The drinks list, and Yepez Vineyard

Baytown drinks at home, at the VFW, and at a short list of places worth naming. No brewery, still. Here's what there is.

Yepez Vineyard. The one place on this list that's a destination. A working vineyard on the east side, tables under the trees between the vines, a tasting room, wine made from grapes that survive this climate — which means the Gulf Coast varieties, not the ones you know from the label — and live music on weekends when they book it. Sunday afternoon is the hour. Bring people from out of town; it's the place that ends the "Baytown?" conversation. Hours on its page, pulled nightly; the vineyard closes for private events, so check before the drive, and bring a chair if it's a music night.

The Dirty Daiquiri, 2007 North Main. The town's own drink. Frozen daiquiris in the New Orleans style, a dozen flavors, to stay or to go in the cup with the tape over the straw. The place you end up when the plan fell through, and the reason North Main has a night. Karaoke some nights; the calendar has which.

The Chute, 4537 Garth. The live-music bar: the most screens for the game, a stage on the weekends, trivia midweek, the crowd that stays late. Not downtown, whatever the internet says — it's on Garth, and the parking's easier for it.

Hooky Entertainment, 10550 I-10 Service Road. Bowling, games, and a bar inside it. The group night, the birthday for grown-ups, the place with enough screens for every game at once. Not a bar you'd sit at alone.

The hotel bars. The Hyatt's terrace on the marina is the best drink in town if the view counts, and it does — the plants lighting up across the channel at sunset. The Garth hotels have the lobby bars you'd expect; the extended-stays don't have any.

The VFW and the halls. VFW Post 912 pours for members and their guests, cheap, with the gumbo some Fridays and the crawfish boil in season. The Legion and the Elks, where they're active, are on the civic page. This is where a real slice of Baytown drinks, and it's friendlier than you'd guess.

Beer, wine, spirits to go. The liquor stores cluster on Garth and 146; the H-E-B has the wine wall; the gas stations on 146 have the beer and the boudin. Texas law: liquor stores are closed on Sunday; beer and wine at the grocery from 10 in the morning on Sunday, and stores stop at midnight the other nights.

What's missing. A brewery. A cocktail bar downtown. A wine bar that isn't a vineyard. A coffee shop open past two. Every one of these has opened in towns half Baytown's size in the last five years, and the first one here gets the top of this page.

En español. Bebidas en Baytown: el viñedo Yepez (mesas entre las vides, cata, música los fines de semana, el lugar para llevar visitas); el Dirty Daiquiri en North Main (daiquiris congelados, para llevar, karaoke); The Chute en Garth (música en vivo, pantallas, trivia); Hooky en la I-10 (bolos y bar); la terraza del Hyatt al atardecer; el VFW. No hay cervecería. Ley de Texas: las licorerías cierran los domingos; cerveza y vino en el supermercado desde las 10 de la mañana.