Last night was the monthly happy hour for our little group of industry friends. It was an ideal occasion for my first bar review. One of the standing rules for our industry friends happy hour (IFHH) is to try a new bar each month. This time we settled on a former ice house in the 6th Ward called Beaver's. Hearing the name the first time, my first thought was... "sounds like some cheesy, lame facsimile of an already tacky national chain of restaurants".... but that's a whole other review. Luckily the names are where the similarities end.
Beaver's is one many bars that seem to be reproducing like rabbits along the Washington Ave corridor. This transitional neighborhood is actually much less shady than I expected, thankfully. Inside the bar the atmosphere is somewhat bland and character-free with the exception of some of the beavery knick-knacks in the hallway to the restrooms. Apparently Canadians need to be 'kept busy'. Who knew?! (Maybe one of our Novie friends can enlighten us on that.) There is roughly an equal amount of seating outside and in, shade is provided by umbrellas outside on large picnic tables. Outside of dining, drinking and chatting there is little else available to distract one's self here. The clientele seemed to be an unassuming mix of just-off-work professionals, some families and some less easily type-cast average folk.
I think we as a group were all very happy with the service. Our waitress 'Y' was extremely friendly and helpful. ... very personable and constantly checking on us. I did find out that the wait staff is not trained in beerology..... very unfortunate. Lucky for us though, Y is a fellow beer lover and was very knowledgeable. As for the beer selection, I think both Cupcake and I were pleased. Not that we expected a wall of taps, but we definitely like to see a vareity of good beers. Oddly, Beavers' only has 2 or 3 taps. Not quite sure what the point is. BUT they have at least 40 good beers in bottle. Even better, there was no pisswater on the menu! RESPECT! We did find out later that they do in fact carry pisswater, but at least they are rightfully ashamed enough of it to keep it off the menu.
On to the food. I've read that Beaver's is owned by one or more owners of respected local restaurants. Honestly, this surprises me. One would think seasoned restauranteurs could do a better job of avoiding being 'out of' major menu items. We had 2 or 3 cases of this occur. Overall there was a mixed response to the food we ordered, the majority of whi
ch were appetizers. Some were good (check out the Spam Nugz...seriously!), others not so good. There is quite a bit of bbq on the menu, but being a bbq snob as much as I am a beer snob, I avoided the bbq entirely. Its just safer that way. True, good bbq is hard to find... especially in Houston. My advice to any restaurant.... if you're not a FULLY dedicated 'bbq joint', don't waste your, and my time. And PLEASE spare us all those southeastern or St Louis styles of bbq... LAME! This is Texas! One of the few things we can genuinely do well here is bbq. So why screw around with any lesser form of bbq here? One last parting shot on Beaver's food, now that I'm wound up... no chicken sandwich is worth $15. Please! ..and in the 6th Ward?! Please again! Don't kid yourself... its just bar food.
In conclusion, I would say its a decent bar to hang out at occasionally. Not a potential 'favorite bar', but certainly worth checking out.
The Brew Card
Atmosphere: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Clientele: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Beer selection: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Food: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Service: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Prices: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Stuff to do: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Overall: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Beaver's is one many bars that seem to be reproducing like rabbits along the Washington Ave corridor. This transitional neighborhood is actually much less shady than I expected, thankfully. Inside the bar the atmosphere is somewhat bland and character-free with the exception of some of the beavery knick-knacks in the hallway to the restrooms. Apparently Canadians need to be 'kept busy'. Who knew?! (Maybe one of our Novie friends can enlighten us on that.) There is roughly an equal amount of seating outside and in, shade is provided by umbrellas outside on large picnic tables. Outside of dining, drinking and chatting there is little else available to distract one's self here. The clientele seemed to be an unassuming mix of just-off-work professionals, some families and some less easily type-cast average folk.
I think we as a group were all very happy with the service. Our waitress 'Y' was extremely friendly and helpful. ... very personable and constantly checking on us. I did find out that the wait staff is not trained in beerology..... very unfortunate. Lucky for us though, Y is a fellow beer lover and was very knowledgeable. As for the beer selection, I think both Cupcake and I were pleased. Not that we expected a wall of taps, but we definitely like to see a vareity of good beers. Oddly, Beavers' only has 2 or 3 taps. Not quite sure what the point is. BUT they have at least 40 good beers in bottle. Even better, there was no pisswater on the menu! RESPECT! We did find out later that they do in fact carry pisswater, but at least they are rightfully ashamed enough of it to keep it off the menu.
On to the food. I've read that Beaver's is owned by one or more owners of respected local restaurants. Honestly, this surprises me. One would think seasoned restauranteurs could do a better job of avoiding being 'out of' major menu items. We had 2 or 3 cases of this occur. Overall there was a mixed response to the food we ordered, the majority of whi
ch were appetizers. Some were good (check out the Spam Nugz...seriously!), others not so good. There is quite a bit of bbq on the menu, but being a bbq snob as much as I am a beer snob, I avoided the bbq entirely. Its just safer that way. True, good bbq is hard to find... especially in Houston. My advice to any restaurant.... if you're not a FULLY dedicated 'bbq joint', don't waste your, and my time. And PLEASE spare us all those southeastern or St Louis styles of bbq... LAME! This is Texas! One of the few things we can genuinely do well here is bbq. So why screw around with any lesser form of bbq here? One last parting shot on Beaver's food, now that I'm wound up... no chicken sandwich is worth $15. Please! ..and in the 6th Ward?! Please again! Don't kid yourself... its just bar food.In conclusion, I would say its a decent bar to hang out at occasionally. Not a potential 'favorite bar', but certainly worth checking out.
The Brew Card
Atmosphere: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Clientele: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Beer selection: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Food: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Service: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Prices: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Stuff to do: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
Overall: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
the queso tasted and looked like melted ass and gave me heartburn at 3am which required 3 giant swigs of malox.......well......maybe not melted ass....but it wasn't good..........written by "Ginger"
ReplyDeleteHave to agree with all points, especially the SPAM-Nugz! Seriously, where else in Houston can you get them....Mmmmmm! Yes I was pleased with the bottle selection of BEER! A surprise for me! Oh, thanks for the Ex-Wife Sauce, it was good!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSounds like your not Eager for Beaver ???
ReplyDeleteWill try the Beaver and let you know.