The Place: Lizzard's Pub 2715 Sackett 713-529-4610
The Deals: $2.75 wells and domestics
The Hours: 2 to 8 p.m.
The Scene: According to its sign, Lizzard's Pub has been around since 1976. In Houston bar years, that's enough to earn it a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. In human years, that puts it at about the same age as most of its happy hour patrons.
The after-work crowd isn't completely homogenous, but the drinkers lean toward a certain bearing, and it involves Dockers. While sitting with a friend in the what would have been the sunny living room back when the bar was a house, I noticed a couple of guys walk from the parking lot to a table on the front porch, about two minutes apart. Each wore the same color slacks, same style shirt (one blue, one white), same sunglasses, similar haircut. Each spit discreetly near the same large tree while approaching the building. Maybe it's like honeybees marking flowers, except the spit sends a message about the availability of Miller Lite instead of pollen.
Of course, there were a handful of women there, and some older guys (though cut from the same cloth as the younger patrons), and a couple others who don't fit the post-fraternity model. When we walked in Paul Wall's "Sippin' the Barre" was playing on the Internet jukebox. (He's the champ of all kinds of people, apparently.)
Those may be outliers, but you can't expect much different from a neighborhood place so close to River Oaks and a number of large apartment and condo complexes. There's still a dive-ish, casual feel to Lizzard's that makes it all right, even if it's not your typical scene. Plus, there are a couple of dark back rooms (the place is literally a house) filled with some aged leather couches and clubhouse furniture. Speakers pipe in the jukebox selections. It's like a burial chamber for a chapter president who died before his time at some point during the 70s. His college counterpart would have ended up at beneath sea level at Valhalla; his final resting place would be here.
In other news, Bernie's Burger Bus, which normally posts up in the Lizzard's lot, went on hiatus after the accidental death of one of its employees. It should be back at the bar within a few days, though, according to the bartender on duty.
