“Girl dinner” used to mean assembling whatever sounded good, calling it a meal and refusing to explain yourself.
Cheese. Crackers. Olives. Maybe some fruit. Maybe leftovers. Maybe absolutely nothing that belonged together.
Houston’s Confessions Restaurant & Lounge has decided girl dinner deserves an upgrade.
The Upper Kirby restaurant is now offering a weekly Tuesday Girl Dinner where women receive a complimentary three-course meal with the purchase of at least two cocktails.
And this is considerably more dinner than the internet version.
Guests start with a house or Caesar salad before choosing from flatbread, salmon or chicken pasta. Dessert is cheesecake or chocolate cake.
The idea takes a social media phrase that became shorthand for women eating exactly what they wanted and turns it into something else entirely: an excuse to text the group chat and actually get everybody out of the house on a Tuesday.
“Girl Dinner is really about giving women an excuse to get their friends together and go out on a Tuesday,” owner Sterling Lewis said. “We wanted to create something that feels like a complete night out instead of just another happy hour.”
It also arrives at a time when restaurants are getting increasingly creative about convincing diners that going out doesn’t have to wait until Friday.
At Confessions, Girl Dinner is just one part of a weekly calendar built around giving Houston diners a reason to come through on traditionally quieter nights.
Monday means $1 oysters from 4 to 8 p.m.
Wednesday is all-you-can-eat steak and fries for $45, accompanied by $5 glasses of wine and $20 bottles.
Thursday might require a little restraint: lychee martinis are $1, while lamb chop tacos are $8.
Friday’s Reverse Happy Hour runs from 11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. with $19.99 hookah, $5 martinis and $200 Don Reposado bottles.
Then there’s brunch.
Saturday starts with $1 espresso martinis from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and $10 hookah through 4 p.m., followed by late-night specials. Sunday brunch and dinner runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
But Tuesday may be the offer that gets the group chat moving.
Because the original girl dinner was never really about what was on the plate anyway. Part of its appeal was the freedom to decide that whatever women wanted to eat counted as dinner.
Confessions is betting that sometimes what they want is salmon, cheesecake and cocktails with their friends.
What to Know
Confessions Restaurant & Lounge
3200 Kirby Drive, Suite 2A, Houston
Girl Dinner: Every Tuesday
Women receive a complimentary dinner with the purchase of at least two cocktails.
Dinner includes: House or Caesar salad; choice of flatbread, salmon or chicken pasta; and choice of cheesecake or chocolate cake.
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