Saturday, August 30, 2008

New Bar Coming To Houston

And the folks behind this bar isn't just anyone but its the bar team from Beaver's. Bobby Huegal and Kevin Floyd are leaving Beaver's and will be opening up their own place on Westheimer. The name will be Anvil and the concept is pretty simple: Great wine, Great Cocktails (of course) and a great beer list. Of course its this last bit that has me interested. On Drink Dogma, Bobby gives a few details:
Our beer list will include the best microbrews in the country, and we will offer alternative taps at all times that will change every week.

This gets me a bit excited....What type of beers will they have that will set them apart from Gingerman and the Saucer? Will they have Casks? Will they work with the local brewery's and offer special one of a kind beers? I don't know the answer to any of these questions yet, but I can't wait to find out. Anvil is hoping to open in Mid-November. I'll update their progress as I can.

4 comments:

Stan Hieronymus said...

Tedo - They can also set themselves apart with their service.

Barleyvine said...

Stan,
Couldn't agree more. I know Bobby and Kevin know their beer, but they've got to make sure their servers do as well.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your ongoing support; people like you are really the only reason we have been successful so far.

To respond to your inquiries, I think that we are going to have a very exciting beer list that will make us attractive to any local beer lover. We are going to have over 100 bottles available, and if you like the beer list we’ve put together at Beavers at all, you will like ours even more. The biggest attraction however will be the beers we have on tap. We won’t have as many as the G-Man or the Saucer, but we do plan on having a constantly rotating selection. In other words, we plan to change up our taps every time we blow a keg. With a few exceptions, we will never put the same beer on tap two times in a row, meaning if you come back a week later, the entire selection will likely have changed. The beers available will also be very atypical choices; we want to put beers on tap that you hardly ever see because they just aren’t available through normal distribution list. However, we have made arrangements with local distributors to special order beers months in advance to bring stuff that we don’t normally see in Houston. We also know the local breweries and would be able to bring in special beers not available for retail sale. Interest in cask beers are a growing trend in the area, and the local breweries seem to be responding quite well. Consequently, if possible we would like to bring in a cask engine as well. Recently a Beavers, we brought in a Lost Gold IPA cask and we think that we will be able to do more of this in the future as well.

Stan also makes a good point about the role of service in creating a good beer environment. I couldn’t agree more, and I hope that you will find our level of service to be welcoming, knowledgeable, and prompt. I will always be a bartender at heart, and the foundation of any great bartender is service. I love talking beer with my guests, and like every beer nerd I’m just a fan of a good brew…I just get to be one of the lucky people who can do beer, cocktails, and wine for a living and a hobby.

If you want to come by sometime and check the place out let me know, and I will give you a sneak preview. Thanks again for everything.

Barleyvine said...

Bobby,
Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate you providing all that info. My wife and I ran by the place this weekend, the location looks really strong. I'd love to stop by and check the place out before opening. Send me an email and let me know when is convenient.