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Kellen Sampson spent his childhood idolizing his father Kelvin, hoping to work with him. There’s a lot of schools that have a great basketball team, but we have a great program.” “That’s blasphemy.” He credits the success to others - like Tilman Fertitta, for whom the school’s new arena is named - who bought into his vision that UH could become a winning team by building state-of-the-art facilities. “When I first got here, everyone knew there was one place you never took new recruits: the arena where they’d play their games,” says Sampson, 66. Since Kelvin Sampson’s arrival at UH in 2014, the Cougars have risen meteorically to become the NCAA’s third-winningest team of the last five years, claiming four conference championships and, in 2021, making a Final Four appearance. At his behest, the Cougars also built a $25 million training center, which Kelvin calls a ‘Taj Mahal.’ Kelvin Sampson and son Kellen are photographed at the Fertitta Center, one example of Kelvin’s push for great new facilities. Stay tuned for more on Hotel Lucine as the summer opening nears! Their joint hospitality group, Thorough Fare, will also operate the hotel’s pool bar, rooftop bar and other restaurants. It’ll open later this year in the new Hotel Lucine, a modernized 1960s-era motel on the Seawall, proffering “French-inspired cuisine” with a Gulf-seafood focus. Meanwhile, Heugel and chef Justin Yu, who have previously teamed up on Squable and Better Luck Tomorrow, just announced they’ll be opening The Fancy in Galveston. Cocktails in the Excessives section are even more imaginative and made with premium spirits and other high-end ingredients.
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For the whiskey sour afficionado, The Eastern Non-Sour is a Japanese whiskey sour made with a seven-citrus cordial. If you like bubbles, the Hall Pass made with gin, lemon, chamomile, gooseberry and Champagne, might be your drink.
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Its 20 cocktails are divided into three sections: Originals, Classics & Riffs, and Excessives. Getting thirsty? Refuge’s drinks start with a back bar of 200 spirits – all the newest amaros, modern gins and European brandies. The new bar is set above and behind Anvil, in the second-floor area that Heugel first fashioned into Penny Quarter, which closed at the outset of the pandemic. With only 50 seats, Refuge will follow a similar path as Heugel’s former Tongue-Cut Sparrow: a dark, lamp-lit nest for serious cocktails where every detail has been thoughtfully curated from the elegant glassware to the soundtrack and dream team staff. Calling it his “best bar yet,” Bobby Heugel, the bartender who helped fuel Houston’s modern craft cocktail movement, has opened Refuge, a new bar located in the same building where Anvil debuted in 2009.