which we launched new issues that price extra—like bringing in additional spirits, you realize, giving individuals the choice to spend extra money on whiskey in the event that they wished, and educating individuals tips on how to make some actually fundamental cocktails with contemporary lemon and lime juice. We name that Robin Hooding, once we can take your cocktail cash and use it to maintain the beer low cost. We’re attempting to promote one out of each 20 drinks as a cocktail. That is actually, actually low quantity versus Anvil, the place cocktails are 90 % of our gross sales.
We positively carry stuff that we’d by no means carry in our different bars as a result of it is one thing that is actually necessary to individuals 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 plenty of renovations at both place, however we did declutter them. We did deliver some new decor in, not rather a lot, however perhaps 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 may come from that period. Once we had 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 had been very, very skeptical of us at first, which I believe is extraordinarily cheap, each due to our background and since a lot in Houston goes away. We speak about gentrification just about in each main metropolis in america, however I believe Houston is on a wholly totally different degree 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 attempting to downplay that, however I believe every thing is up for grabs, not simply decrease priced areas, and due to that, individuals who go to older institutions are persistently anxious that they’re going to go away.
You actually, actually, actually must let individuals speak about what you’re doing proper and improper in a approach 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 once I got here again two of the regulars had been on the ladders inspecting our work. It’s simply sort of a part of it—these individuals care about this place that you just now suppose you personal, however it’s in plenty of methods their second dwelling, and so that you simply have to actually be receptive to all of their very, very, very limitless feedback about what might and couldn’t be extra ultimate for his or her objective. I’m actually not complaining, they’re simply very protecting of their bar. And that’s the primary signal that it’s most likely an ideal bar if individuals care that a lot about it.
