New Cocktail Lounge Brings a Slice of Los Angeles’s Lounge Scene to the Heights

The Heights neighborhood has no shortage of dining and and bar options, and now, a new drinking haunt has opened, offering a slice of Los Angeles's all-day lounge scene.

Cocktail bar and lounge Best Regards opened at 222 West 11th Street earlier this month, offering a variety of wines, champagnes, mocktails, and cocktails in an upscale space whether imbibing indoors or al fresco.

The cocktails are an obvious draw, with intricate combinations, like the Wolf of 11th Street, a mix of Hoja Santa Sous Vide Tequilla, cantaloupe melon, honey cilantro syrup, ancho verde, and black salt, and the White Collar Crime, which features cacao nibs infused with Texas bourbon, pecan turbinado, cacao blanc, and Aztec chocolate bitters. Best Regards also offers coffee-based cocktails like espresso martinis and a carajillo, thanks to a collaboration with Tenfold Coffee, and a small selection of charcuterie-style boards, including one loaded with pickles, and another decked out with hunks of creamy burrata, seasonal fruit, and cured meats.

Becca Wright

Houstonian Morgan Hansen says she was inspired to open Best Regards after traveling around the world and residing on the West Coast, where in Los Angeles, California, lounges offered lively daytime bar scene before transitioning into a nightlife-style atmosphere.

“I wanted something that encapsulated the day-to-night experience,” Hansen says. At Best Regards, “You go from having brunch Sunday Funday with all of your friends, and then seamlessly transitioning into having a DJ come in at night doing bottle service, and having an entirely different experience than you did earlier in the day.”

With 20-foot sliding doors that open up to the outdoor patio, the roomy bar offers a variety of seating, with casual tables, banquettes, and large circular couches for lounging on the outdoor patio, which is outfitted with a garden arch and string lighting “that definitely makes you feel like you’re not in Houston,” Hansen says.

Hansen, who also worked at Fortune 500 companies doing real estate brokerage, says the bar, its menu, and even the decor is a “hat-tip” to those in the corporate world. Hansen says she came up with the name for the cocktail lounge while writing an email one day, signing it off with the phrase “Best Regards.” But the bar is definitely not about work. Instead, it’s a chance for people to “log off, unplug, and decompress with a great cocktail in an upscale atmosphere,” she says.

Becca Wright

Best Regards is open from 4 p.m. to midnight on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursdays, from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and from 2 p.m. to midnight on Sundays. 222 West 11th Street, 77008.