Determined Main Street Bar is Shuttering to Make Way for a New Mixed-Use Development: Husband and Wife Owners Lived the Dream and Are Moving On

In 2014, the owners of Barringer Bar were thrown a curveball when they were forced to shutter and relocate. Now, they’re closing their downtown bar for good, but doing it on their own terms.

“We’ve had a few people ask us if we’re moving again,” Robby Cook tells PaperCity in his first extensive interview on the closing. Husband-and-wife bar owners Robby and Chieko Cook are not moving to a new location. They’re moving on.

With the Cooks’ lease expiring at the end of the year, a new mixed-use development is taking over the bar’s 108 Main Street space — and several others around it.

“It’s the end of an era. We want to leave on a good note,” Robby says of the shuttering of the downtown bar.

“We want this to be of our own accord, not someone pulling the plug for no reason,” Chieko says.

The Cooks had been “getting OK with the idea of shutting down for a few months,” Robby says. But they weren’t ready to talk about it. When they finally revealed their plans this week, the news was “a little sudden” for staff and regulars according to the Cooks.

They’re getting a lot of “What’s going on?” messages and goodbyes on social media. “We’re getting a lot of ‘Is this a sad or happy moment?’ from people,” Chieko says. Their friend Christopher Huang of Ninja Ramen texted them “I’m still going to be sad, but I’m happy for you?”

It’s bittersweet, to be sure, Robby says. “I’ll miss working for myself, being an entrepreneur.” But he won’t become a stranger to bartending, servicing people, and teaching them about whiskeys and classic cocktails.

The Cooks are also planning to throw a heck of a goodbye, what they’re  calling a “balls out” farewell party for their whole operation this Friday, Dec. 22. This time around, Barringer is not coming back. But Robby and Chieko Cook are closing down on their own terms.

From now on, they might not be serving the shots, but they’re certainly calling them, right down to the Barringer Balls Out party commemorating the bar’s last day of service.

“We figured the name was appropriately inappropriate,” Robby tells PaperCity. “That’s kind of how we roll,” Chieko adds. They’re planning kind of a “friendsgiving at a bar,” a last hurrah for patrons and industry friends alike. They even rented out some rooms at the nearby Hotel Icon so their friends can crash at the end of the night.

It will be a proper sendoff with DJ Remix and discounts on liquor because “we can’t take it with us,” Chieko says.

Zimmerman Interests is developing the historic buildings at 108, 110, 112, and 114 Main Street for a mixed-use project, Dan Zimmerman tells the Business Journal. Barringer’s space will soon be part of the Main & Co. mixed-use development.

Surviving the Bar Drama

About four years ago, the Cooks were locked out of their livelihood because of a lease dispute. They arrived at Barringer’s then 410 Main Steet location to find the locks changed, Robby Cook says. The Cooks, industry veterans who had “done every job in a bar except owning a bar” before opening Barringer, had been subleasing from Steve Hannigan of Clutch City Squire.

“It was a lot of drama,” Chieko Cook says. The pair took out all of their belongings they could before setting their sights on a new location.

The contemporary speakeasy found its new home just a few blocks down at 108 Main. The new building formerly housed the Houston Dry Goods and Notion warehouse, and was constructed in 1873.

Same concept, same name, new digs. Barringer had been named for Barringer Norton Tailors, which had resided in the original building. The Cooks wanted to safeguard that “historical value,” when they moved Robby says. “Houston tends not to value its history that much.”

During the contract conflict, the Cooks fought to keep Barringer from becoming history. “Last time, it just wasn’t our choice,” Robby says. “It felt like it was being cut short. It felt like it was just getting good.”

Chieko agrees. “We were only there for six months, but we were doing really well,” she says. “We had a lot of momentum and wanted to keep it going.”

Proximity and consistency were key to that objective. “We jumped back in with the same name and close to the original location, so everyone knew we were still around,” Chieko says.

They’d been around the block. Chieko and Robby have been working and running bars for several years; usually staying at one location for three to four years at a time. Overall, they have close to 10 years in management and 16-plus years in the bar industry overall.

