New Rice Village Cocktail Haven Raises the Bar On Colorful Drinks — Lee’s Transforms a Wine Bar With Chef Power and a Special 10 pm Reveal

Perched above Local Foods in Rice Village, in the former home of restaurateur Benjy Levit’s popular restaurant Benjy’s and its second-floor wine bar, is the latest offering from Levit and his Local Foods Group team: the cozy Lee’s. Yes, the  wine bar known as Lee’s Den has come back to life. It is now named simply Lee’s, pivoting from wine to full cocktails.

The sophisticated speakeasy, which was named for Levit’s mother, complements Milton’s American Trattoria, which is a homage to his late father Milton Levit. But this is more than just a stylish setting. Levit has enlisted the preeminent leaders of Houston’s cocktail and wine scene to create tinctures that have people buzzing.

Director of bars Máté Hartai came to fame during the early-2000s craft-cocktail movement in Dallas and worked under barkeep Bobby Heugel to evolve Houston’s bar scene as part of Tongue Cut Sparrow and the bar’s transformation to Refuge. Lee’s director of wine, award-winning sommelier Mark Sayre, most recently served as beverage director at Goodnight Hospitality, leading the service and wine program at the Michelin-starred March restaurant.

Each strives to sync the drink and food at the new Lee’s with talented toque Seth Siegel-Gardner — an alum of Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit, Gordon Ramsay’s London Hotel and Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck before he served as chef/owner of the former Houston restaurants The Just August Project and Pass and Provisions.

Reserve a table or grab a seat at the bar in the dimly lit space, where servers don bold blue striped tees and diners are cosseted in comfortable gray velvet banquettes pulled up to tables topped with fantasy brown marble. Brittany Vaughan of Garnish Design reimagined the aerie with chrome-accented ebony-colored wainscotting, soft black leather accents, gray velvet and directional lighting.

Lee’s Hidden Drinks

A section of the menu called The Decadents isn’t visible until after 10 pm when the lighting and an acrylic sleeve reveal offerings that were previously hidden.

The new Lee’s menu offers a selection of house cocktails that Hartai calls a study in color ($16 each). Pale Blue Eyes is an azure-hued take on the old fashioned, created with blue-corn bourbon and bitters then topped with an oversized square ice cube embossed with “Lee’s,” the apostrophe formed by a corn kernel. The King in Yellow is made with the French bittersweet aperitif Suze and quinquina, an aromatized wine. It’s lit from within care of a glowing tea light mixed amid the nugget ice.

Globe-trotting cocktail aficionados might recognize offerings in the Bar Friends & Family category ($16 each). Maybe you’ve heard of New York City’s notable Employees Only. Its bartender Jason Kosmas is the inspiration for the Yellow Jacket, a take on the classic cocktail the Alaska, made here with elderflower, yellow chartreuse, reposado tequila and orange bitters, served in a long-stemmed gimlet glass.

For those who desire a cheeky nip in a few short sips, head to The Smalls menu, where each diminutive cocktail is $8. Selections range from The Little Duke, a single serving of the legendary Dukes London hotel martini, to the playful I’m a Little Teapot, where a miniature teapot contains a clarified milk punch tea with bite-sized chewy boba tapioca balls.

A half-dozen wines are well priced at $16 each, from Chablis to trendy Crémant de Loire (legend has it that when Thomas Jefferson died, they found dozens of bottles of Cremant de Loire in his wine cellar) and a juicy pinot noir from Willamette Valley, where some of the best are grown.

Regardless of when you arrive, don’t miss chefs Siegel-Gardner and Kent Domas’ small bites, from fries served with a Calabrian aioli ($9) and crab rolls served on buttered and toasted rolls and topped with smoked trout roe ($16) to the pressed tigelle sandwich, a house-made flatbread similar to an English muffin layered with ham, sliced apples, honey and taleggio cheese ($11). End on a sweet note with the brown butter ice cream sandwich with spiced cookie ($5).

Lee’s is located at 5117 Kelvin Drive. It is open Wednesdays through Saturdays from 4 pm to midnight.