To be blunt, Houston is awful about preserving its architectural historical past. Charming previous buildings in good condition are always torn down in favor of half-empty “luxurious” condos and townhouses of questionable high quality. As neighborhoods develop more and more stripped of their character and id, it turns into much more crucial to have fun the vestiges of the town’s previous. 

Downtown wine bar La Carafe, housed within the metropolis’s oldest confirmed constructing, stands the check of time for instance of this residing, respiratory historical past to be nurtured and preserved. Houston’s Kennedy Bakery constructing was constructed in 1845 and is now an entry within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. The bar we all know and love right now opened within the mid-Nineteen Fifties and continues to function as a comfy time capsule. La Carafe solely takes money, conducting enterprise with a century-old register. Years of eerily elegant wax drips from the massive candles to gentle the intimate house. 

This spot of getting older intrigue amid the gleaming skyscrapers attracts an eclectic crowd. Skate collective City Animals used to hang around right here of their ’80s heyday. “You see loads of artists, loads of stagehands, roadies, and folks with loads of completely different attention-grabbing tales,” stated bartender Clint Franklin.

There’s additionally a lot speak about how La Carafe is haunted. Whether or not you consider in that type of factor or not, many friends and bartenders are adamant that they’ve seen and heard an array of strange and unexplainable occasions, together with bottles flying off cabinets for no obvious cause, the sounds of younger youngsters enjoying upstairs, and even a ghost right here and there. It might all be from extreme drink or the work of overactive imaginations, however like all ghost story, that’s so that you can resolve for your self. 

La Carafe’s handy location attracts locals and vacationers in equal measure. Some regulars have even been married there, after which introduced their youngsters once they turned 21.

Sustaining a bar in a protected landmark does include some main challenges, nonetheless. “You must get approval to vary something in regards to the look of the constructing,” Franklin stated. 

“We didn’t used to have a balcony on the entrance of the constructing.… Carolyn [Wenglar], the proprietor, needed to construct one other one, and the historic society was denying her request to do this. She did loads of analysis and really dug up very previous images of the constructing with an present balcony. As a result of it was true to the historic integrity of the constructing, they allowed her to really construct that.” 

He notes that the restrictions additionally apply to components like paint colours, and historic buildings require reams of paperwork to evolve to fireplace codes. 

But regardless of the paperwork that sometimes rears up, La Carafe endures as a crucial reminder to decelerate, sip some wine, debate what these odd sounds have been, and respect the richness of the town round you.