If you only have one evening to feel what Houston is like when it relaxes, spend it in Montrose. The neighborhood runs roughly between Allen Parkway, US-59, Shepherd Drive and the edge of Midtown, and its main drag, Westheimer Road, is lined with restaurants and cafes in houses built before World War I. It has long been the center of LGBTQ life in Houston and still hosts much of the city's Pride energy. The quieter blocks hold an internationally known surprise that costs nothing: the Menil Collection's gray-clapboard campus, with its main museum, the Cy Twombly Gallery, the Menil Drawing Institute and Dan Flavin's light installation at Richmond Hall, all free. A short walk away, the Rothko Chapel opened in 1971 as a hushed room for 14 dark, luminous Rothko canvases, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk reflected in the pool outside.
What to expect
- The Menil has visitor lots at 1515 West Alabama and next to Richmond Hall.
- Street parking on Yupon, Branard and Sul Ross, around the Menil campus, is free.
- No rail here; METRO buses run on Richmond, and BCycle bike-share docks dot the area.
- On weekend nights, street parking near the Westheimer restaurants gets tight.
What to do
- Spend an afternoon on the free Menil campus
- Sit in silence inside the Rothko Chapel
- Eat and bar-hop your way down Westheimer after dark
Where to eat nearby
- Uchi
- Bludorn
- Nobie's
What to see
- The Menil Collection
- Rothko Chapel
- Cy Twombly Gallery
- Free; open Wednesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.Menil Collection admission
- Opened 1971; 14 Rothko paintings; freeRothko Chapel
- Restaurants and cafes in renovated pre-World War I housesWestheimer Road