Why Your Next Favorite Restaurant Will Be a Bar
At Houston’s Better Luck Tomorrow, diners and drinkers get the best of both worlds.
The bar’s interior is a neon nod to artist Dan Flavin’s installation in the Menil Collection.
Photographer: Jess Duncan
These are troubling times for restaurant regulars like me in big cities such as New York and San Francisco.
Up and down Manhattan, storied dining rooms have closed their doors this year, from Isabella’s on the Upper West Side to Public in SoHo. The Lower East Side staple Schiller’s Liquor Bar, from restauranteur Keith McNally, will close in August, and one of the city’s most exquisite restaurants, Annisa, will be gone for good after this weekend. The Bay Area has also seen a spate of closings of such places as Rose Pistola, AQ, Oakland’s Hawker Fare, and the beloved Doughnut Dolly mini chain.