Ready to see Houston from another angle? How about every angle? Take a look at these virtual tours that will make you feel like you're right here with us in the 713.
Restaurants
State Fare Kitchen & Bar
State Fare - a casual, made-from-scratch concept that touts Texas food in a laid-back atmosphere.
Located in Gateway Memorial Center, in the shadow of The Westin Memorial City and across the street from Memorial City Mall, the restaurant reflects Houston's eclectic style and originality. Snag a seat at the oversized bar, on the patio or in a linger-worthy booth and dig into tempting creations like the provolone and bourbon butter-topped roasted oysters, short rib mac ’n’ cheese and Sabine Pass Gumbo.
Phoenicia MKT Bar
The Downtown Phoenicia also features MKT Bar, an in-house wine and beer bar serving unique international fare. The industrial chic space seats up to 250 guests . A gelato bar, gourmet sandwich station, salad bar, olive bar, demonstration kitchen, wine and cigar department, fine housewares section, full-service bakery and fresh-baked pizza corner also occupy the Downtown market.
EggHaus Gourmet
Located right off of TC Jester in the Heights, EggHaus Gourmet is slinging fast and elevated breakfast options in an inviting and fun atmosphere. The restaurant is the brainchild of the King’s Group, the same group behind King’s Biergarten and King’s Bierhaus. The menu is full of fan favorites, but with a delicious gourmet spin. Further, all menu items are made daily and they only use cage-free eggs.
King’s BierHaus
At its spacious Heights location, King’s BierHaus offers an elevated take on German-American food, a full bar and an expansive biergarten where you and your friends can enjoy good food, beer, games and a fun vibe.
Operated by the father and son duo behind King’s Biergarten and Restaurant in Pearland, King’s Bierhaus brings a modern take to the German beer hall. The restaurant’s 9,000-square-foot biergarten features beautiful landscaping, hammock seating, giant backyard games, and ping pong tables. Inside its 400-seat beer hall, guests can choose from 30 beers on tap, including many German beers and German monastery brews. The bar also serves German and Austrian wines and specialty cocktails.
Lucille's
It doesn’t take long for visitors to Lucille’s in the Museum District to understand that family is important to Chef/Owner Chris Williams. The restaurant pays homage to Williams’ great grandmother Lucille, who made cooking a family affair with her cookbooks and entrepreneurial spirit.
The interior of the quaint bungalow on LaBranch Street is decorated with photos of the Williams family and dark wood finishings. Here, Southern cuisine reigns supreme, with specialties such as braised oxtails, oyster sliders, fried green tomatoes and Lucille’s famous chili biscuits which she once served to Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr.
Indigo
Chef Jonathan “Jonny” Rhodes takes diners through a cultural and historical exploration of soul food at his north Houston restaurant, Indigo. An Oxheart alum, Rhodes offers a diners the choice of two five-course tasting menus – one omnivore and one herbivore – that include dishes like braised collard greens with vegetable ham, and smoked pastrami with brown mustard and beets cooked in sorghum.
The dining room seats 13 in a u-shaped, concrete table with blue seating, creating an intimate atmosphere where diners can have a communal dining experience. Currently, Indigo is a BYOB establishment but make sure to check the restaurant’s website before you go for wine varietal recommendations for each course.
BuffBurger
This is not your ordinary burger joint. Buffburger delivers high quality, natural ingredients from local farmers and bakeries. The makers of these all-natural burgers, Paul “Buff” and Sara Burden, focus on local, natural and sustainable without sacrificing flavor.
You can’t go wrong with the original Buff Burger, or get adventurous with a truffle, corn fritter or goat cheese burger. Not in the mood for a burger? Scroll down the menu for a Buffdog gourmet hotdog and a side of fries. Top it all off with an old fashioned milk shake in chocolate, strawberry or vanilla.
Sam's Fried Chicken and Donuts
A unique pairing in the Heights has diners lining out the door of Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts. From the group behind Liberty Kitchen Oysterette, Liberty Kitchen and BRC Gastropub, this drive-thru/restaurant proves that dessert doesn’t have to wait.
Start with an order of fried chicken done right, slowly prepped over a three day process and turned out at lightning speed. Aside from a bucket of chicken, check out Sam's Fried Chicken Sandwich, Fried Chicken Salad Sandwich, Pulled Chicken Chopped Kale with sweet roasted peanut dressing.
1751 Sea and Bar
Hop on over to 1751 Sea + Bar in the Heights for a unique dining and drinking experience straight out of the Gulf Coast.
Describing themselves as Houston’s premier gin bar, the scene hosts over 100 types of gins. Start at the bar with a Dutch Courage, featuring Bols genever, hopped grapefruit bitters, orange bitters and honey. Or for those with less of sweet tooth, there is the fumar-garita which is a concoction of Lunazul Reposado, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao, lime, makrut and smoked egg white. These and many other specialty cocktails make the bar menu alone worth talking about.
Museums
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is one of the few venues in the country dedicated exclusively to craft at the highest level, highlighting art made of glass, fiber, clay, metal, wood or found/repurposed materials.
