Downtown’s Newest Bar Wants to Bring a ‘Rum Renaissance’ to Houston

Next week, Downtown Houston will become home to High & Dry, the city’s newest bar that has high hopes of bringing a rum renaissance to Space City.

Owner Levi Tatum tells Eater that the bar will kick open the doors at 306 Main Street in Downtown next week. In addition to a full line-up of other spirits, a tight list of ten cocktails at High & Dry will focus exclusively on upgraded takes on classic rum cocktails like the Mai Tai and Hurricane. Instead of the sugary pre-made syrups that have become synonymous with rum drinks, Tatum’s team will spice up these libations with outside-the-box ingredients like activated charcoal, black pepper tincture, and habanero bitters.

Behind the bar, more than 50 different types of rum await, ranging in price from $8 to upwards of $20 per shot, and that list is expected to grow in the coming weeks. “Our main focus is to really break the common misconception of rum being this overly sweet, hangover-inducing spirit,” Tatum says. “We want to highlight what rum can be and what it has become over the past decade. There’s definitely been a renaissance in the rum scene.”

Tatum, who formerly worked as general manager of Bovine & Barley, expected to open High & Dry a little earlier than February, but Hurricane Harvey delayed that plan. “Harvey made it a little more difficult to line up quality subcontractors because the industry was stressed,” he says. “It pushed us back a little bit for sure, because it was tougher to get things done in the timeframe we were hoping for.”

At present, High & Dry will only serve cocktails, but a food menu is in the works. “We do have plans in the future to get a kitchen set up and start doing a full menu,” Tatum says. “We don’t want to serve OK food just to get by, we want to have a really solid menu. I’m hoping to push for it heavily over the next six months, but we also have to deal with the city.”

High & Dry is set to arrive on Saturday, February 17. The bar will be open Thursday through Saturday only, from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

• A Rum Bar Will Bring Even More Booze to Downtown Houston [EHOU]