Flying Saucer Draught Emporium (Houston)

7/27/2008 11:49:06 PM, sunday, july 27, 2008
Fantastic selection with some excellent specials, fire sales and what not. Pub food is available and good. They know their beer and have a wide variety of flights. The UFO club is a fun way to try different beers over the course of the year - reach your goal and your plate goes on the wall. It can be very crowded after Astros games, and the parking lot across the street seems to have raised its prices. Last time I was there, I managed to get a server to take care of me while i propped myself up against a wall waiting for a seat to open up. Its along the Houston rail line but unfortuantely sort of between two stops, so you’ve gotta walk a couple blocks if you go that route.

7/5/2008 9:33:24 AM, saturday, july 05, 2008
Stopped in on a Sunday afternoon on our way home from the Pulmonary Hypertension conference down the street. Sunday is Texas pint day with $2.50 or $2.75 pints from TX brewers. Had the make your own flight with mainly TX brews and a few others mixed in. The food was pretty good. Our waitress did a decent job and the manager came over to talk to us once he found out that we were from out of state to see how we liked the bar and brews. The place was still pretty emply so we were able to watch the baseball game without any distractions. We were lucky and got a parking spot right outside on the street.

5/2/2008 9:11:36 AM, friday, may 02, 2008
This place was packed on Wednesday! In Milwaukee, most of our craft beer bars are small and generally not the most popular bars in town. In contrast, this place was huge and packed! And while the enthusiasm for beer was good to see, the crowd didn’t come without its problems – there was a bouncer, it was loud, service was slow due to the crowd, and when we came in an inebriated 30-something was being thrown out for harassing a member of the short-skirted waitstaff. This place has a giant selection, an age-diverse clientele, female servers in short skirts and tight tops (ours seemed to have beer interest and knowledge), and a very automated program which recognized patrons for trying great varieties of beer. Food was unimpressive, although I liked that they had some decent cheese. This place was OK, but something about it struck me as being not quite right. It seemed like whoever was running the show was executing a business model that was co-opting a growing craft beer segment, without really internalizing a passion for beer. As evidence I can’t offer much, but aside from the fact that it is a chain, I will mention that the featured brewer when I visited was Dos Equis, which is not a brewer (FEMSA) and is well, crap. I may return the next time I’m in Houston, but it won’t be without hesitation and it will be preceded by a search for alternatives.

1/28/2008 11:16:45 AM, monday, january 28, 2008
(Visited 07/2007): Flying Saucer is located right on Main St in downtown Houston. There is lots of metered street parking and a couple garages nearby, and it is right on the trolley route as well. The inside of the bar is spacious, with high ceilings. Lots of wood everywhere. The eye is immediately drawn to the wall of taps behind the bar on the left. There is seating in the middle and along the right side. The saucers with everyone’s name and catchphrase who have completed the 200-beer tour are the next attraction. As evidenced by the wall of taps, the number of beers here is impressive. There are at least 75 different draughts from the US (including local/regional) and all over the world. International selections are available as well. As for bottles, there are over 150 with mostly the same brewers represented. Flying Saucer has several different flights of beers available for sample, divided by geographic location. Service here is spotty. We were there on an early Monday evening and the place was surprisingly crowded, most likely due to $2.50 pint night. The server did a fair job with refills and food but she was hard to track down occasionally. Food here is also hit or miss. The spinach artichoke dip was pretty good, and my wrap was decent. All in all this will definitely be a regular stop for me on my visits to Houston.

1/7/2008 8:37:09 PM, monday, january 07, 2008 [ Updated thursday, june 05, 2008 ]
A great bar because of the selection. With so many beers on tap, a great place to get some ratings done. The food is very good, the sandwiches are really good and the pizza is as well. The only problem is when busy takes a while to get a beer. Besides that a great place to get hammered and watch the game with several televisions and a huge projection screen.

12/25/2007 10:07:00 PM, tuesday, december 25, 2007
I mean, yeah, this place is pretty much great. You CANNOT beat $2.50 pint night... anything on tap. That includes Dogfish Head Punkin and Optimator among many others. wowee. PS you can’t smoke here anymore, and it’s also in within walking distance of the Grasshopper club, and if any of you out there have ever walked by there on a Saturday night, u know what I’m talkin’ bout!!!

12/3/2007 8:42:41 AM, monday, december 03, 2007
Went 4 my birthday. Comfortable aura when you walk in. Friendly and fairly knowledgeable (and cute) waitresses. Beer selection is probably the best in Houston. The food can be low end to high grade (the beer cheese soup was ..well, crap). This place seems to know what they are doing, I would give it higher scores if I went during down times and not when gay football is on... Recommended!

11/26/2007 5:16:56 PM, monday, november 26, 2007
Great beer selection, but the food is good, too. Sampled a bunch of brews alongside my bratwurst sandwich. Good selection of Real Ale taps. I had a good waitress, also.

9/18/2007 10:48:57 PM, tuesday, september 18, 2007 [ Updated monday, december 31, 2007 ]
Greatest beer selection I’ve seen in any bar, anywhere. Beer snobs rejoice! The ambience is nice, but it can get a little too crowded here on some evenings, especially right before a ballgame. Although the service can be hit or miss (mostly miss), that is I think due mainly to constantly being understaffed. I’ve had some waitresses that were not as attentive as I prefer because they were overextended but they still seemed reasonably knowledgeable and definitely good to look at/over. Food has been anywhere from decent to good in the times I’ve been here. If you are looking for THE place to come for a great beer selection and see the sights, then this should be #1 on your h-town list.

8/8/2007 11:05:50 AM, wednesday, august 08, 2007
Great Selection of Beer. Inside, the place is a complete sausage fest, which is great for me seeing as how I am attracted to men. Very friendly people on the inside, great place to flirt with a guy. The waitresses are horrible and i couldn’t maintain a buzz because, I couldn’t get a beer. Slow Slow Slow. When they finally brought my food out it was cold. I would say it is a great place to go for a pick up but other than that they’re are better bars in houston.