The Hay Merchant

It’s such a wonderful thing to watch hard work and passion pay off. It’s impossible to tell the story of The Hay Merchant without including some of the story of Anvil, the comparatively small cocktail bar just down Westheimer.

College buddies Bobby Heugel and Kevin Floyd, along with friends, did the build-out of Anvil themselves. I’ve seen the photos, and it was a labor of blood, sweat and tears. Critics conveniently forget this when they assign pretentiousness to the Anvil endeavor.

Heugel’s passion is cocktails, although he likes beer. Floyd’s passion is beer, although he kind of likes cocktails. The opening of The Hay Merchant fulfills a pact between the two that someday Floyd would have a beer bar. Anvil has always had a selection of excellent craft beers, but nowhere near the dozens that The Hay Merchant sports.

Someday, we’re going to look back at Anvil and realize just how many seeds it planted. I give a great deal of credit to Anvil, and to Bobby Heugel, for my first becoming interested in Houston’s burgeoning food scene. I probably wouldn’t be writing now without the education and inspiration they’ve provided, but that’s a story for another time.

As with all high-profile openings, Hay Merchant is going to be a little crazy for a while, so be forewarned. If you can’t stand crowds, you’ll want to stay out of there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights until the buzz wears down a bit. However, if you love craft beer, you really do have to go on one of the other evenings (or get there when they open).

Hay Merchant is a craft beer lover’s dream. A best-in-class draft system dispenses some of the truest, purest pours I’ve ever had the pleasure of tasting. Some of the ones I’ve tried are Avery Hog Heaven (a barleywine for the hop heads), Saint Arnold Pumpkinator (a crowd-pleasing stout that actually has some pumpkin flavor) and Brouwerij Bockor Jacobins Rouge (a delightfully tart Flemish red ale). The beers are served at optimal temperatures, and Hay Merchant prides itself on serving each in the glass best suited to the style. For example, barleywine comes in a tulip glass, while a milk stout is served in a traditional pint.

The selection is ridiculous. It’s like Beer Disneyland. I counted 79 beers on the menu, and it’s not like some places where they tease you with a big list and you find out they’re out of half of them. Everything I ordered was available, which was surprising and marvelous.

Also marvelous is chef Antoine Ware’s remarkable food menu, perfectly designed to go with beer. Ware’s background at Mr. B’s Bistro (a Brennan’s family restaurant in New Orleans) and Catalan (under chef Chris Shepherd) shines in this environment. The crispy, sweet and salty pig’s ears are already becoming a bit legendary amongst those who have already visited. Sure, they might sound gross to the uninitiated, but if you like bacon, you’ll like these.

There are the inevitable kinks to be worked out. The “meat chips” are cross-cut slices of beef short ribs. First off, I love this dish just because there is something so primal about eating hunks of meat with your hands. I’m guilty of grabbing leftover hunks of steak out of my fridge and eating them cold right there in the kitchen. This is a similar experience. However, there was little trace of the “lime juice, chile, garlic and fish sauce” marinade described on the menu. I suspect they just didn’t get to sit in the marinade long enough on that slammed Friday night.

A friend had the $10 “The Butcher’s Burger” and described it as the embodiment of what you might get at your friend’s backyard barbecue. Since it’s described on the menu as “what we’d give you at our house,” Hay Merchant nailed it. Regrettably, the one I ordered the next day was dry and served with no condiments. Again, this is the nature of working through grand-opening kinks when you’re slammed with business. On this particular Saturday, Hay Merchant was packed by 2 pm.

The pulled oxtail with mushroom gravy neared perfection. The lightly breaded whole egg was celestial (shown above). Creamy yellow yolk spilled out when it was cut. The egg crowned a stack of shredded oxtail nested on top of a lard biscuit. The oxtail by itself seemed a little too salty, but when mixed with everything else, it was right on target.

Growler fans will be happy here, too, as Hay Merchant both sells growlers and will fill your existing one. (Editor’s note: A growler is a take-away container for beer.) Kegs are also available, so there is no excuse for having lame beer at your next party.

A token white and a token red wine is available, but honestly, why bring someone here who doesn’t like beer? It’s so much more fun to rejoice in tasting the amazing varieties with other beer lovers. If you’re stuck here with a wine person, get them to try a sour or a barley wine. You might convert them.

Here are some easy predictions: Hay Merchant and, thus, Houston, is going to be a destination for beer lovers everywhere. It’s going to be named Best Beer Bar in the United States by numerous publications, and its going to be a big factor in surmounting some of the ridiculous TABC rules that have prevented craft beers from coming here from other states.

In the last three months, Houston has seen the openings of Triniti, Nabi, Uchi, Artisans and Hay Merchant, all of which seem primed for success. Still to go are Underbelly (in the same building as Hay Merchant), Blacksmith (a coffeehouse next door in the Mary’s building), Oxheart, Restaurant Cōnat, Katsuya by Stark and L’Olivier. It is going to be one heck of a year in dining and drinking in our fine city.

HAY MERCHANT, 1100 Westheimer just west of Montrose, 713-523-9805, haymerchant.com. Open 3 pm to 2 am Monday through Friday and 11 am to 2 am Saturday and Sunday.