A Houston Institution and Top Beer Garden: Axelrad Beer Garden

Axelrad is a Slice-of-Life TV show’s dream set. Casual enough to be a comfortable welcoming place for the community, but interesting (and beautiful) enough to be an iconic landmark for the show. If you’re looking for a more casual, artsy neighborhood beer garden, you’ll find your piece of heaven in Midtown. 

First of all, their space is huge and they’re all about the outdoors! So make sure to have a chilled beer in hand. There’s plenty of seating including garden tables (seats 8-10 comfortably), single chairs, and hammocks. It’s a perfect place for meeting up with friends and playing catch-up. You can bring the kids as well, just be mindful that the garden becomes 21+ after 9pm on Sunday-Thursday and after 8pm Fridays and Saturdays. 

At the center of their establishment is the ICONIC neon tree. It’s a colorful beacon to beer-drinking Houstonians as an LED lantern would be to moths. It sets the mood for the variety of free events the garden hosts like Jazz Wednesdays, Comedy Nights, Movie Screenings, and Open Mic Nights. If you want to visit, make sure you check their website to be in the know! www.axelradhouston.com/calendar. We went during a theme night, Tejano Amor, and had so much fun dancing, enjoying live music, and eating. 

Being a beer garden, Axelrad definitely has an impressive selection of drinks to choose from including IPAs, ciders, cocktails, and even non-alcoholic beverages. If you’re looking for fun without sipping on alcohol, they also serve sodas, juices, Saint Arnolds Rootbeer, artisan sodas, mocktails, NA beers, seltzers, and kombuchas!

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They have Happy Hour from 12pm-7pm on weekdays, and a $3.50 beer all day, every day. Let's talk food. Axelrad doesn’t have a food menu themselves, but they do feature a schedule of rotating food truck vendors. During our visit, they had a delicious Tamale vendor there. They also share patios with Luigi’s Pizzeria which pairs deliciously with their beer.