The Heights’ rising bar scene will quickly welcome a brand new addition with critical cocktail cred. Anvil proprietor Bobby Heugel has partnered with bartender Jacki Schromm to open a brand new cocktail bar within the former Prepared Room area (2626 White Oak Drive) within the Heights, the duo inform CultureMap.
Slated to open within the fall, the still-unnamed cocktail bar would be the newest challenge from Thorough Fare, the hospitality firm Heugel operates in partnership with James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu. The group’s portfolio additionally contains Heights eating places Squable and Higher Luck Tomorrow; cocktail bars Anvil and Refuge; neighborhood bars Catbirds and Blue Lagoon Membership; and Theodore Rex, Yu’s fantastic eating restaurant in downtown that earned a Bib Gourmand designation within the Michelin Information.
The brand new bar may even be Heugel’s first new idea since opening Refuge in 2022. Nonetheless, since Refuge developed out of Tongue-cut Sparrow, Heugel’s Japanese-inspired cocktail bar, it retained sure parts from its predecessor. The brand new challenge goals to deliver a recent perspective to Houston’s cocktail scene.
  The brand new bar is anticipated to open this fall.Courtesy of Thorough Fare
“Whereas I like Refuge and nonetheless suppose it’s among the finest bars we’ve ever performed, it was a continuation of some disjointed historical past,” Heugel says. “It’s thrilling to do a cocktail bar the place we get to speak a few recent idea, recent concepts — actually replace these concepts for the place the scene is at at present.”
Partnering with Schromm is a key supply of these new concepts, Heugel explains. Since transferring to Houston from Boston in 2019, she labored with Heugel at each Higher Luck Tomorrow and Anvil. At the moment, she’s the final supervisor of Reserve 101, the downtown cocktail bar recognized for its in depth whiskey choice, educated workers, and in depth stock of classic spirits. Schromm describes Heugel’s invitation to associate with him as “a shock in probably the most pleasant means.”
“I feel it’s each bartender’s dream — if you’ve labored in X quantity of areas with X quantity of homeowners — you begin to suppose, I may do that,” she says. “I believed that was nonetheless five-plus years away. We’re leaping into it perhaps just a little prior to what my objectives had been, nevertheless it’s extremely thrilling.”
First opened by restaurateur Ken Bridge in 2018, the Prepared Room distinguished itself with its intimate environment, classic decor, and reside music. Permission Whiskey proprietor Peter Nolan took over working the bar in 2023. The bar closed final yr when Bridge shuttered his Korean restaurant Mapojeong, ending his lease on the property that additionally contains Prepared Room. Neither Heugel nor Schromm are able to share specifics concerning the bar’s idea, however Schromm guarantees it will likely be a welcome addition to the Heights.
“What this cocktail bar will develop into is one thing that we don’t have within the Heights but,” she says. “I feel it will likely be a very enjoyable and thrilling addition to the Heights group.”
Schromm has a few month left at Reserve 101 earlier than she devotes her full consideration to the brand new bar. She’s desperate to make a splash in a neighborhood that’s just lately welcomed new additions like Starduster Lounge and The Child — and he or she acknowledges how significant it’s to work with a associate who has a monitor report as strong as Heugel’s.
“It doesn’t sit evenly with me. That is an unimaginable alternative,” Schromm says. “I don’t suppose I’ve stopped smiling from the second that we talked about it. It’s a very rewarding feeling to be acknowledged like that. Simply feeling actually blessed and grateful.”