HCCC provides exhibition, retail and studio spaces to support the work of local and national artists and serves as a resource for artists, educators and the community at large. Visitors enjoy viewing innovative exhibitions, engaging with on-site artists-in-residence, creating their own crafts in a variety of workshops, and shopping for one-of-a-kind gifts and home décor in the Asher Gallery. Admission is free.
Lone Star Flight Museum
The Lone Star Flight Museum aims to inform and educate the public of their aviation heritage and history by acquiring, restoring to flying condition and preserving a collection of aircraft representing the evolution of flying machines.
The Lone Star Flight Museum opened the doors of its new $38 million, 130,000 square-foot aviation history and STEM facility in late September 2017 at Ellington Airport. The new world-class museum shares the story of flight in the Lone Star State and features the contributions Texas and Texans have made to aviation.
Highlights of the museum include interactive exhibits focused on science, technology engineering and math concepts (STEM) essential to flight, a $1 million Aviation Learning Center, the Texas Aviation Hall of Fame and a marvelous flying collection of historically significant aircraft.
Houston Museum of Natural Science
The Houston Museum of Natural Science, one of the most heavily attended museums in the U.S., features the Wortham Giant Screen Theatre, Burke Baker Planetarium, Cockrell Butterfly Center, permanent exhibit halls and traveling exhibitions.
The permanent exhibit halls are free on Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. during normal hours and on Thursdays from 3-6pm during the summer and holidays.
Space Center Houston
Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, is Houston’s No. 1 attraction for international visitors and the first Smithsonian Affiliate in the greater Houston area.
Discover the exciting future and remarkable past of America’s human spaceflight program set among the largest collection of space artifacts in the southwestern United States. There is always something new to see and do. With more than 400 space artifacts including flown spacecraft, the largest collection of moon rocks on public display and at multiple major seasonal exhibits a year, Space Center Houston offers an array of exciting attractions for people of all ages.
Children's Museum of Houston
The Children’s Museum of Houston is all-new and now twice as big! Rated the No. 1 children's museum in the U.S. by Parents magazine, the Children's Museum is A Playground for Your Mind™. The Museum is packed with 90,000 square feet of innovative, interactive bilingual exhibits for kids, ages birth to 12 years, housed in a whimsical Robert Venturi-designed building.
Free Family Nights are offered every Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. courtesy of The Wortham Foundation, Inc. and Kathrine and the late John P. McGovern, M.D.
The Health Museum
The Health Museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is a multi-sensory and ever-evolving interactive experience featuring health science advances and the intricacies and implications of how bodies work. The Health Museum offers year-long programs and camps for all ages, special events, corporate rentals and exhibitions including the DeBakey Cell Lab, which puts guests in the center of their own hands-on science exploration.
General admission for adults is $10, admission for children 3-12 and seniors 65+ is $8, children 2 and under are admitted for free.
The Orange Show
The Orange Show Monument is a Houston postman's creation that extols the virtues of his favorite fruit. The outdoor 3,000-square-foot monument is maze-like in design and includes an oasis, a wishing well, a pond, a stage, a museum, a gift shop and several upper decks. It was built single-handedly from 1956 until its completion in 1979 by the late Jefferson Davis McKissack. It is constructed of concrete, brick, steel and found objects including gears, tiles, wagon wheels, mannequins, tractor seats and statuettes.
The monument encourages visitors of all ages to follow McKissack's theories relating health and longevity to good nutrition, hard work and eating oranges. The Orange Show is one of the most important folk art environments in the United States.
Beer Can House
The Beer Can House is a folk art gallery/workshop consisting of more than 50,000 beer cans.
The story goes that John Milkovisch hated to throw anything away, and after years of drinking, both his attic and garage were bursting with empty beer cans. In 1968, he got the bright idea that the cans would make good house siding, and a folk art legend was born. Milkovisch didn't stop with the house. He blanketed the lawn with concrete blocks inlaid with bits of colorful glass. He drilled holes in the redwood fence, filling the spaces with marbles. With the cans’ pull-tabs, he created clinking curtains that he hung from the front porch and eaves. More beer cans, wire and found objects became mobiles and lawn art. Altogether, Milkovisch spent 18 years decorating.
Breweries
Saint Arnold Brewing Company
Houstonians are heading to Brock Wagner’s Saint Arnold Brewery on the edge of Downtown to indulge in craft beer, craft food, games, vibrant art, and amazing views of the city.
Texas’ oldest craft brewer opened their newest edition, the Beer Garden & Restaurant, in July 2018. The 25,000 sq. foot facility is open seven days a week for get-togethers with friends, family, and furry companions. With forward-thinking architecture and design, and vivid works of art from Houston artists, it is a place that all Houstonians would love to gather and bring their visitors to from around the world.
Platypus Brewing
Houston’s craft brew scene expanded in fall 2016, as Washington Avenue welcomed Platypus Brewing to the strip. The Texas-meets-Australia concept is the brainchild of five beer lovers looking to marry the tastes from Down Under with Texas beer.
Set in the industrial-cool space that once served as home to The Drake nightclub, Platypus brings together a traditional brewpub concept with a tourable tank space, as well as a linger-worthy tasting room that promises beer flights and pubgrub. In the tasting room, soaring ceilings, exposed brick and reclaimed wood blend with TVs and high-top tables.
