Post #758678 by Formikahini on Sun, Feb 7, 2016 11:17 AM

And oh BABY is it stocked now!

(Photo taken from the Howie's Facebook page.)

Some of us Texas Tikiphiles met up there last night for their soft opening, and we were all quite happy!
Mark the owner is FULLY committed to making this place a great, truly tiki, tiki bar.
Gorgeous Oceanic Arts lamps everywhere, thatching over the cozy booths, original art from TC-ers Ken Ruzic and Bamboo Ben, and some really nice large black and white photos. Room for more décor as he finds it.

No sports.
No TV.
Thank you, Mark.
(The screen seen in my photo is of the RockBot mobile app that shows you what's playing and allows you request songs. But it played all exotica/surf last night [save one Ramones which I don't mind in the least!].) So big thumbs up for appropriate tiki bar music. :drink:

Among our group, we had the on-menu Mai Tai, the off-menu Mai Tai, the Navy Grog (best), Zombie, Painkiller, Three Dots and a Dash, Suffering Bastard, Test Pilot, Voodoo, and maybe another...I think. Yeah, they were [appropriately] strong. 'Course, we also stopped off at Lei Low on the way home...
It was a soft opening, so I'll leave any criticisms (which would be minor and few) until after they've had time to work out their kinks.

More of note:
Fresh ingredients and house-made syrups.
Really cool: the orgeat is made from apricot pits - not almonds! Why? Mark is allergic to nuts and he wants a Mai Tai, dangit! So anyone with nut allergies can drink free of fear at Howie's. And the orgeat was delicious - and totally almondy. Like, weird.

Tiki Farm mugs to come, and boy are they special :o . All I'm gonna say for now on that one.

So overall: Big YAY!!
(Spring, Texas is 30 minutes north of Houston, BTW. So now you have TWO excuses to come to Houston to get your tiki on: Lei Low and now Howie's!)

"Zazz captivates felt."

[ Edited by: Formikahini 2016-02-07 11:19 ]