Yeah, I saw that too. About a month ago, was bar hoping around downtown one Saturday, and I hadn't been downtown in a long while. Noticed all the lights off and nobody there.
Yeah same here, about a month ago we stayed downtown with the kids and I got there early on Friday and planned to go hang out there until everyone else got down, but shit pulled them up and they were closed. Ended up in the Underground Hall for a beer and was surprised to find Wokker (No longer Wokker Texas Ranger, got a cease and desist from the Chuck Norris) there. They have absolutely the best brussel sprouts, so all the sadness I felt about Craft Beer Cellar closing. On The Chuck Norris note, there is a brewery, Stonecloud, out of OK City that makes a 5.4% pale mosaic that is legit and just started showing up in Houston the past month. Have bought out most of the supply in cypress. My daughter would bring it home from me when she went to Tulsa. I was so happy to see it here. If you needed something more substantial, they also have Brews Lee which is a Double IPA Mosaic ringing in at 8%. How have these guys dogged a cease and desist....
I'm sorry to see them go. They typically had a great taplist at their bar. But I don't think their location on the far north of downtown did them any favors. That's especially true as a bottle shop. While downtown continues to add more and more apartments and condos, I just don't think there's a large enough market for a craft beer bottle shop with very challenging parking in that location. When Underground Hall was the Conservatory, they had a consistently awesome taplist and a much more centralized downtown location. Despite the new ownership, Underground has continued to get a very solid selection of beers.
Yeah and the Underground, while nothing I would ever seek out as a destination, is someplace I always go when I find myself in the area for other things. I just hate going somewhere where I know I am going to have a hard time dealing with parking.
Wonder if it was something specific to the location or the general trend of Craft Beer Cellars closing. They've done themselves no favors by generally being difficult to work with and expensive in franchise fees. My local Craft Beer Cellar, which was run by a friend of mine, shut down as well.
Man I don't know, I think the pandemic hit them pretty hard as their location was downtown and rent had to be a pretty penny. There is one outside Houston that is a few miles from me that I believe is doing pretty well. The people that opened it also have a nano brewery in the same space and I think it is doing pretty good (I honestly haven't been there in a few years).