They’ve been bartenders, accountants, bookkeepers, party planners.

Predictably, there was a lot of “being the trustworthy person,” working the most hours and taking the pay cut while owners pulled in most of the profits, Chieko says.

They had both helped other people open up bars, Robby says. “If we were going to do it for other people, why not just do it for ourselves?”

That’s not to say they did it the same way. They learned from every bar they worked in, compiling a mental list of what they liked and what they’d do differently.

“We could pick and choose,” Chieko says. “I’d decide ‘I definitely want a DJ,’ or ‘I’m not doing this’ in the imaginary bar in my head. All of that culminated into a real bar.”

The end result? Barringer — an upscale speakeasy featuring live music, aerialists, craft cocktails, and the classics.

It was the perfect time to open a drinkery like that in Houston. The bar scene was evolving, Cook says. Both the original and final location of Barringer were tucked away in a secret spot, but even a few years ago the busier part of Main “had just a handful of bars.”

OKRA had just opened, serving as “one of the first catalysts for bars that came out here,” Robby says.

Since then, literally dozens of bars and restaurants have opened in that historic area — along with restaurants and two new high-profile high-rises. “Everything we talked about four years ago, all that potential, it’s seemed to happen,” Robby says.

The craft cocktail scene took Houston by storm, bringing in a “greater quality of product,” he adds.

There’s a dark side to craft cocktails, though. With greater quality can come pretension, Chieko warns. That became apparent as the craft cocktail scene spread all over in Houston, LA, New York, and more.

While she’s thrilled that there’s been a movement away from “high fructose corn syrup in lime green and yellow colors,” and toward fresh juices, sometimes that leads to a hierarchy of drinks and customers.

“You can educate someone on the product without being pretentious about it,” Chieko says.

There needs to be room for the person who wants the perfect Manhattan — “the one made without vermouth that’s been sitting on a shelf for five years, oxidizing”—and the dude sitting next to him who just wants Coors Light.

Now, it’s circling back around to good product and approachability, Chieko believes. Service is key, and now “people are realizing that there’s space for everybody.”

She can make you classic cocktail the way it’s supposed to be made and make it for you as fast as possible, before turning to the customer behind you and getting their six vodka sodas and two Jager bombs.

“That’s were I like to fit in,” she says. Barringer has both Turbinado simple syrup and Fire Ball in its coolers.

The End and a Bar Couple’s New Beginning

No matter what you want, cocktail or Coors, plenty of its fans will feel the need to get to 108 Main Street on Friday. It’s an organic end, with their three-year lease expiring at the end of the year.

Robby Cook has signed on for a new job, starting as the mixologist for Southern Glazers South Texas. He’ll be “heading to the other side of the bar” at the major distribution company, but his job will “literally be to talk to the same people I’ve been talking to,” he says. He’ll be selling products, making cocktails, and working key accounts.

“We’re leaving by choice, not because there’s locks on the doors that aren’t ours.”

He was recently voted as President of the Bartenders Guild of Houston for another two years. Chieko Cook will join the council.

But first, she’ll sleep. “I’m going to learn how to sleep. I’ve been telling everyone, and everyone thinks it’s a joke,” she says.

Chieko and Robby have been married for four-and-a-half years and running the bar for four. Owning a bar is a labor of love, especially when it enters into your love life.

“We got married in May, opened up the bar the following January. Lost the space, found another space, got another bar. It’s time for us to take a step back,” Chieko says.

That doesn’t mean she’s cutting herself off from the bar scene in Houston. Chieko has worked at Rob’s Pub and Muldoon’s The Patio one or two days a week for more than five years. She’ll keep on there, “but I can’t pick up another job. That’s a rule for 2018.”

As for the end of 2017, “it’s time to go balls out,” she says.

With this next step, Chieko is reminded of a friend of theirs who goes out a lot. The pair has a pal who “likes to drink, and every time he leaves, he announces that he’s closed out his tab and that he’s leaving by choice.

“That’s what we’re doing,” Chieko says. “We’re leaving by choice, not because there’s locks on the doors that aren’t ours.”