Donna's, a cozy new cocktail bar in Houston's Heights from restaurateur Bobby Heugel and bartender Jacki Schromm, quietly slipped open over Thanksgiving weekend and has been packed ever since. The partners pitch the spot as a kind of house party, the sort of place that can get rowdy on weekend nights and mellow out during the week. The room is compact and deliberately social, built for martinis and music rather than big plates of food.
As reported by Community Impact, Donna's has taken over the former Ready Room space at 2626 White Oak Drive and keeps long hours, staying open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily. The project is a partnership between Heugel, the Anvil owner and principal of the Thorough Fare hospitality group, and Schromm, who named the bar after her grandmother. Community Impact also notes that the bar opened in late November and that on-site parking is limited.
Design, music and the Jacki's Martini
According to CultureMap Houston, the partners teamed up with Brittany Vaughn of Garnish Design to carve the retro-styled space into two zones: a main bar with high-top tables and a living-room-style section with a couch and a booth. The opening cocktail list, created by Schromm, highlights the Jacki's Martini, a 50-50 mix of gin with Cocchi Americano and Dolin Blanc vermouth, which she describes as more "sessionable" than a traditional martini.
CultureMap Houston also reports that Chicago-based Uncanned installed a vintage stereo system with a reel-to-reel deck and a turntable so the bar can spin albums on select nights, and that Austin-based curator Keli Hogsett of CoCollect sourced the room's contemporary art.
Where to park and what to expect
Street parking along White Oak is usually fairly accessible, but Donna's has only a handful of on-site spots. A nearby pay lot or a rideshare are both realistic options, according to Community Impact. The partners say they plan to program music nights and will let guests bring in their own records on certain evenings, so patrons should expect a speaker-forward vibe rather than a whisper-quiet martini bar. Donna's is open daily from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m., positioning it as a neighborhood hangout from late afternoon through last call.
Bobby Heugel's involvement ties Donna's into a broader Houston hospitality playbook. His Thorough Fare group operates spots such as Squable and Theodore Rex, and teaming up with a veteran bartender like Schromm fits a current local trend of chef and bar collaborations. Eater Houston has previously noted Heugel's projects across the city, and the team says Donna's will lean on drinks, music programming and a small footprint rather than full-scale dining. If you go, expect a compact, lively room and a martini you might want to linger over.
