# Houston's best craft cocktail bars

> Houston's top cocktail bars blend Mexican flair, craft spirits and neighborhood charm.
- Title: Houston's best craft cocktail bars · Houstonchronicle
- Summary: Houston's top cocktail bars blend Mexican flair, craft spirits and neighborhood charm. Houston has 16 craft cocktail bars with unique themes and local…
- Keywords: houston, craft cocktail bars, mexico city, tiki bar, mezcal, bar, cocktail, southern cocktails, west texas, julep, rosewater, starduster lounge
- Source: Houstonchronicle — https://houstonchronicle.com/project/best-cocktail-bars-houston
- Read time: 3 min
- Topics: houston, craft cocktail bars, mexico city, tiki bar, mezcal, bar, cocktail, southern cocktails, west texas, julep, rosewater, starduster lounge
## Houston's cocktail scene
Houston’s cocktail scene keeps finding ways to surprise and delight, with bartenders pushing the boundaries of creativity.
## New bars challenge pioneers
A handful of ambitious new bars have opened in the past year, challenging the trailblazers that sparked the city’s cocktail renaissance more than 15 years ago.
## Diverse drink options
The result is a wealth of options: bars where you can savor a perfectly executed martini or discover original drinks that showcase each bar’s personality through quirky infusions, rare spirits and unexpected flavor combinations.
## Outdoor spaces
And it’s not all moody, dimly lit lounges. Neighborhood patios and laid-back hangouts are shaking up exciting drinks, too.
## Mindful drinking
As mindful drinking gains momentum, these bars are also offering thoughtful, nuanced mocktails, proving that complexity and inventiveness aren’t limited to spirits.
## Anvil
Bobby Heugel ushered Houston into a new era of cocktail appreciation when he opened the game-changing Anvil in 2009.
## Anvil's legacy
It is still the standard bearer for the craft and an incubator for bartending talent.
## Aye Candy
In an unassuming strip mall in Spring Branch, an old-school candy store sits, hiding a moody bar in plain sight.
## Bandista
In speakeasy fashion, this high-end bar is hidden behind a bookcase only a host in the Four Seasons Hotel lobby can show you.
## Bar Angie
Customers of the highly popular Angie’s Pizza may be tempted to treat the upstairs bar as a waiting area before their reservation, but Bar Angie is a main attraction in itself.
## Bar Buena
Tucked behind the Goode Co. Kitchen & Cantina in River Oaks, Bar Buena is a cave-like hideaway inspired by the ancient art of mezcal making.
## Bar Doko
Duckstache Hospitality (Kokoro, Handies Douzo, Aiko, Himari, Doko) leans into its Japanese identity with its intimate, Tokyo-style bar in Autry Park.
## Bar Madonna
A far cry from a chain hotel bar, this Montrose mansion-turned-nine-room inn offers seating at an intimate four-seat bar or in a sun-dappled side room styled like a Parisian salon.
## Berwick's Bird of Paradise
This Heights bar brings its tropical theme alive with retro seashell hanging baskets, cascading monsteras and a bamboo-lined bar.
## The Blind Finch
On the same block as Belly of the Beast, Spring's best restaurant, is this 1920s-inspired cocktail haven.
## By the Wayside
In the East End, this newer hip cocktail bar celebrates creatives with consistent live music and an ever-changing array of outdoor murals.
## Capt. Foxheart's Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge
Amid the chaos of Houston’s Main Street nightlife sits a true cocktail gem.
## Donna's
Cocktail expert Bobby Heugel has partnered with veteran bartender Jacki Schromm, who named this Heights bar after her grandmother.
## Endless Bummer
You’ve never seen a tiki bar like this. From the owner of spunky pizza bar Betelgeuse Betelgeuse, Endless Bummer was conceptualized and designed as 'somewhere between death and vacation.'
## Jethro's
In that crevice between Montrose and Midtown, this casual cocktail lounge s stirs up a mean drink with fun spirit infusions like tepeche (fermented pineapple, sugar and cinnamon).
## Key takeaway

Houston has 16 craft cocktail bars with unique themes and local influences.