New restaurant openings in the Memorial City area have been coming fast and furious for the last 18 months. It started with Churrascos and Kuu, then Vallone’s and the Tree House. This last is a multi-story restaurant site with a rooftop patio that was originally slated to be a second location for Jonathan’s The Rub, but is instead now under development to become the third location for Liberty Kitchen. (But that’s a blog for another day.)

However, before these locally owned restaurants stuck their stakes in the soil and began moving their pots and pans into the Metro National Memorial City Gateway district, we heard about Pour Society — was it almost two years ago? It was announced as part of a triad from the Bradley Ogden Hospitality group along with Funky Chicken and Bradley’s Fine Diner.

Tick tock, celebrity chef/restaurateur Bradley Ogden: Time creeps by very slowly when a high-profile out-of-town restaurant group declares that they’re coming to jump on the Houston hospitality bandwagon but opens more than a year later than projected. Houstonians become interested in other things while restaurateurs’ projects suffer numerous delays. Chefs become frustrated; publicists are idle, stuck in PR purgatory.

Well, Pour Society has finally opened. You may recall reading various accounts that the focus is American pub fare with a twist, as well as an emphasis on American craft beers, wine and spirits. Chef Greg Lowry (previously at Triniti), who has been improving the menu at Bradley’s Fine Diner while waiting for Pour Society to finally open, has developed what might be described as the ultimate hangover menu. The restaurant itself is upscale but relaxed, with several televisions around the handsome bar and large windows against leather bolstered booths. It’s a good-looking, nice place.

Does it fill a void in the area? It’s not a tavern, despite its name, and it isn’t exactly a sports bar. It offers family dining on the upscale side of things. It’s like Pappy’s Cafe, located a mile or so east on I-10, grew bigger and more sophisticated and had better bathrooms.

Will you want to eat there without your kids? Sure. It’s perfect for parents who just need 90 minutes of adult time to drink cocktails and eat dinner while staying close to home. You’ll probably enjoy watching a football game or two there without being surrounded by dudes or huge baskets of weirdly orange wings. This is a flexible, multi-purpose restaurant that the Memorial/Spring Branch area should happily embrace. But will it stick?

Seven-layer dip

We were guests at lunch this past Wednesday, and we think Pour Society has a promising future. As noted above, you can expect pub fare dotted with gourmet touches. Take, for example, the seven layer dip ($12, photo above). The usual ingredients like guacamole, pinto beans and sour cream find their layer, but Lowry has topped it with shrimp and crab. A fresh corn pico also brightens up the game-day dip. Go ahead and dump the dip onto the serving plate — it makes eating much easier.

Carrot salad

Another noteworthy starter is the carrot salad, a hearty vegetarian option ($12, photo above). It’s an elegant dish — carrots, kale, avocado and chermoula sit atop a spread of whipped goat cheese sprinkled with pistachios. Other vegetarian options include the Texas oyster mushrooms ($16) — with squash, onions, corn, pecan mole, oregano and cotija cheese — and the Non-Texan sandwich. The latter features broccoli rabe, scamorza cheese, tomatoes and a fried egg between thick slices of toast. (Just don’t mistake “vegetarian” for “light”— this sandwich is a big ol’ thing.)

Mexican fried chicken thighs

Lowry’s take on fried chicken is a bit different. His “Mexican fried chicken legs” ($18, photo above) — which are plenty moist and crunchy —  are served with a “side” of elote mashed potato taquitos topped with a fried egg and green chile sauce. It’s a combination that Houstonians will appreciate.

The “Pour’strami”

One of their most-ordered dishes is the “Pour’strami” ($16, photo above). The open-faced pastrami sandwich, which the menu describes as “classic,” is served on a jalapeño-cheddar waffle. Spice from the jalapeño and sweet from the Russian dressing make merry in your mouth. It’s served with thick-cut — and we mean thick — French fries.

Finally, banana pudding ($8, photo below) is, well, bananas — as in crazy good. It is kind of a pureed, caramelized banana tart with a thin but solid top. Although the vanilla wafer crust was a bit hard to break through, it takes something with a little hardiness to hold in all that sweet, creamy goo. It’s topped with Bananas Foster sauce and candied pecans. A sweet way to end the meal.

Banana pudding

Pour Society, 947 North Gessner, 832-831-0950, poursocietyhouston.com