Things to Do in Upper Kirby, Houston

Upper Kirby holds a surprising amount of programmed weekend life for a square mile of townhomes and offices. Levy Park, the central green at Eastside and Richmond, runs free concerts most weekends spring through fall and a farmers market on Saturday mornings. Highland Village brings the Christmas tree-lighting in November. And the Kirby District art-and-design block has quietly become a small gallery row.

This is the running list of what is worth doing inside the district and within a five-minute drive. We have organized it by mood rather than alphabetical, because that is how most weekends actually start.

Outdoor and family

Levy Park is the default. The two-and-a-half acres include a splash pad, a treehouse-style play structure, an open lawn for concerts, and a small dog run. Programming is heavy: yoga on Saturday mornings, Cinema in the Park on selected Fridays, concerts on the lawn from March through October. Buffalo Bayou Park is a ten-minute drive east if you want a longer walk. The Upper Kirby area page carries the running event calendar.

For kids on a rainy day, the Children's Museum of Houston is twelve minutes east in the Museum District. The Houston Zoo, also in Hermann Park, is another short drive. Both are easier from Upper Kirby than from most of the western suburbs.

Shopping and design

Highland Village at Westheimer and Drexel is the polished open-air center: Crate & Barrel, Anthropologie, Tiffany, Apple, Sur La Table, and a clutch of restaurants around a central courtyard. West Ave at Kirby and Westheimer pairs CB2 and Sweetgreen with Lululemon and a quietly excellent indie bookstore.

The Kirby District design row, the stretch of Kirby Drive between Richmond and Westheimer, is the under-the-radar pick. It holds showrooms for high-end furniture, a few independent art galleries, and a couple of tile and stone studios that mostly serve the local remodel trade. The Houston entertainment hub maps the wider city's gallery scene if you want to make a Saturday of it.

Music, nightlife, and shows

House of Blues and Bayou Music Center are short drives downtown, but the closer move is the Levy Park concert lawn for free Friday-night programming during the season. The Houstonian and Hotel Granduca both have low-key piano-bar nights on weekends. And the Westheimer corridor west toward Montrose holds half a dozen serious cocktail bars within a $10 Uber.

For live theater, the Alley downtown is the closest professional company, twelve minutes east. Stages Repertory at Sawyer Yards is about the same distance west. If you are planning a weekend with out-of-town visitors, our best time to visit Houston guide pairs neighborhood programming with the seasonal city-wide festival calendar.

Tactics for a Saturday

The most efficient Upper Kirby day starts with coffee on Westheimer (Common Bond), walks Highland Village by 11, lunches at Postino or Local Foods, hits Levy Park or the design row in the afternoon, and ends with dinner inside the district. Park once at the Highland Village garage and the whole loop is under a mile of walking.

If you are arriving from out of town and want a longer agenda, the two-day Houston itinerary pairs Upper Kirby with downtown and the Museum District for a tight inner-loop weekend.