David P.
Yelp
I've been coming to Powder Keg for +2 years now, and it used to be a 5/5 place to hang out. Now, it's hovering a 1/5 or 2/5 so this long overdue review averages out to a 3/5.
Happy hour is Open-6PM on weekdays. $5 drafts, $4 frozen drinks, $4 shots, reportedly. The hours are on their site but the specials aren't really posted anywhere that I noticed. They also have a $3 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or "Brown Bag Special" that's a random beer for $3 anytime. I've gotten 20+ of these over the years and it's anything from a PBR, Coors, pickle or jalapeno beer, or a nice draft IPA if you get lucky.
There's tons of parking and the bar is fully open. Usually come to hang out when walk-in is available on the volleyball courts. They have an online reservation system at $50/hour, but accept walk-ins while there are no reservations. In my experience, larger groups tend to book for an hour or two and then stay on the court and not let anyone else take it. Smaller groups are usually happy to rotate in games with other groups.
The hours were recently updated, but were incorrect for a while. Some new bartenders would close the bar whenever and rudely turn the lights on and off on the volleyball courts without coming to mention anything. They don't post holiday hours or any notice on closures.
What really drops my score of Powder Keg is the new policy on booking courts on the same day. This is not possible on their online reservation system, so we came with 12 people expecting to walk in and agreed with another group to take the court after their reservation ended. As soon as we start playing, another group comes by and says they paid the bartender cash to reserve the court on the spot and kick us off. Cool, that's not anywhere in the policy. We let it slide and asked to reserve a different court, at which point the bartender said that they were all booked. This was blatantly incorrect, as we asked another group if they had a reservation and they said "no" and allowed us to play in. So, the new bartenders are clearly discriminatory.
Lastly, the kids after 9PM rule is strongly dependent on who is bartending. I've seen kids after 9 often and some bartenders turn a blind eye, whereas another threatened to report my friend to the police if he brought his children again.
Sometimes, they host cool events and bring live music. I've always seen people have fun at those.
Overall, I will still come to Powder Keg as an option for sand volleyball in West Houston but the new bartending staff is much ruder than before.
Shoutout to Amir when he was bartending.
+ 4 Sand Volleyball courts that are well illuminated at night
+ Pet friendly
+ Walk-in volleyball accepted
- Inconsistent bartending staff
- Court reservation cost