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A brand new bar from the minds behind Heights taqueria Cantina Barba is bringing jungle vibes to the Second Ward.
Fitzcarraldo, which opened quietly last week at 3517 Navigation Boulevard, takes its inspiration from a number of different jungle locales across the globe, including a menu of Lao street food and drinks like Japanese whiskey and frozen coladas.
Pineapple Bodega, the group behind the new bar, has set the scene with the installation of more than 50 palms trees. The rest of the decor is a mishmash of styles — fringed umbrellas that evoke the Victorian era of the Werner Herzog movie of the same name, about a maniacal rubber baron in the Peruvian Amazonian; plus beer tables from Mexico, Turkish Kilim rugs, Marcel Breuer cane chairs, an antique Bengal tiger statue, and, inexplicably, a Vietnam-era warplane surrounded by black and white obelisks.
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Menu-wise, diners can expect Asian-style drinking snacks like chargrilled chewy brisket with jeow som, Filipino egg rolls, papaya salad, and glazed fish sauce wings, with plans for pig roasts, oysters nights and more special events on the horizon.
Booze-wise, the bar focuses on chilled, easy-drinking beverages, perfect for the concrete jungle of Houston. A highball machine serves up icy Toki Japanese whisky and sodas, and there’s a menu of spritzes as well as a Henry Colada, made with Hennessy instead of rum. Mexican beers and mezcal round things out.
Fitzcarraldo joins a bevy of tropical-themed bars in the East End, including the newly-opened Tulum-inspired White Rhino, less than a mile to the South, and stalwart Voodoo Queen. Fitzcarraldo is open seven days a week, from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
