Houston's Best Frozen Cocktails to Sip While It's Still Sizzling

Houston's Best Frozen Cocktails to Sip While It's Still Sizzling

State Fare's frozen flight

IN THE THIRD installment of our Chill Out series, we are sucking up to frozen cocktails — the answer to late summer’s relentless heat. Don’t sweat the small stuff; H-Town blends up the frozen libations of your dreams, so grab a straw!


Montrose Cheese & Wine

Frosé at Montrose Cheese & Wine (photo by Zach Horst)

Much thought goes into the pretty pink frosé at this adorable cheese shop. "We’re using an organically farmed rosé from Languedoc, France, as well as Cappelletti, our favorite wine-based aperitif,” says buyer and assistant GM Pam Cantu. She adds, “The Amaro-like optional floater contributes depth to the frosé, which will transport you to the Amalfi coast.”

Pier 6 Seafood & Oyster House

Pier 6's frozen flight

Cruise to San Leon and perch on the sprawling waterfront terrace enjoying the frozen flight, a tropical paradise of icy blends delivered on a wooden tasting paddle. Included are the house margarita; Ocean Water starring rum and coconut; the watermelon slush with tequila and mezcal; and the Mangonada with rum, orange vodka, mango, citrus and spice.

Common Bond

Common Bond's frosé

Frosé Friday means discounts on the luscious signature frosé. Slurp it by the glass at colorful Common Bond cafes or take it to-go in a keepsake carafe (not available at On-the-Go Garden Oaks).

Upstairs Bar at Hungry's

Frosé at Hungry's

Hungry's frosé is a patio staple (psst: the Rice Village location sports the ultimate treehouse patio). Customers cool off year around with the rosé, strawberry, and Carpano Antica vermouth concoction.

State Fare Kitchen & Bar

Expect four eye-popping picks including lavender lemonade with gin; a frosé crafted with Deep Eddy peach vodka and rosé; Ocean Water with Plantation rum and lime, and a classic margarita. Can’t decide? Choose the flight with minis of all four.

Candente

Candente (photo by Dominique McGhee)

Come for the exotic frozens served in oversized Mexican goblets, but stay for the Tex-Mex. Choices include two different margaritas, a Paloma with grapefruit and tequila, and a classic pina colada bursting with coconut, lime and pineapple.

Brennan's of Houston

Brennan’s is putting its blended-drink machine to good use this season. Replacing last month’s frozen milk punch is a refreshing watermelon slush spiked with vodka and mint. How perfect is that? Grab this must-try through August!

Loch Bar

Loch Bar's Ranch Water Crush, Orange Crush, Arnold Palmer Crush

Frozen cocktails include the frosé made with rosé, Wheatley vodka and strawberry, and Aunt Mel’s Tennesse Slushie with Nelson's Greenbrier Tennessee whiskey, ginger, lemon and orange. Opt for variety with the Three Crush and a Slush — an Orange Crush, a Grapefruit Crush and an Arnold Palmer Crush, plus your choice of a frosé or Aunt Mel’s Tennesse Whiskey slushie. Grab $8 crushes and $10 slushies during social hour.

Patterson Park

Ring in the last moments of summer and hopefully the summer heat (one can dream!) at this sprawling double decker bar. Its frozen Pickleback includes Tullamore dew, pickle juice, and lime. The Bark Park Punch is a mixture of Cruzan vanilla rum and cherry. Frozens are only $5 on Wednesdays starting at 7pm.

Kirby Ice House

Kirby Ice House's Kirby Frozen Tea and Kirby Skinny Frosé

This Upper Kirby ice house stays packed due to its fun and spacious atmosphere including a huge backyard with food trucks (pups allowed!). Chill out with its Kirby Frozen Tea, a twist on a classic Arnold Palmer. Ladies like the Kirby Skinny frosé with rosé, light rum, blueberry syrup, fresh lemon, and cranberry juice.

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse (photo by Lindsey Cooper)

This new concept, a quirky cocktail bar and gourmet pizza joint from veteran restaurateur Chris Cusack, bowed quietly in Houston’s Old Sixth Ward a few months ago. On the list of high-brow drinks, find the Half-Frozen French 75, a riff on the classic but half frozen with gin and lemon, and crowned with sparkling wine. No straw required.

Monkey's Tail

The Northside cocktail at Monkey's Tail

The Lindale Park bar is known for its signature frozen Tommy's Marg and rotating frozen specials. The Northside crafted with cucumber Wodka vodka, London dry gin, mint, lime and firewater is a repeat customer favorite.

Dish Society

Dish Society's prickly-pear frozen margarita

Up your brunch game with the DS Fromosa, a frozen mimosa spiked with a shot of vodka. For something spicy, try the spicy strawberry margarita kissed with jalapeno and Tajin, or the prickly pear frozen marg if you prefer fruity.

Food

Matthew Dirst (photo by Jacob Power)

FOR FANS OF early music — an often scholarly lot who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves — bad-boy Baroque-era painter Caravaggio certainly nailed something in his dramatic 1595 painting, “The Musicians.” (Simon Schama talks about this in his TV series The Power of Art.) One look at his masterpiece, and you feel as if you’ve stumbled upon and surprised a roomful of dewy-eyed musicians, their youthful faces swollen with melancholy, with the lutist looking like he’s about ready to burst into tears before he’s even tuned his instrument. So no, you certainly don’t need a Ph.D. to enjoy and be moved by the music of Handel, G.P. Telemann, or J.S. Bach, but a little bit of scholarship never hurt anyone. Knowing the history of this music may even deepen your appreciation of it.

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