Houston’s Cocktail King Rips the Higher and Higher Drink Prices at Local Bars: It Sickens Bobby Heugel to See H-Town Becoming Like New York

Cocktail prices in Houston are on the rise, and they’ve certainly gotten a rise out of one of the city’s bar moguls. Bobby Heugel, owner of popular establishments like  Anvil Bar & Refuge, Tongue Cut Sparrow, The Pastry War, BLT, and The Nightingale Room, has penned a wordy rebuke of the exorbitant cocktail price tags in Houston.

In a six-paragraph Facebook post, Houston’s cocktail king lays out his disgust at the $13-plus drink prices that are rivaling the steep bills from cities where the cost of living is high, like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle.

He puts it plainly at the start. “This isn’t New York, y’all,” Heugel writes.

The crux of his argument: the appeal of Space City’s cocktails are that they were always presented “in a way that was true to Houston’s character — affordable and accessible.” Heugel posits that although Houston has high standards for its cocktails, “maybe some of the highest in the country,” few establishments in the city can justify house cocktails that set a customer back more than $13.

Affordability and accessibility look like things of the past. “Now that cocktails are established, however, people —oftentimes the very same critics of Houston’s early cocktail movement — are far too eager to charge crazy amounts for drinks, while the rest of us stay grounded,” Heugel writes.

That line may have given you pause. After all, Tongue Cut Sparrow is not known for its penny-on-the-dollar prices.

Heugel addresses this, citing that a cocktail served at the exclusive, bite-sized bar above The Pastry War “comes with hot towel service, complimentary bar snacks, exquisite glassware and barware (often brought back from Tokyo ourselves), and candies out crystal dishes when you get your bill in a space with 25 seats and no standing room,” Heugel notes.

He raised his prices from $12 to $13 six months ago to pay for all the costs that come with the regular service, and has even considered bumping them up to $14, out of necessity, he says. Back in March, Heugel announced on Instagram that he was planning to open a new concept. Time will tell how prices stack up there.

It’s a struggle, since he wants “bars part of guests’ regular lives, not simply their special occasions.” That seems easier at his bars besides Tongue Cut Sparrow. Average cocktails at Anvil are sold at just over $10 and even lower at The Pastry War, he says. In his view, they stay true to the affordability and accessibility at the start of the heart of Houston’s cocktail scene.

“When you mess up what’s special about the Houston bar scene, you impact what the scene will look like in the future,” Heugel writes.

You’ve heard from one of the biggest names in the Houston bar biz —cocktail prices are through the roof at $13 and up. And if this continues, Heugel thinks it’s only a matter of time until the roof falls in.