A SNARL of superhighways and skyscrapers, Houston is easily dismissed as a corporate campus  home to Fortune 500 giants like Halliburton and Waste Management and a company formerly known as Enron (currently known as Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation). And the view from an airplane isn’t exactly inviting: a flat and featureless plain of generic towers sprawling into the horizon. But in recent years, this Texas megalopolis has been inching back to its urban core. Cool art galleries have sprung up in once blighted neighborhoods. Midcentury modern buildings have been saved and restored. And former factories have been turned into buzzing restaurants and bars. Yes, oil money still reigns supreme, but it now competes with culture.

Friday

5:30 p.m.

1) PARK IT DOWNTOWN

Houston may be a sea of office towers, but this subtropical city is also surprisingly green. Hundreds of parks carpet the city, and one of the newest  a 12-acre park called Discovery Green (discoverygreen.com)  is quickly becoming the heart of the city’s still sleepy downtown. Opened in 2008, the park serves as a true public space; elderly couples stroll around the artificial lake as toddlers roll down grassy knolls. For sunset cocktails, follow the area’s young professionals to the Grove (1611 Lamar Street; 713-337-7321; thegrovehouston.com), a modern restaurant inside the park, which offers treehouse-like views of the skyline.

8 p.m.

2) GULF OF TEX-MEX

The city’s young chefs are working overtime to step out of the shadow of Texas barbecue. Among the most feted these days is Bryan Caswell, the chef and owner of Reef (2600 Travis Street; 713-526-8282; reefhouston.com), a seafood restaurant with a Southern twist. Housed in a former car dealership with soaring windows and ceilings, the restaurant creates a dramatic space for winning dishes like roasted grouper with corn pudding and grilled peach ($25). On a recent evening the dining room was humming with an eclectic crowd that included men in white suits eating ceviche, couples on dates and well-dressed families celebrating birthdays.

10 p.m.

3) SLICE OF AUSTIN

Sports bars and mega-clubs fuel much of the city’s night life, but a clutch of down-to-earth bars can be found along the tree-lined streets of Montrose. Poison Girl (1641 Westheimer Road; 713-527-9929; myspace.com/poisongirlbar) has pinball machines, a long shelf of whiskeys and a dirt-packed backyard jammed with 20-somethings in vintage Wranglers and Keds. Down the street is Anvil Bar and Refuge (1424 Westheimer Road; 713-523-1622; anvilhouston.com), which styles itself as a classic cocktail bar, though it can feel like a meat market on weekends. A handful of gay bars are also nearby, including the oldie but still rowdy 611 Hyde Park Pub (611 Hyde Park Boulevard; 713-526-7070).