Tom's Watch Bar Houston Grew 19.7%. Two Event Months Did 95% of It.

Shannon McNiel became sole CEO on Oct. 21. The chain's only Texas bar sits in a suite with a revenue record back to 2009, and its two biggest months on record fell in the months of the World Baseball Classic and the FIFA Fan Festival.

Shannon McNiel became sole CEO on Oct. 21. The chain's only Texas bar sits in a suite with a revenue record back to 2009, and its two biggest months on record fell in the months of the World Baseball Classic and the FIFA Fan Festival.

Key takeaways

  • Tom's Watch Bar Houston, the chain's only Texas location, reported $2.37 million in beverage revenue from October 2025 through September 2026, up 19.7%.
  • March and June 2026 produced 95% of that gain. Those months brought World Baseball Classic pool play, a Houston Cougars Sweet 16 game and the FIFA Fan Festival behind the George R. Brown Convention Center.
  • Without March, June and the festival's July run, the Houston bar was down 3.4%. The 55 venues around it were flat over the same nine months.
  • August and September fell 27% while those neighbors grew, and August was the bar's lowest full month since opening. Nothing in the filings explains the drop.

One Texas bar

Shannon McNiel co-founded Tom's Watch Bar in 2014 and ran it as president and COO. According to the company's Oct. 21 announcement, he had shared the CEO title with Brooks Schaden since November 2024 and now holds it alone. Schaden returned to SIF Partners, the investment firm that owns the chain. Nation's Restaurant News reported that McNiel spent four years as a Texas Roadhouse managing partner and nearly 18 as a regional VP with Darden and Cheddar's.

Tom's lists 18 venues on its website, and only one is in Texas, a 6,600-square-foot bar at GreenStreet in downtown Houston with a patio facing Toyota Center. By reported beverage revenue over the past 12 months, it ranks 14th among 136 Harris County venues we classify as sports bars that reported in all 12 months.

Suite 161 before Tom's

GreenStreet opened in 2008 as Houston Pavilions and took its current name in 2013 under new owners. Mia Bella Trattoria held Suite 161 for most of that run, under three operating companies. The Italian restaurant peaked at $789,571 in reported beverage revenue in 2013 and did $597,522 in 2019, its last full year. It reported nothing after June 2020, and the suite stayed dark in the receipts for more than three years.

Tom's opened Oct. 29, 2023. Records list the same suite number for both tenants, though we couldn't confirm the space is the same size. The Houston bar's first full year, 2024, brought in $1.93 million, and beer alone came to $833,735, more than the trattoria's best full year in nominal dollars.

Two months did the work

Over the past 12 months, the Houston bar reported $2,372,511, up $390,963 from the year before. March and June account for $371,481 of that gain.

March hit $360,741, more than double a year earlier and the bar's biggest month on record. Daikin Park hosted World Baseball Classic pool play March 6 to 11, with the U.S. and Mexico in the Houston group, and the Houston Cougars played Illinois in a Sweet 16 game at Toyota Center on March 26. June reached $324,863, up 131%, in the month the FIFA Fan Festival opened behind the convention center on June 11. The host committee counted 551,313 in combined attendance at the festival and a companion Dynamo celebration through July 19. The receipts are monthly, so they can't show which nights drove either month.

The 55 venues within half a mile that reported every month of both years rose 15% in March (39% counting one venue with a one-month spike) and 7% in June. The Houston bar grew about seven times as fast in March and 18 times as fast in June.

July rose 68% while the festival ran. Strip out March, June and July, and the bar was down 3.4% across the other nine months, while the neighbors were flat. Month to month, the Houston bar swung from down 30% to up 19% outside those three months. The neighbors stayed between down 9% and up 7%.

After the festival

August fell 30% to $90,575, the lowest full month since the bar opened, and September fell 25%. The same neighbors were up 5.8% and 3.0%. August was also a big month across the street, where Toyota Center concession revenue came to $1.94 million, up from $340,000 a year earlier. The filings don't show why the Houston bar moved the other way. Little Woodrow's had a similar summer, which we covered on Oct. 1.

The comparisons ahead

Next March and June, the Houston bar runs against the two biggest months it's ever posted.

Texas Roadhouse reports third-quarter results after the market close on Nov. 5. Its Bubba's 33 sports bars are down 4.5% in Texas reported beverage revenue over the same 12 months, with 16 of the 21 locations that reported in every month of both years lower. We'll have the Texas numbers for both brands the morning after.

Sources: Texas beverage tax receipts, December 2009 to September 2026, reported beverage revenue in nominal dollars for Tom's Watch Bar Houston and the prior tenant of Suite 161. Neighbors are 55 venues within half a mile reporting positive revenue in every month of both 12-month windows, excluding arena, ballpark and convention concessions, a convention-hotel account and one venue with a one-month spike in March 2026. Bubba's 33 covers 21 Texas locations reporting in every month of both windows. Statewide September filings are about 95% complete; the Houston bar and every neighbor have filed. Event details from the City of Houston, the Associated Press and the FIFA World Cup 26 Houston Host Committee; venue details from the Houston Chronicle and CultureMap; company details from Tom's Watch Bar's Oct. 21 release and Nation's Restaurant News.