Houston’s Favorite British Pub is Closing For Good After the World Cup: Eight Year Run Ends Amid Rising Rents — You’ll Need to Find a New Haven for Shepherd’s Pie

So much for Long Live the Queen. Richmond Avenue favorite The Queen Vic Pub & Kitchen is shuttering for good this Sunday. This monarch is ending her reign due to irreconcilable differences with the landlord.

In a sort of bittersweet sendoff, the owners of Queen Vic chose July 15 as the date of their swan song because it marks the last day of the World Cup. A British gastropub through and through, Queen Vic has always been the place for frenzied soccer fans.

“We were hoping England would make it, but they bowed out,” co-owner Rick Di Virgilio laughs. “It just seemed like a good call. This wasn’t a rash decision, it really was months in the planning. We didn’t want to pull it out from under the guests.”

The World Cup finale’s 10 am start time means Queen Vic will have altered hours, opening at 9 am and closing at 3 pm on its final day.

Queen Vic built a loyal following with its extensive beer collection, craft cocktails and British-Indian bites for a good eight years. But now it’s last call.

“I love the whiskey they serve, especially in that atmosphere,” regular Charles says.

Queen Vic’s Legacy

For the Queen Vic originals, the Sachin Tendulkar drink (named for a famous cricket player) is a mainstay. It’s a boozy take on the Arnold Palmer with Earl Grey tea-infused vodka, lemon and honey syrup. And you can’t forget Queen Vic’s Manhattan, the 1788 smoked rye cocktail.

“We went to New York and did a field trip to many of the cocktail bars there. In 2010, it was sort of the emergence of craft cocktails. An expansion has happened since then,” Di Virgilio says.

“We were definitely one of the first ones in town to go in that direction. Very much into the mixology format, making our own syrups and infusions and using proper drink-making methods.”

Di Virgilio and his wife and business partner Shiva Patel wanted to go for the whole package, committing to expertly crafted drinks alongside chef-quality food.

You can credit Patel with the Indian classics, made with the Gujarati cooking methods. “Her mom is an excellent cook and taught her a lot. I learned a lot from her mom as well,” Di Virgilio says. “I used my experience to kind of update it, add a little more of a restaurant twist to it.”

Case in point: the Queen’s Curry Scotch egg wrapped in Lamb Keema.

“Customers are asking where to get that now. Saying ‘you can’t take this dish away from me!’,” Di Virgilio says. So he plans to do Queen Vic pop-ups and specials at Oporto, the couple’s other Houston restaurant.

For now, it’s a way to tide over regulars and prevent them from going into Shepherd’s Pie withdrawal. In future, they could incorporate some of these dishes into Oporto’s menu permanently.

But it could never be quite the same.

“I like the staff, Dan and Will. You can come in yourself and you just have a good time with them. They have time for everyone,” another regular named Kevin tells PaperCity.

No one holds it quite as dear as Di Virgilio and Patel. The two came up with the concept for Queen Vic and launched it as newlyweds, fresh back from London.

“Shiva and I kind of grew our marriage there,” Di Virgilio says.

Even the barebones of the building mean something to them.

“It was the perfect place for a gastropub,” Di Virgilio says. “The spirit of the gastropub has always been taking over an old building and turning it into a great food establishment. My father and I gutted it out, just sort of built it from scratch with our own hands.

“My father has since passed away. There’s a lot of sentimental value there.”

But make no mistake — the doors to Queen Vic may be shutting for good, but there’s still hope for the monarchy.

“We hope to open Queen Vic again in some capacity. We have another concept in mind, more of an all-day cafe situation,” Di Virgilio says. This potential new bar is envisioned as a sort of Euro-Portuguese spot rather than a British pub.

“Whatever we do, it’ll be something, but I don’t think we could ever recreate Queen Vic exactly as it was,” Di Virgilio says.

And you probably won’t see anything Queen Vic related in Upper Kirby again. “We just moved to The Heights, if that’s any indication,” Di Virgilio says.

For now, Di Virgilio and Patel are taking a step back. It’s time to take off the crown, but it might just be waiting for them in the future.