Drive down Clear Lake City Boulevard and you'll barely notice it. To the residents of Clear Lake City, or Webster, Texas, a Southeast suburb of greater Houston, the road is just a daily tributary from 45, a way to get home to the upper-middle crust neighborhoods that inundate the area; a simple means to respite at the end of a hard day's labor. Blink, and you'll miss it. But to the aesthetically trained eye, the adequately spaced serifed font in all caps and an art deco style will grab you:
R O S E W A T E R.
The high end bar offering moderately priced custom designed cocktails sits humbly on no more than 1,500 square feet, but enter through the glass door and immediately you'll see why it is special. Literally hundreds, if not more than a thousand, varieties of rare and barely-spoken-of liquors, wines, beers, and mixers grace shelves that span from waist high to ceiling. Oh, and don't forget the wall of living moss, a beautiful tribute to nature and modern vertical planting, as you enter on your right.
Pasha, the owner and proprietor of Rosewater, a young thirty-something with an unassuming demeanor, speaks proudly yet humbly of his niche creation. "What we really want, that's what we want: for people to come in and be greeted by people who like what they do [and who] know the menu..." How hard is that to do? According to Pasha, finding proficient bartenders was one of the hurdles he knew he had to get over in order to craft the perfect business. "It's hard to find people who want to work in this environment and can do a good job." But if you've been to Rosewater, you'll know that he's succeeded. A small staff of 3-5 keep the bar going, and are always knowledgeable enough and willing to talk about whatever drink you order off their custom crafted menu. And get your reading glasses on when it comes to selections: there are a lot of choices.
It's a bar we frequent, being residents of the Clear Lake area for a couple of years now, and what this bar does in terms of innovation and atmosphere is incomparable to any other bar business in the Houston area. We were there on New Year's 2018, St. Patrick's Day, you name it, and each special holiday--even each week--boasts a brand new menu with new custom-created cocktails. If you like citrusy, they've got it. If you like fancy, try a touch of their drinks with egg white dressing the top. If you like whiskey, bourbon, absinthe, this bar is the epitome of variety and unbeatable standards for all of these drinks and more.
The reason for this je ne sais quoi guests feel when they spend an evening out at Rosewater can be attributed to Pasha, Rosewater's creator. Pasha has spent the bulk of ten years collecting rare and interesting varieties of drinks and began experimenting with mixing cocktails at home. Before opening the bar, he had rooms full of liquor, giving him an ever so slight insecurity when it came to hosting more conservative guests. "We had some people stay over once...and they were somewhat devout Muslims...all I had to offer them was this guest room that had wall to wall liquor, and I was kind of like...Sorry!" Yet despite any judging eyes from a more conservative contingent, Pasha pushed forward, and found the perfect spot for his brainchild in the unassuming Clear Lake suburbs, in a shopping center flanked by hair dressers, take out restaurants, and the occasional food truck.
Pasha works a full time job. "I am usually here on the weekends," he says. If you ever feel like you have too much to do and too little time to do it, try working a regular 9-to-5 job then running a high end business in your spare time. Pasha also juggles time with his girlfriend, who frequently comes to the bar when she has a chance. "That's kind of the only way we get to see each other."
This is the story of a man with a dream. This is the story of following that dream to fruition and creating an ambience that everybody, young and old, wants to be a part of. This is the story of indie music from all corners of the country and world being played on a carefully picked playlist to keep the mood going while you sip on absinthe from a $100 bottle or on Italian Aperitivo Cocchi. And to add spark to the fire of creativity, add generosity to this man's trait list: when we asked him to help us design a cocktail for our wedding, he was more than willing to give us his advice on what to add and what to scale back on.
If drinkers want to be in the midst of something cool, delicate, detail-oriented and truly special, then they will not go far amiss taking a seat at the bar of Rosewater. Friendly faces will be sure to greet you, and you won't be surrounded by countless yuppies cloistered off in corners. You just might, though, find yourself facing one or two anthropomorphic goat paintings under recessed lighting in line for the bathroom. It's all part of the uniqueness that defines this very establishment. And in a world increasingly imbued with sameness despite the thirsts of its creative souls, a little uniqueness and specialty might be just what to order next from the proverbial bartender.
Erika Haines
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