The Refinery Burgers & Whiskey is currently in the process of moving past its oil theme dependency and rebranding to pay homage to a different set of Gulf Coast-al tropes: the new name of the joint at 702 W. Dallas St. will be South Bank Seafood Bar, and a menu including some Asian and Cajun-Creole nods is purportedly in the works.
The patio in front of the 2-spot retail strip (which the restaurant shares with barber and beardwrangler Shave) has been getting dressed up and expanded as part of the remodel. And just this morning, a reader caught sight of what may be preparations to slice a service-window-shaped hole into the shipping container now sitting out front:
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Photos: Swamplot inbox
Habitat Alteration at Downtown’s Edge
This should be a welcomed addition; I hope they are successful. We have enough pizza joints, taco joints, and Mexican restaurants, no matter where you go.
This place reminds me of how I’m always late to the party. I usually hear about some trendy place like “Refinery Burger” (as we call it in my office building nearby) a year or more after it hits the Houston scene. So I try it out for the first time, and mostly like it, right before it closes down and gets converted into some new fadster hangout.
It’s a tough spot for a bar or restaurant until the mysterious day in the future when the Pierce Elevated is gone, though. That gawdawful loud freeway crossing is a deterrent for people to casually go there from downtown, and the only other bar on that side is Tom’s. Plus, the proximity to the projects puts people off, and it’s not a great walk from the Gray/Bagby party strip.
Seefood at the Bank? – Dumb, if not false adertising, and dreadfully misleading. But then again, we have been trained to look for sports and recreation articles at article-less ACADEMY, so it may just be a matter of time before we head to the Bank for crab, shrimp, fish and chips, and think nothing of the abundent absurdity. Just don’t bring your Academy Guns lest you be mistaken for a Bank robber.
I disagree Chris C. If the food is good people will come no matter the location.