Petrol Station: Craft Beer & Burgers
I decided to welcome my brother, Gordon, to Houston with a trip to the Petrol Station for craft beer and burgers. I think that the Petrol Station, located in the Garden Oaks neighborhood, is one of the best-kept secrets in Houston. The building was once a small gas station and the small bar inside has walls painted like black chalk-boards where they can write the list of their every changing draught beer selection. The gray painted tin ceiling gives the place a cozy pub feeling. There is also plenty of outdoor patio seating. The place makes me feel like I am somewhere between Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon.
The first time I went to Petrol Station I met a couple of middle-aged men when I ordered my beer. They were obviously regulars there as they knew all of the bartenders by name and gave me detailed descriptions of the couple dozen beers on tap that night. I quickly realized that Petrol Station is a place for people who love beer, which does appear to be more men than women. One of the guys I met that night showed me pictures from a recent trip that he and a group of regulars from Petrol Station had made to northern California. They’d traveled out to a brewery called Old Rasputin when they were casking a beer that is only available for a week every year. Apparently there are beer enthusiastics that make pilgrimages to breweries all over the world for similar such events. Sign me up!
Gordon and I arrived with a group of eight people, all his friends who were in town for the wedding. The Petrol Station was pretty packed at 7 o’clock with the Friday happy hour crowd. It was also the kick-off of the Texas Beer Festival and Petrol Station was selling two different beers from casks: a pecan porter and an IPA. Cask beer is supposed to be much better than draught beer. I later learned that this is because cask beer is “living beer.” It is served directly from the cask in which it is fermented and matured without the addition of carbon dioxide. It needs to be consumed in a few days once tapped and so it usually is from a local brewery. The ones we sampled that night were from 512 Brewing Company out of Austin.
We found a big table out in the back patio and ordered a selection of beers from their 20+ on tap that day, including a few pints of the cask beers. Petrol Station also has a delicious menu with basic but well-made pub food like burgers, shepherds pie, meatloaf sandwich, hummus and chips. I went for the tried and true Lamb Burger that comes with feta cheese, red onions and cucumber yogurt sauce. We all pigged out on pints and burgers and the out-of-towners were really pleased with their experience. One of my brother’s friends just said it was a unique place like no other he’d been too. I agree with that! I was also happy to run into a few guys from work there as well. It was just earlier that very day that I had recommended it to one of them, and he had taken it seriously. He was loving the place. As a beer fanatic and past resident of California, he felt right at home. Part of me wants to keep Petrol Station a secret from the masses, but it’s just too good of a spot to keep to myself.
