T K Bittermans

I love me some bittermans. It’s my neighborhood go to as its right down the street from me. It is a locals type bar that’s kinda small but that’s how I like it! It has an atmosphere all its own. Love it!

Dive dive dive dive dive
Dive dive dive dive dive dive dive
Dive dive Chicago
Da Bears Da Bears Ya
Da Bulls Da Bulls Da Bulls Ya
Da Cubs Da Cubbies

Small but nice. The staff is friendly and the bathrooms are pretty clean. Lots of regular customers from the neighborhood give this place a comfortable relaxed environment.

One of the best neighborhood bars. Small, locals, not loud, good service, and will put your sports games on for you.

It’s not the nicest place. The drinks are pretty cheap and the bartenders are generally quick. It has a nice outside area and patio. Perfect for a late night out with friends.

TK Bitterman’s is my favorite dive bar in Houston. They love the Cubs here but welcome everyone. Friendly staff and good pours. Love the Kennealy’s pizza that they bring in most days. Nice dart board too. If you’re looking for a casual place to have some drinks and relax with the locals, this is the spot.

This place is the worst if not close to it.
Rude, surly bartender. Occasionally rude patronage. Expensive drinks for quality of the bar. I have tried very, very hard to like this place because my friends live nearby and frequent it. But alas, I cannot in good faith recommend this bar to anyone who wants an outing that is pleasant and doesn’t involve masochism. On the plus side, it is a Chicago Cubs watch place, so its got that going for it.

Rude service, walked out after an eye roll for ordering a three-​ingredient drink.
A regulars-​only type of place filled with ordinary sports bros. Sad vibes of alcoholism and boredom there too.

It’s almost 2014 and can someone please call Bar Rescue! Dive bar?!?, no, more like stinky $hit hole. I’m sorry but this place sucks. It’s such a loser joint… yes a place where losers go to stink up the place with there 3 month old B.O. and sob drunken macabre stories of how their Daddy’s died fetching heroin for their prostitute mothers. Don’t believe me, then either you’re a stinky loser too or just in denial or stopped by accident like I unfortunately did. Take a whiff when you walk in. I couldn’t get the miasma of rank off of me. It was like having a beer in a petri dish of Aspergillus niger. A DUMP with no redeeming qualities until you innoculate and ozonate this reeking stenchole of a «bar».

There aren’t many bars along West Alabama — except for West Alabama Ice House … and then you have restaurant bars like Bocados, Triniti, Divino and so on … but TK Bitterman’s is the clear and only choice if you want a stiff drink in the area for cheap and without the need to «dress up.» Remember, WAI only has beer and wine.
TK’s is a serious hole, but in a good way. Dog-​friendly, pizza by the slice, darts, jukebox, locals-​only. i’m a fan.

I asked what beers they have … bartender listed of six. Only one (st. arnold’s) could be considered a microbrew. She adds «we never had all these fancy beers before»
Still a dive bar, not yet taken over by hipsters. Nothing special, but they have darts. It’ll be a cool spot in two years.

I would have never known about this place if I hadn’t randomly met some folks that were doing a bicycle pub crawl. It’s almost directly across the street from West Alabama Ice house but it’s incredibly easy to miss.
It’s also a dog friendly place if you’re out on the patio. Also the owner or manager seems to be a Cubs fan as there is an assortment of Chicago memorabilia like an Old Style Beer neon sign along with some assorted Cubbies stuff. I’m not sure if this is the «Cubs bar» though. And I didn’t check to see if they actually sold Old Style Beer. Is that stuff even available outside of the Chicagoland area?
Seems like decent enough place to grab a drink if you want a slower paced laid back type of locale. There wasn’t anything here that made it stand out as extraordinary but at the same time the service and atmosphere was good enough that I’d have no problems swinging by again.
3 stars is not a bad rating by any means. Like Unilocal says…3 stars is «A-​OK» and this place is indeed «A-​OK’ in my book.

Bitterman’s is a little neighborhood hang out. I literally walk here whenever I need a drink :-) very convenient. It has a very relaxed atmosphere. As mentioned by one of the Unilocalers — their beer selection is okay. Drinks are good enough to get that buzz you need after a long day.
Some nights you’d see some hippies here but it doesn’t bother me.

Great little dive bar that has been there forever. Driving by, you might miss it if you blink your eyes… but always worth a stop. Across from the West Alabama Ice House.

This is basically a neighborhood bar. They have a little bit of parking out front. Seating is mostly indoor– there are a couple tables outside but let’s be honest it’s right where the smoking is at.
They have good deals but their beer selection isn’t huge, and some of the beers are kind of expensive. The main plus is the chill atmosphere. They had it set up so you could play Wii sports the other day.
I would definitely come back but it’s not anything special.

Not bad, not bad at all.
Small, cozy and a patio too! TK Bitterman’s is one of those place’s I may have never known existed if it weren’t for the help of Unilocal!Or should I say Unilocalers insistent on continuing our Happy Hours.
We moseyed on over to TK’s after leaving West Alabama (approximately 50 feet) and joined the others for a round. The inside is pretty petite with a pool table in the back, a few booths and pub tables. The restrooms are teeny-​tiny and are not suited for the shy gal (hehe Eva) but still clean enough to get the job done. The prices are reasonable for beer, but mixed drinks were a tad pricey.
A few of us girls that decided to hang back for a bit and sat out on the front patio to enjoy a little more of the beautiful night. It’s a great little patio and perfect for conversation and people watching. It’s a great little dive bar, with a little personality.

