Rare Bar

Closed.

I ventured across town and sat in traffic for 30 minutes only to be effed over by this place! After doing happy hour research on Unilocal I checked them out on their web and myspaces pages. It clearly states they are open all week long.
I got here at around 6:15 pm on a Monday and saw about 4 cars parked out front on Durham St. However, ALL the doors were locked. Confused i sat in my car squinting at their pages on my puny internet capable phone’s screen to see if I was wrong about their hours. While doing so a guy walked out so I rolled down my window and asked «Are they closed today?». He answered «I guess so».
Obviously you are someone privy to the inner workings if you just walked out of a locked up restaurant. I felt like he was brushing me off and if he’s part of the staff there then that does not speak well for them at all.
Even if this place opens again (I saw a For Lease sign on the other side of the building) I will never be a patron, and if I even know who the owner of this place is I’ll make sure to never support any of his/​her other business either.
Grrrrrr!

Rare Bar is my favourite little getaway on the Washington Ave. strip. The place is bursting with great energy and character. The bar and waitstaff are friendly and tre knowledgeable, and the food and décor have obviously recieved a lot of effort and attention to detail.
Inviting and Sheik, I took a date here last Wednesday for their steak night, and got two 8 oz. sirloin steaks, complete with fries and dessert for something crazy like 25 $, We had a really great time and highly recommend the place.

I came here on a Friday night around 9pm to kill some time between dinner and going out. I had heard this place had served food and had good happy hour so I figured it wouldn’t be dead at 9pm. This was my first stop along my club/​bar/​lounge hopping night on Washington.
There’s actually a surprising amount of parking in the vicinity because it’s off Washington. Plus the fact that we got there at 9pm probably helped us too. We walk in and there was no bouncer yet. The place is not quite a club, kind of a lounge, kind of a restaurant, and kind of a sports bar. There’s a bar area on the right and a lounge area on the left. The lights were still bright at that time and most of the people there were ordering food and having drinks. The Ketal One cocktail drinks were only $ 4!
The place isn’t exactly a club but it’s decorated like one. Very contemporary décor but no dance floor. It’s kind of a lounge because there’s lots of seating area with small tables. It’s kind of a restaurant because they serve food. I didn’t have any food, but it looked good! Sort of reminds me of the food at Max’s Wine Dive (perhaps same owner?!). And lastly, it’s kind of a sports bar because they have a few large TVs in the place with ESPN on. Overall, it doesn’t have a distinct personality. The lights started dimming down around 9:30 to give it a more lounge feel.
I’d come here again to try the food or pre-​drink before going out to another place on Washington. It’s not overly crowded and the food looks good, but I don’t think Rare will ever be the «it» place to go to.

Love the happy hour here… especially because I can work late, get there at 7, and still get some $ 3 sliders w/​fries and $ 4 Ketel One drinks and wind down.
I don’t get into the whole club scene, so I’ve never hung out here late, but I love me a good happy hour. Chances are you’ll find my girlfriend and me here after work at least once a week with friends. Cheap eats, cheap drinks, and a nice place to chill. What’s not to love?

I have no idea why but there is never anyone at this place. Maybe its the location since its off Washington but I think its nice cause you have a better chance to find parking.
Is it the venue? The décor is average inside, trying to be pretentious and the layout is long with 1 bar up front with a DJ booth next to it. There is no «real» sectioned smoking area so I guess thats a reason for smokers not to like it.
The music? Been here twice at night and once for HH. First night straight tops 40’s and hip hop. Second time, mostly latin with splashes of hip hop. HH was some indie and top 40. Not sure if they have a schedule of their music line up but if they don’t its pretty random.
The service? One night was simple to get in and bartenders were not too bad getting drinks out quickly. Our group of friends were basically the whole place though. One night, they were haggling me cause I had boat shoes… seriously? Was there for a bday so we threaten to take our 25 some odd folks else where. When I walked in, there was probably like 30 other people there besides our group.
Now for HH, I went there cause I saw in a different review with high marks and I’m desperately looking for another good HH for food. Their deal is for $ 3 you get A slider and a side of fries, $ 5 house salad w/​chicken or beef, $ 2 fries, $ 4 red or white wine, $ 4 kettle one. It is kind of cool how they have differently seasoned fries like cajun, ranch, spicy, california, and a couple others. Sliders on the other hand were terrible. I got the BLT, Cheeseburger, Crab cake sliders and the salad with chicken. Burgers were way over cooked, dry, and small. The bread was different though being some kind of flaky roll but I did not care for it either. Basically same story for crab cake, dry, over cooked, tasteless. Salad was much of the same. Salad itself wasn’t too bad using fresh field greens but there was only a small handful and equal amount of chicken. Usually this would be awesome but the chicken was over cooked, dry, not good. You would think possibly it was crowded and the chef was overloaded with orders but there was only 1 other table of 5 people when I was there. So unless the other review had a different chef or something, it was not the same experience. HH is until 9PM though so guess that’ll help if everyone misses the normal HH times.
Two stars from me cause HH food was terrible (forgot to mention this is also a restaurant with a pretty high priced menu) drinks are average for washington, the random music play, and the lack of customer appreciation.

I went on a thursday evening. The food is average. The décor is nice. very young crowd.

Finally checked out Rare Bar for Happy Hour last Thursday. I have to say this is one of the best Happy Hours I’ve ever been to.
Rare Bar does not serve your average happy hour food. We ordered the BLT slider, Crab Cake Slider, and Grilled Chicken Salad. The portions were large and it was it was presented like food you’d order in an upscale restaurant. The fries that accompanied the sliders were hot and crispy. The buns on the sliders were soft and yummy. The grilled chicken was well seasoned and the greens were fresh. The Crab Cake and BLT sliders were excellent.
Unbelievably, the sliders and fries were only $ 3 and the grilled chicken salad was only $ 5. There are lots of other items to choose from and their dinner menu looked great as well.
We had Ketel One cosmos for only $ 4 and they were stiff and tasty. We were greeted by one of the friendly managers Jorge and received great service.
The décor is sleek and contemporary with ample tables and seating areas. The VIP area looks like a sexy boudoir with high back booths, satin walls and a chandelier.
I will definitely be back for Rare Bar’s happy hour soon!

This place is okay. Nothing really stood out except their bottle service seemed reasonably priced and they plan to serve food til midnight. Other than that, it’s your typical Houston bar/​lounge. The music played was top 40 and some house. The décor was nice, but I wasn’t fond of the layout. There was no BS line, but they may change in time. I might come again for a drink or two before hitting the town, but no more than that.