The drinks list, and Yepez Vineyard

Drinks in Baytown range from a vineyard table to a frozen daiquiri drive-through, a live-music room, the marina and a quiet wine bar. Pick the mood first, because these places are not trying to solve the same night.

Use this guide well

- Check the venue's own hours before making a special drive. - Treat Yepez as a weekend outing, not a weekday fallback. - Use The Chute when live music is the point. - Use the Hyatt or marina side when you want the ship channel in the background. - For wine downtown, reserve when the venue recommends it. - Package-store rules are different from grocery beer-and-wine rules. - Do not assume a place called a bar keeps standard bar hours. - If the night depends on one venue, confirm before leaving home.

The fuller guide

Baytown drinks at home, at the VFW, and at a short list of places worth naming. No working brewery that we can confirm, still. Here's what there is.

Yepez Vineyard

The one place on this list that's a destination. A family-owned winery on the east side at 12739 FM 2354, an adobe-style tasting room, picnic tables on the grounds, wine made from locally grown Texas grapes and Texas fruit, and live music on weekends when they book it. The tasting room is open Friday and Saturday from 12 to 6 and Sunday from 2 to 7, year-round. Sunday afternoon is the hour. Three complimentary tastings come with a purchase, you can bring your own wine glasses, and picnicking is allowed, though outside alcohol is not. Children are welcome with an adult and leashed pets are welcome outdoors. Bring people from out of town. It's the place that ends the "Baytown?" conversation. The vineyard closes for private events, so check before the drive, and bring a chair if it's a music night. For the bigger picture, see wineries near Baytown.

The Dirty Daiquiri, 2007 North Main

The town's own drink. Frozen daiquiris with a drive-thru lane and a patio, closed Monday, open Tuesday to Thursday from 3 to 10, Friday and Saturday from noon to 11, and Sunday from noon to 10. The wedding cake daiquiri is the order if you're committing. Something with rum if you're not. The place you end up when the plan fell through, and the reason North Main has a night. Karaoke some nights, and the site says happy hour is every hour. Park in the lot. The drive-thru lane is not parking.

The Chute, 4537 Garth

The live-music bar: pool, drink specials, local nights, and the crowd that stays late. The venue's own site lists evening hours from Thursday to Saturday, running to 2 a.m., and describes it as an 18-and-over room. Not downtown, whatever the internet says. It's on Garth, with a lot. For a sports bar with more screens on the game, see where to watch the game.

Hooky Entertainment, 10550 I-10 Service Road

Hooky Entertainment Baytown has bowling, an arcade, IMAX and a bar inside it, open from 10 in the morning to midnight every day. The group night, the birthday for grown-ups, the place with something to do while the drinks come. Not a bar you'd sit at alone.

The waterfront drinks

The best view with a drink is on the marina. The lobby bar at the Hyatt Regency Baytown – Houston, 100 Convention Center Way, looks at the ship channel and the tankers, and the patio at Anchor & Hearth Woodfired Kitchen downstairs does the same over oysters and a wood-fired dinner, Tuesday to Saturday from 5 to 9, with reservations on Tock. Next door on the water, O'Neals Sportsbar and Grill at 2651 Highway 146 Business is the easier, sports-on version. For the light itself, see where to watch the sunset.

This is where a real slice of Baytown drinks, and it's friendlier than you'd guess.

Downtown and the halls

510 West at 510 W Texas Ave is the wine bar: a European-style room with a changing wine list, Belgian beers and charcuterie boards. Reservations are recommended, and the hours are posted differently in different places, with the venue's own site listing most evenings and the directory listing Thursday to Saturday, so confirm before you walk over. On show nights it turns into a speakeasy with aerial performers.

The VFW's bar is Canteen 912, run by Robert R. Tuck Post 912 at 8204 N Main. It posts hours of 3:30 to 10 Monday to Thursday, 3:30 to 11 on Friday and Saturday, and noon to 9 on Sunday, and it hosts live music, bingo and a monthly market. The post's site says the events are open to the public, but ask about the night you want. The Legion and the Elks, where they're active, are on the civic page. This is where a real slice of Baytown drinks, and it's friendlier than you'd guess.

Beer, wine, spirits to go

Liquor stores line Garth and Highway 146. The big two are Twin Liquors at 6300 Garth Rd, Suite 300, and Spec's Wines Spirits and Finer Foods at 4665 Garth Rd, Suite 800. Texas rules: package stores sell Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and are closed on Sunday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Grocery and convenience stores can sell beer and wine from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday to Friday, until 1 a.m. on Saturday night, and from 10 a.m. to midnight on Sunday.

A brewery, a cocktail bar, and the rest

A brewery inside the city limits: none that we can confirm. The Dirty Bay Beer Company on West Texas Avenue carried the name, and a review site now marks it closed, so we are not counting it. The nearest big beer list is up 146 in Mont Belvieu at Craft 96 Draught House + Kitchen, 9209 Eagle Dr, with 63 craft-beer taps and more than 45 bottles of wine, open 11 to 9 Monday to Saturday and 11 to 8 on Sunday. The nearest cocktail bar is also in Mont Belvieu: Coctel Lounge at 10857 Eagle Dr, closed Monday and open late on Friday and Saturday. A cocktail bar downtown is still the open slot, and the first one here gets the top of this page.

Yepez, Sunday, a little after two, a glass of the merlot, a table under the trees, and whoever they've booked to play. Bring the person who said "Baytown?" like that. They'll stop.

Before you go

- Yepez is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday only; the tasting room closes Monday to Thursday except for events, so confirm on its page. - The Chute is 18 and over and keeps evening hours, Thursday to Saturday, so it isn't a daytime stop. - Sunday is short for drinks: package stores are closed all day, grocery beer and wine starts at 10 a.m., and bars serve from noon, or from 10 a.m. if food comes with the drink. - The Dirty Daiquiri is closed on Mondays. - 510 West wants a reservation and has conflicting hours online, so message ahead. - Hooky and Anchor & Hearth are the two easiest places to pair a drink with food.

Questions people ask

Is there a winery in Baytown? Yepez Vineyard, on FM 2354, open Friday to Sunday, with tables under the trees and music some weekends. Is there a brewery in Baytown? None that we can confirm. Craft 96 in Mont Belvieu has 63 taps. Where is the best bar in Baytown? The Dirty Daiquiri for the town's own drink, The Chute on Garth for live music, the Hyatt's lobby bar for the view, and 510 West for wine. Can you buy liquor on Sunday in Texas? Not at a package store. Beer and wine at the grocery store start at 10 a.m.

En español

Bebidas en Baytown: el viñedo Yepez (mesas en los terrenos, cata, música algunos fines de semana; abierto viernes, sábado y domingo); el Dirty Daiquiri en North Main (daiquiris congelados, autoservicio, karaoke); The Chute en Garth (música en vivo, mayores de 18); Hooky en la I-10 (bolos y bar); el bar del Hyatt frente al canal; 510 West (vino) y el VFW. No hay cervecería confirmada. Ley de Texas: las licorerías cierran los domingos; cerveza y vino en el supermercado desde las 10 de la mañana.