Houston Diners Will Experience Cosmic Texas Cowboy Culture in the Afterlife at This Quizzical New Dive Bar

Meow Wolf Houston, the art exhibit slated for Houston’s Fifth Ward, will debut Cowboix Hevven, a psychedelic dive bar and restaurant that explores Texas in the Great Beyond

Meow Wolf, a multidisciplinary art and media company, is slated to debut an otherworldly art exhibit in Houston’s Fifth Ward this year, and its complementing quirky dive bar is set to take Houston diners on a ride through posthumous cowboy culture.

Cowboix Hevvven will operate as a restaurant and dive bar set in the Great Beyond, introducing diners to fictional characters in what seems like Texas in the Upside Down. This new interactive waterhole promises a disco ball-headed pool shark, an elderly armadillo that spins yarn, a weeping creature that symbolizes grief, and an illuminated sculptural tribute to one of Meow Wolf’s late founders, Matt King, who died in 2022.

Seemingly a part of the country’s ongoing reclamation and reimagination of cowboy culture, Cowboix Hevven’s music, largely played on a jukebox, will feature 30 songs recorded by various Texas musicians, offering a mix of traditional country tunes and various other genres, like Tejano, Ranchero, and futuristic melodies. Though the menu has yet to be revealed, the release hints that it will be just as quizzical, with an eclectic selection of dishes and sips that complement the immersive art experience with twists on classic dive bar fare and Texas comfort food.

Kate Russell

Cole Bee Wilson, Cowboix Hevven’s lead artist and creative director, says the psychedelic bar is his way of exploring cowboy culture through the lens of his “Texas imagination,” which is fueled by his upbringing in San Antonio and Bandera as a fifth-generation Texan. Aside from nostalgia, Wilson says there’s a clear emphasis on dazzling guests with the peculiar and the unforeseen. “I hope they leave with a renewed sense of wonder and an appreciation for how blending the familiar with the unexpected can create something truly weird and wonderful,” he said in a statement.

Representatives say more details about Meow Wolf Houston, the company’s fifth exhibition, will be revealed in the coming weeks, but that Cowboix Hevvven is sure to be a complement to its many installations that are fueled by dozens of artists.

Kate Russell

This exhibit is not the first Meow Wolf has blended the lines between futurism, psychedelic design, or existential horror. The entertainment company, which launched in 2018 as a small arts media company in Santa Fe, has a reputation for hosting ethereal, immersive art-fueled experiences in various cities. In 2021, it launched the House of Eternal Return, a mystery house with hidden passages, in Santa Fe; the surreal Omega Mart grocery store experience in Las Vegas; and the Convergence Station exhibit that linked four fictional alien worlds in Denver. In 2023, Meow Wolf made its first Texas appearance with the Real Unreal in Grapevine in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.