The Taps House of Beer

One of the newest beer bars to open in Houston is the Taps House of Beer.  Located on the very trendy Washington Avenue, its pretty easy to spot as the doorway is a large wooden beer cask on the front of a single store brick building.  The entire bar is just one large room with outdoor patios in the front and back of the building.  A long wooden bar runs the entire length of the right side with tables and chairs filling the rest of the space as well as a few comfortable leather recliners in the corners.  Flat screen TV's ring the outside walls, making it easy to catch whatever game you're into.

The 96 taps along the wall behind the bar does look impressive, but there wasn't anything particularly special or hard to find among them.  They had the main flagship beers of the various breweries that distribute to Houston but not really any of their seasonal or speciality offerings.  However, I would probably expect that to change as the fall and holiday beer seasons arrive and another round of new seasonals start arriving.  While I was there, all beer was served in frozen pint glasses by default (not exactly what you're looking for in a beer bar), but you can ask for non-chilled.  There isn't much for food other then some bar snacks such as hotdogs and pizza, but they were advertising a steak and baked potato special on Thursdays.

I was there on a Saturday afternoon and it was pretty much empty except for the bar manager and one other customer.  However, it sounded like it can get pretty busy at night which lead me to one of the major problems of the area... parking.  There is none.  Be very careful about where you park on the side streets and pay close attention to the no parking signs.  Parking tickets and even towed vehicles are not uncommon as the area and its resident's are still getting used to its new found popularity.

I'm always glad to see a new beer bar opening in Houston, particularly one that opens with that many taps.  However, whether they want it to be a beer bar or just another sports bar with a lot of taps will soon show based how well they look after the beer and the lines and the effort they put into educating their staff about the beer.  Its a nice change of pace from my usual haunts, but there's nothing in particular to draw me out there at the moment, but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it.  The large patio area looks like it could be nice to hang out on in during the cooler (and hopefully soon) times of the year.