Downtown’s Cottonmouth Club Will Be An Obsessively Detail-Oriented Bar

Last month, Reserve 101 owner Mike Raymond announced that he would bring a bar called Cottonmouth to Houston’s vibrant Downtown bar scene. Now, there’s more details on what exactly that spot is going to look like.

The forthcoming drinking destination at 108 Main Street will actually be called The Cottonmouth Club, according to a press release, and will focus on an extreme attention to the details. “The degree to which a guest enjoys a drink starts with how they feel when they walk in the room. That energy is the first ingredient in a drink,” Raymond says. “So, we’re putting as much care into curating the experience as we are the actual drinks. If that means something tangible like the first thing a guest does is select her glassware when she arrives upstairs, so be it.”

Raymond describes The Cottonmouth Club as “the least cocktail-y cocktail bar we could come up with,” but is still a little stingy on any further details, including what the menu is going to look like. As the Chronicle reported in February, Raymond is joined by bartender Michael Neff, a cocktail expert with more than 20 years of experience behind the bar in cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, as a partner in the project.

The Cottonmouth Club is expected to make its debut sometime this spring. Stay tuned for an official opening date.

Neff is a craft cocktail veteran, having worked for more than 20 years in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. He most recently served as bar director for Holiday Cocktail Lounge in New York and also worked on the bar programs at Clifton’s Cafeteria and Three Clubs Cocktail Lounge in Los Angeles. Swanson’s career in restaurant, bar and hospitality design is marked by projects in and around downtown Los Angeles, including Clifton’s Cafeteria and the Line Hotel.

• Cottonmouth bar coming to downtown Houston [Chron]