Young and older-than-young remain drawn to the granddad of Houston's restaurant singles scene, Taco Milagro.
The Smith & Wollensky patio on a Thursday evening sets the over-40s against a backdrop of valet-parked Mercedes coupes and a foreground of lightning-speed introductions among a crowd that has long since forgotten the pace of the afternoon kegger. "You create a more festive setting, you get kind of a younger, more singles-oriented crowd," said manager Adam Hricik. Gravitas, for example, set up the SideBar at Gravitas, attached to its hip upscale eatery with a standing "Skyline" party on Thursday nights. "It makes sense to meet someone here, have some dinner, have a couple of snacks, have a couple of drinks that you don't have to pay nightclub prices for, and then go out and have some fun," said Chuck Russell, co-owner of Farrago Restaurant in Midtown.Īt some restaurants, singles night is a shift from the regularly scheduled program. But others say friendliness trumps beauty when people are out on the town. Some bar-stool philosophers also suggest that a congregation of attractive people helps. Others, like Gravitas, offer a more subtle, loungelike setting for conversation over the "Soular Grooves" sounds of DJ Sun.įor success, the singles restaurants rely on three elements: a pulsing beat, the opportunity to circulate and a bar to belly up to. Some restaurants, like Ra Sushi, put it out there with slogans like "Sushi as fresh as you are" and "As stimulating as a bite of wasabi." Throughout the Houston area, restaurants hire disc jockeys and bands, offer bar menus and drink specials, and they keep the doors open and the food coming late into the night in the hope of attracting an out-on-the-town demographic. The restaurant definitely aims to rock you. Men in untucked shirts, PDA's pressed to their ears, strained to hear over the booming OutKast/Queen mashup. Once they were gone, girlfriends teetering in heels and halter tops pressed upward. On a recent Thursday evening at about 8, a lone family descended the circular stairs from the second-story eatery. The joint definitely succeeds at stimulating.
"We meet here and decide where we are going to go for the night," said 35-year-old Colt Harmon, an investment-company president who draped his dark suit jacket over a chair at the bar as he ate sushi rolls with a group of friends.
But by then the word was out - and the young singles of Houston had turned the restaurant and bar into a place to be seen on Thursday nights, either as a dining destination or as just one stop of the evening.