Houston has never been immune to bar fads. Over the past decade and change, the city has been enamored with dress codes, gastropubs, craft cocktail laboratories and enough faux icehouses with puppies panting on the porch to fill a clickbait slideshow.

These days, bars with activities are all the rage. There’s one with a Ferris wheel. Another with a soccer field. There are bars with playgrounds. And there are bars with funky furniture that’s more fun to talk about, or share online, than to sit on.

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It’s enough to send some Houstonians back into the bars of yore, where a stiff pour and a well-worn bar top retain pride of place and there isn’t a Jenga block in sight.

Houston bar owner Brad Moore calls these bars places for “purposeful drinking.”

Moore’s bars were all born old, it seems, from Heights roadhouse Big Star Bar to Captain Foxheart’s Bad News Bar & Spirit Lodge along Main Street. They came pre-weathered, cobbled together to form nests for serious drinkers, with no artifice to hide behind.

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“I like drinking in bars where the scene is more purposeful,” Moore says. “I like the ‘Let’s get a few in us and talk about forming a band or leading a revolution’-type places. Our founding fathers would have met at Rudyard’s, probably.”

He’s also noticed the surge of destination bars that feel more like adult playgrounds with cute lighting and swings built for Instagram Boomerangs.

“Most of the playground-type bars we see are populated by the pleated-khaki-and-golf-hat crowd, and there is less Tom Waits on the jukebox,” Moore says.

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Certified dive bars and icehouses exist in another plain. Books have been written about Houston’s dives, like Lone Star Saloon and The Rose Garden. Our icehouses, some surviving for nearly a century, are seen as unicorns for withstanding decades of fads like Zima and Smirnoff Ice.

Ryan Clark, co-owner of downtown’s Houston Watch Company, which opened in 2015, spent his 20s drinking all over the city, always finding himself attracted to bars older than he was. When the space came open inside the lobby of the Bayou Lofts he and co-owner Erik Bogle knew that the former early-20th-century watch company would be a great fit for the project they had in mind.

“I traveled quite often in the oil patch before we opened and I had developed a fondness for really great hotel lobby bars,” Clark says. “We see ourselves as a neighborhood bar, and a big chunk of our customers live or work downtown.”

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Lawyers, fellow bartenders and high-rise professionals can all be found at Houston Watch Company on any given night. Even a few Houston Astros have sat down at the bar, but Clark won’t say who or how long their beards were.

Clark totally gets the thrill of bars like Truck Yard (with a Ferris wheel out back) or the El Segundo Swim Club (with a full bar and pool) in the Second Ward. They just aren’t for him anymore. Bars where “play” is emphasized as part of the experience feels new to Clark, but he gets the appeal.

“I guess I would say that when I was 21, having 80 whiskeys to choose from was less exciting than, say, attractive people drinking poolside,” Clark says. “I do think it’s interesting that the 'athleisure' trend is starting to show up in bars.”

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Rebecca Allen, 29, is an avowed fan of old-school bars, the type that fictional ad executives Don Draper or Roger Sterling would imbibe. She can be found most weekends at Grand Prize, La Carafe or Warren’s Inn.

“If I can get to know the staff somewhere and be guaranteed a place to sit and an affordable drink, I’m in,” Allen says. Sundown Saloon is her favorite hiding spot because it doesn’t have the youngest crowd, and the strange stories and clientele keep her coming back.

“I think my real struggle with the extracurricular bars is that they are too appealing to the masses and in turn get way too crowded and expensive,” Allen says. “Sadly, there is such a large audience for an Instagram-worthy moment these days that they are just getting bigger.”

We asked Clark if there is such a thing as the ultimate Houston bar, a place that should be in every cookie-cutter travelogue written about the Bayou City.

“Part of what’s great about Houston is not having to choose,” Clark says before changing course. “But it’s Poison Girl.”

Poison Girl is high on our list, too. But it’s not the only bare-bones bar worth appreciating. Here are our ten spots that are a fine, traditional antidote to the latest in bar trends.

Warren’s Inn

307 Travis

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away from the quest for page views, Warren’s was the place to find grizzled crime reporters drinking with commiserating detectives. These days those in the know come here for famously strong pours and a swampy jukebox.

Grand Prize

1010 Banks

One of Montrose’s most beloved slippery slopes (meaning two drinks usually turn into seven) since 2010, Grand Prize always has a kind concoction in the frozen machine and Motörhead oozing from the jukebox.

Houston Watch Company

913 Franklin

Housed in the lobby of the Bayou Lofts, this is where Houston’s best bartenders go to get away from the likes of you, and to plot their next intoxicating pour.

Catbirds

1336 Westheimer

Hearkening back to the Montrose of the ’90s, you can duck in here on a slammed Saturday and still feel like you’re hiding out. Not much has changed here since 1995, before some of the regular patrons were even born.

Reserve 101

1201 Caroline

Don’t be daunted by the formidable spectrum of the whiskey selection here. Ask nicely and within two drinks a bartender will convert you to something that you’ll still be drinking at your retirement party. Head next door to Dirt Bar for a Rim Job shot in between drinks for the ultimate experience.

Public Services Wine and Whisky

202 Travis

We’re pretty sure we spied the ghost of Daniel Plainview here one night scowling at some newfangled oil bros wearing flip flops.

Poison Girl

1641 Westheimer

PG took up the mantle of My First Indie Rock Bar after the Proletariat finally closed off Richmond. The sign behind the bar that implores customers to drink like adults should be mandatory decor at bars all over the city, if not an unofficial motto.

Leon’s Lounge

1006 McGowen

Now in its third incarnation at the same address since the late 1940s, Leon’s Lounge is the dimly lit antidote to Midtown bars and their Bruno Mars remixes and Snapchat mating rituals. True deviants have mastered the art of having two tabs simultaneously open here and at Mongoose vs Cobra across the street.

Next Door Bar

2020 Waugh

The dark horse on this list, NDB’s specialty is loud metal with a shot of Jameson and a cold bottle of Lone Star. Be careful here or you might join a stoner metal band by accident. Before bellying up to the bar, head next door to Rudyard's for a cheeseburger and a pint of craft beer. Your tomorrow self will thank you.

La Carafe

813 Congress

Housed inside one of Houston’s oldest buildings, La Carafe only serves beer and wine, but the historic spirits in the walls provide enough ambience to make up for a lack of firewater. In a city where “old” means built in the 1980s, we will take any opportunity we get to drink in a building with a Texas Historical Marker out front.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Lola’s Depot, 2327 Grant: It’s like if Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino directed a bar together.

Tongue-Cut Sparrow, 310 Main: Impress your date by opening a strange door in The Pastry War and walking into a bar with only 25 seats; pray your date doesn’t ask for Red Bull.

Dirt Bar, 1209 Caroline: With Toyota Center and the House of Blues nearby you might find yourself ordering a drink next to a rock star.

Boondocks, 1417 Westheimer: The happy hour here is a good, cheap pre-game activity before heading over to Anvil Bar & Refuge across the street.

Lil’ Danny Speedo’s Go Fly a Kite Lounge, 823 Dumble: The east end’s own Regal Beagle, the frozen drinks will make you see that life is a ball again.

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message