Austin’s Award-Winning Bar Nickel City to Open Third Texas Location in Houston

Unlike the other outposts, Houston’s Nickel City will emphasize rum in its cocktails

Austin’s Nickel City is opening its third Texas location in Houston early next year — and it’s coming with a rum-focused patio bar.

The award-winning neighborhood bar, known for its abundance of spirits and good vibes, will take refuge at 2910 McKinney St, Suite 500, joining several other new businesses in the former building of Abrasives & Allied Products. Once renovated, the East Downtown building will include a mix of office and retail shops.

Culturemap Austin reports that the bar, which is slated to open in early 2023, will take up 3,200-square-feet of the warehouse space, and will be designed by Primozich with the Houston-based interior design team Lizzy Bufton and Stephanie Russel of Taft Studio leading the project.

Co-owner Tober did not immediately respond to Eater Houston’s request for comment, but the Buffalo, New York-native told Culturemap that he plans to bring Nickel City’s signature “Rust Belt Chic” aesthetic to Houston, while also adapting the “bar inside a bar” concept from the Fort Worth outpost. A unique highlight for Houston, however, is the patio bar — capitalizing on Houston’s love of imbibing and dining al fresco — with a specific emphasis on rum.

Tober said that with Houston being a “big rum town,” known as one of the top rum-consuming cities in the country, it made sense to dive into the spirit, but in a more lighthearted way. The patio will have a “tropical” vacation vibe, he said.

Nickel City is the brainchild of Tober, Primozich, and brothers Brandon and Zane Hunt, who together own pizza joint Via 313 in Austin. The four opened Nickel City’s first location in Austin in 2017 to rave reviews, and then a Fort Worth outpost amid the pandemic in 2020.

Eater will update this post when more information is available.