A 2-acre patio bar and entertainment venue has opened near White Oak Music Hall near the Heights.
Woodland Social, at 313 E. Woodland St., aims to create a stand-out spot for good times in a sprawling, relaxed setting. Oh, and the bar is large enough to have three regulation-size sand volleyball courts.
The new bar is the brainchild of the three brothers behind Houston-based Piper’s Hospitality Group, which developed Houston dining concepts including Preslee’s Southern Good Eatery and Piper’s Burgers, as well as the former Piper’s BBQ & Beer and the soon-to-open Piper’s Cantina.
The brothers also have the support of Oak Music Hall developer Will Garwood of W2 Development, which is also based in Houston. Garwood is the bar’s landlord, as well as a financial partner, said Brandon Piper, co-owner of Piper’s Hospitality Group alongside brothers Justin and West.
“We are excited to be offering something completely different in Woodland Heights,” Brandon Piper said in an interview. “There really isn’t another venue of our size, scope and location to compare it to. And it’s great that it is so close to White Oak Music Hall.”
How Woodland Social stands out
Everything about the bar is huge in scale.
Woodland Social’s 8,000-square-foot main seating area features an 80-foot bar capable of seating 32 guests, 21 75-inch TVs, 18-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows that can be opened and pushed aside to connect the bar to the patio.
The bar offers 20 beers and ciders on tap, a full spread of spirits and nine frozen cocktail machines. Additionally, the main seating area features a DJ booth, from which music can be pumped throughout the facility.
Guests can order one of five brick-oven pizza options, and the bar plans to expand its menu to offer brunch options in the coming weeks.
“Pizza isn’t really our bread and butter,” Brandon Piper said. “But we wanted to make sure that if people were hungry, they had something to eat.”
The patio was designed to be the bar’s show-stopping centerpiece, Brandon Piper said. It covers more than 15,000 square feet, 10,000 of which is turfed. For context, it takes more than 90 paces to travel from the front of the outdoor seating area to the back fence.
Guests can expect to find a host of outdoor seating options, ranging from picnic tables to hanging hammock swings.
Towering over the patio is a 20-foot LED screen, perfect for watching the March Madness tournament or catching an Astros game, Brandon Piper said.
At the patio’s center is a large oak tree that is surrounded by cabana-style seating. At some point, the bar may build a platform in the tree for a second DJ booth, Brandon Piper said.
“We’d love to have a circular staircase going up there to a DJ booth,” he said.
To one side of the patio are three sand volleyball courts, though Brandon Piper said he and his brothers plan to tear one out to create a turfed and fenced-in “kid’s zone,” complete with soccer goals and other sporting equipment.
“We want a place where kids can go to have fun, while still being within eyesight of their parents,” Brandon Piper said.
In the future, the bar also may convert another of the volleyball courts into a pickleball court, he said.
Woodland Social’s look and feel draws upon modern online culture with the goal of creating Instagram-able moments.
For example, the Piper brothers purchased a 12-foot metal sculpture of a revolver with a “pew pew” sign hanging from the barrel from a now-shuttered firearm store in the area.
The bar also has neon signs around the space and what can only be described as a wine cage, which was designed to cater to those wanting to take a selfie.
Indeed, even the ladies’ bathroom has neon signage that says, “You’re, like, so pretty.” The men’s restroom has its own green neon lighting but no such words of affirmation.
“We thought it would be fun to embrace the Instagram culture and provide moments, where guests can have fun with their friends,” Brandon Piper said.
Woodland Social’s humble origins
The building that now houses the main portion of Woodland Social was once home to a machinist’s shop and then was used for storage by a subsequent owner.
Brandon Piper said Garwood purchased the property a few years ago and had plans to partner with Sideout Volleybar to do something with the space, hence the volleyball courts.
However, those plans never came to fruition, so Garwood turned to the Piper brothers, with whom he had worked on a past project.
From there, the Pipers got to work about a year ago, doing most of the build-out themselves through their company, Piper Construction Group.
The building is now a far cry from what it once was. The Pipers removed the original steel ceiling beams and installed a series of skylights to bring more natural light into the space. The rear wall was torn out and glass doors were put in its place.
“We did all of our demo, welding and fabrication,” Brandon Piper said. “We installed the Brazilian teak wood on the ceilings and built all of the tables ourselves.”
So far, it appears the public is responding well to Woodland Social coming to the neighborhood, Brandon Piper said.
In the week and a half since it opened, the bar has stayed fairly busy, though Brandon Piper said he expects traffic to pick up once the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo subsides. The Piper brothers also want Woodland Social to become a venue for corporate gatherings and other events.
“We’re excited to have reached this point, where we can share our vision with the public,” he said. “We’re looking forward to more people coming out to enjoy some drinks, games and fun with their friends.”
Jeff Jeffrey
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