I gotta admit, I had no idea what to expect outta this place. When it was suggested that we hit up the bar «across from WAIH» I was like ok, fine, whatever. But the simple fact is, I couldn’t see the place. Even as Clinton was like Dude, it’s right over there, I still couldn’t see it. Talk about hidden.
What do you make of a bar named TK Bittermans? For me, I immediately pictured a real stuffy environment or an old gentlemens smoking parlour. You know, «Hey Geeves, tell the Mrs. I’ll be down at TK Bittermans having a smoke old chum.» But alas, I wasn’t the driver, and had pretty much realized I had absolutely nothing else to do that Saturday evening, so why not.
Once inside however, I was completely blown away. I love a good dive bar. And, I was born in Chicago. This place combines both of those perfectly. There is a bunch of great Chicago sports memorabilia on the walls. Both teams. There is a digital jukebox though that looked a lil outta place. See, it’s a lil old school in there. The type of place where you can get a table in the back, and arrange that hit on your rivals turf, or other devious acts like out of an old gangster flick. It definitely is a great place to get hammered, you know, a real drinking bar. Definitely not pretentious, and not a place to be seen. I’ll be back here again soon, if I can find the damn place…

So why am I taking a star off from this great dive bar? I’m allergic to digital jukeboxes. Seriously. Achoo! Granted there really isn’t any room for a real juke box, and if it does get busy on certain nights, then I could understand the saving of space. But, how gross. If I’m going to have to endure carpet in a bar (stop me from going on a tangent here… please), I should at least be rewarded with a real jukebox full of amazing albums and a pool table. Now granted, with a pool table we would have needed to open a few windows to use the cues, but it would have been fun.
The things I really liked about this place included the sea of bar tables and stools, the regulars (one kept giving us the Mal Ojo), and the Chicago baseball paraphenalia on the walls. The bar is tiny and our small group easily congested the main travel artery of the bar with our bar stools. Not a problem since it was just us and a few regulars, but again, we kept getting the eyeball.
Also like the previous reviewers, I too will mention the Cubs and Sox. What is up with the love of Chicago baseball in Houston? Ernie’s and TK’s. Honestly, I like Sammy Sosa, Kerry Wood, Rogers Hornsby, Ernie Banks, and Harry Carey, but we’re in a town full of Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Roy Oswalt, Mike Scott, Nolan Ryan, and Milo Hamilton. (please note: my list could go on for another five paragraphs) Perhaps it’s because a majority of the Chicago players I listed above (sans Sosa and the announcer) were from Texas? Regardless, next time I go, I’m wearing my soon to be made «I heart Ausmus» tshirt.

The first two times I made it to Bitterman’s, West Alabama Ice House was too crowded or I forgot to bring cash. Diagonally across W. Alabama, Bitterman’s is an easy transition to make. Easy to miss, Bitterman’s may possible be the smallest bar in Houston. Seriously. You enter off of small porch on the front with two or three tables. It is a perfect «cave.» With the old-​school upholstered bar stools, from the «Regal Beagle» era, Saloon style doors on the ladies bathroom stall, and carpet on the floor, this place will take you back in time. There is Chicago sports memorabilia all over the walls, so I assume the owners have connections to the windy city and pull clientele with a similar affinity for the Cubs, Bulls, and Sox.
They always have a decent drink or beer special (s) up on the board. Yesterday was Sam Smith Winter Welcome for $ 4. Perfect choice for a chilly afternoon.
Put Bitterman’s on you list of dark, small neighborhood bars… perfect during the summer or a day when WAIH is too crowded.

My first response upon hearing the location of this place was «THERE’S A BAR THERE?!» I was told «it’s right across from West Alabama Ice House», which isn’t exactly true, because there’s an apartment complex there. And then when my friend pointed it out while we were passing by, all I saw was Cat’s Pause, which I am trying to avoid like the plague in my quest of NOT becoming a crazy cat lady. How did I never notice that there was a bar right next door? The signage is minimal, true, but you’d think after years of going down this stretch of W. Alabama I’d at least notice there was SOMETHING there.
The name’s just strange in and of itself. T. K. Bitterman’s? What, is it a refuge for angry old hags? It made me think of Elaine from Seinfeld’s boss, J. Peterman, and the really gross chain restaurant Sauceman’s from Tom Goes to the Mayor. Despite my overactive word association, it’s none of those things; it’s a pretty typical neighborhood sports bar that seems like an okay spot to catch a game.
We walked in around 10 on a Saturday night – combined with the friends we were meeting, our group probably made up half the clientele at the time. The bartender was friendly and quick, and the prices seemed pretty moderate. There’s Chicago baseball memorabilia all over the place – not just Cubs stuff, but White Sox too. There was a Rockets game on one of their TVs, and in a back room they had a Wii set up, which was kind of cool and unique.
As for the bad: there’s carpet on the floors, which always skeeves me out in a bar – Lord knows how many pints have been spilled and how few times the Rug Doctor has come through. The space is very small, and by midnight it had suddenly filled out, making it hard to even move around comfortably. Though it might be a good place to watch a game, if I’m going to sit there for a few hours I’m going to need something to munch on to balance out my alcohol consumption, which makes several neighborhood places more attractive than Bitterman’s.
Though I’m impressed that there was a bar in Montrose that I didn’t even know existed, I realize now why I never noticed it: the place is totally nondescript and I likely won’t be back of my own volition. But hey, at least I get to feel superior when my other friends don’t know where Bitterman’s is!