Voodoo Queen has returned to her royal daiquiri perch.
DAIQUIRI DIVE IN EAST END RISES FROM THE ASHES.
Closed for renovations after a fire in September 2016, Voodoo Queen Daiquiri Dive made its return to the Houston bar world in mid-March, coming back double in size with even stronger drinks to boot.
Previously known simply as Voodoo Queen, owner Brandon Young’s tiki-themed New Orleans-centric bar became a neighborhood hit for its strong boat drinks and a dark and dive-y attitude when it opened in 2013. For the first three years of its life, the spot was a destination for Ubering Montrosians and a much needed shot in the arm for its surrounding East End ’hood. Then the fire forced it to close and provided an opening for change.
Young and company purchased the laundromat space just behind the original bar and set about to expand operations after the fire. Locals had waited a long time for it to return to scramble their brains all over again. Social-media chatter came and went, until one day in early March, the Voodoo Queen’s Instagram account began hinting at the coming revival.
The reopened Voodoo Queen has an expanded drink and food menu, extra seating inside and out, and bright paint courtesy of Houston street artist Dual. It’s now also a sight brighter than it ever was, and the jukebox, heavy on classic alt-rock and rap staples, has been expanded — think Porno for Pyros and Geto Boys.
One friend, on her first visit, described it is a seedy mid-’90s skating rink sans skating rink. The bright colors and a Clinton-era beach vibe with a sinister accent are trademarks of most anything Young has had a hand in opening.
He and business partner Evan Shannon’s Moon Tower Inn, just blocks away off Canal, brought craft beer and exotic-meat hot dogs to an area starved for cool in 2010. Since then, things have changed for the East End.
“More people are still moving east because they can’t afford Montrose any more with the townhouses popping up everywhere,” Young says.
To be fair, the East End is also seeing its fair share of townhouse construction. And the area surrounding VQ has changed, with extra development nearby and a few more mothers in yoga pants pushing strollers along the sidewalks.
Out on the front patio, the earthy smell from the former Maxwell House coffee plant mixes with vape pen and cigarette smoke. The crowd is a mix of well-scrubbed newcomers to the neighborhood and the same tattooed boys and girls that haunted it every night during its last incarnation. It might have been the kind of place that Keanu Reeves would go undercover at in the original “Point Break.”
Frozen daiquiri machines dot the back wall serving frozen drinks like The Bends, Blue Dreamz and the Volcano Joe for $8 a pop. You can keep the purple cup as a souvenir.
The Bends is the strongest frozen drink on the menu. It runs $10 and customers are limited to three per visit, per customer. One will make you smile too hard. Two will make it easier to text your ex. Three could make you the best pool shark there ever was.
Daiquiris can be blended with extra shots of rum and liqueur served inside special vials for adventurous drinkers. Traditional drinks like the Mai Tai, the Pain Killa and the Skeleton Crew also are on the menu, along with craft
beers and straight-forward cocktails. A shot menu, with concoctions like the Surfer on Acid and the Pink Snapper, is available if the daiquiris and beers don’t do the trick.
The Texican’s go-to, the PenusColadus, has been remastered and brought back to the menu, still packing a shot of Fireball to haunt us the morning after.
For food, Big Easy-style offerings like six varieties of po’ boys and fried shrimp baskets are all the rage. Of particular note was the unholy trinity of tater tots, hush puppies and crinkle-cut fries in the same basket, a stoner’s paradise.
World traveler Young does his homework, visiting bars everywhere he goes and taking notes, but this place is purely Houston.
“There’s some influence from various beach bars I visited while traveling out of the country and some influence from south Louisiana daiquiri shacks, for sure, but I feel like its pretty unique, and you’d be hard pressed to find anything like it anywhere,” he says.
Soon, if all goes to plan, Galveston will have a Voodoo Queen to call its own. Young says he’s scouting locations down south. Anyone who meets Young knows that he will be happy to be closer to the ocean. But bove all, Young has always wanted to create a place where everyone felt at home, no matter the zip code or what shoes they were wearing.
“The neighborhood has definitely grown a lot so it’s nice to have a proper, disused bar that everyone can fit in comfortably.”