Visiting Houston

Yes, Spec’s midtown is your spot

 

Yes, HEB on Alabama has a better beer selection than a lot of beer stores anywhere

 

They are a little more pricey, but if you truly want to grab singles I highly recommend D & Q The Beer Station. They are right off of downtown, short uber if you don't have a car. Specs will have some singles, but not near the level that D & Q will have. Enjoy your stay

 

The quick Uber to D&Q will definitely be worth your while as opposed to Specs if you're specifically looking for singles.

If Uber isn't an option, there is Craft Beer Cellar in downtown. While I have not been to that location, the Cypress location has a fair amount of singles.

 

Good point have never been to that one but the one in cypress will split up any package and sell you singles. Advantage to them is you can have a beer while shopping

 

Best tap selection in town typically IMO. Bottle selection is hit or miss but they’re overpriced for retail

 

Yeah once the binder comes off a 4/6 pack, watch out

 

I'm heading to Houston on Tuesday and staying in Downtown. What beers should I be looking out for right now? I'm down with any style but have had enough hazy's (live a bike ride's distance to Monkish) unless they are really worth it.

 

Where should I be looking to get some good barbecue? I'm willing to take a quick uber. Is Pinkerton's the way to go? Thanks!

 

I’d just go to Craft Beer Cellar - they have a retail area along with a great tap list, best in the city consistently in my opinion. On most, maybe all, draft beers you can get a cr/growler fill also.

You can google maps it but it’s in downtown at Travis and Franklin streets.

If you want to go to midtown (where I live) there’s countless bars with great rotating tap lists. Here are some of the better ones:
1) Holman Draft Hall - good food too
2) Brass Tap - good happy hour food menu
3) Axelrad - Luigi’s pizza next door
4) Mongoose vs. Cobra
All 4 of them are great and walkable or <$6 Uber
5) Beer Market - huge tap, bottle, can list but not as good of offerings as those above. Good food too

$15ish Uber from downtown to the Heights area:
1) Great Heights Brewery
2) Petrol Station
3) Astral Brewing

EaDo (East downtown) which is near Minute Maid Park:
1) Sigma Brewing - good food, texmex only I believe
2) 8th Wonder - fun atmosphere and good food trucks, beer is okay
Many other bars and hot spots in EaDo

There’s so many parts of the city and all typically have breweries/brew pubs, you can’t go wrong.

 

Pinkerton's is good, but all a la carte and gets expensive quickly, it is good but not any better than any other place. Truth just opened on Washington and Heights, but the line is ridiculous, I wouldn't deal with that. There is a ridiculous amount of hype for both those spots, and not sure its really that much better than any place else.

Henderson & Kane is very underrated without any of the lines/hassle of the other two. They have a good six pack selection to go (Saint Arnold, Eureka Heights, Live Oak) and 5-6 taps from some local breweries for growler fills or just a pint. Though Gatlin's and The Pit Room are my two favorite BBQ spots in the city proper. That is without going to Corkscrew or Kileen's in the burbs (and dealing with long lines there as well). Gatlin's will have a few bottles but nothing particularly of interest on the beer front. Pit Room has a few good taps like 512 Pecan Porter that goes perfect with the BBQ. There is also a full bar next door.

Edit:
If you want to try out a true original/old time favorite check out Burns BBQ. It is in an odd neighborhood outside the loop, in a non gentrified area (but still very safe), no beer, but the owners are awesome and it is legit.

 

Thanks @SMH_NWI I'll be on Congress and Main so it looks like it's a block away.

 

Gotta throw this out there, if you are around past Wed hit up Holler Brewing, they are in walking distance, if you don't mind walking (1.6 miles) or a short uber.

 

Burns BBQ is a BBQ landmark, requires effort but I would recommend for sure.

 

Lots of great places already mentioned, but I will re-mention some of them: Saint Arnold, Flying Saucer, Petrol Station, The Hobbit Cafe, 8th Wonder, Eight Row Flint, Hughie's (Heights or Original), King's Bierhaus, Spindletap, Postinos, Axelrad, and Pnikertons (BBQ). There are many others but those are some that quickly come to mind.

 

Thank you all for your helpful recs last week. Here was my experience and thoughts:

Friday
-lunch at Truth which was good (sorry I guess I can’t quit hype lines haha)
-beers at Spindletap: very good beers with Heavy hands as my favorite. Kinda dead at 1-2 on a Friday but nonetheless glad I ubered there
-beers at CBC: I thought Yellow Rose is a rock solid hazy I would order at a bar locally without hesitation
-quick beers at 8th Wonder-location was good for the game but didn’t enjoy the beers much
-Minute Maid-can’t say I loved any of the Saint Arnold or Karbach beers I tried. But Love Street was the best of the ones I had

Saturday
-lunch at Petrol Station. Burger was very good so thanks for this rec. I enjoyed the Skullberry as I thought it made for a nice milkshake without having some of the drawbacks of the style. I didn’t really like ***** Wagon as much as many do
-beers at Great Heights: here was my favorite part of the trip beer wise. Tania and Citramendous were pretty good while Bam Bam was very good. My favorite beers in Houston
-original Ninfa’s: after the afternoon Astros game. I thought this was really good. I highly enjoyed the fajitas.
-Holler Brewing: stopper after the game. Big crowd though my palate was kinda crushed at this point. What I had was good from what I remembered p

Sunday
-lunch at Pinkerton’s. Rehydrated with a Gatorade since it was nearly 100 haha. Brisket was good and blueberry cobbler was solid

I enjoyed the red meat and beer I had in Houston. I had to live clean for 5-6 days afterwards though haha. All patrons and bartenders were really cool and I liked the people of Houston as much as the place

 

Your Saturday sounds like a Saturday I like to do as a Houston local! Glad you got to the Heights and Petrol Station, GH brewery, Holler, then Original Ninfa’s

Cheers

 

Thanks haha! Yeah the beauty of this forum is that you can ask questions and get help so that you can eat and drink like a local if you want to

 

you must be White Sox fan guy. glad you enjoyed your visit to Houston and to GHBC. thanks for kind words!

 

You got it. I’m glad we smoothed over all bad feelings related to 2005 haha