Eco-friendly bar helps save white rhinos

HOUSTON, Texas -- A unique patio bar in Houston's East End is becoming known for more than an impressive list of craft cocktails. White Rhino is a bar with a special mission - it supports conservation efforts and donates a portion of its sales to organizations that track and monitor white rhino populations and help create anti-poaching zones.

"White Rhino is a community bar," said RoShelle Salinas of White Rhino. "It is a bar about sustainability and saving the rhinos, where everyone is welcome to come and have a good time."

White Rhino also has a special focus on sustainability. For example, it is one of the first bars in the country to use a glass-crushing machine to recycle bottles into sand. The bar also uses a reverse osmosis water generator to convert humidity from the air into drinking water.

For owners Bobby De La Rosa and Rodrigo Salinas, the East End was the perfect spot to build White Rhino. While the neighborhood has changed through gentrification within the past few years, they hope the bar will bring a feeling of community to all who visit.

"There's been a shift in the culture and the demographics," said Brenda De La Rosa of White Rhino. "For us personally, having grown up here most of our lives, it is important to us that we honor our roots and protect our culture. But at the same time, we are very welcoming of the new residents that are coming in and how we are coming together to create this whole new climate. I think the white rhino symbolizes that, an animal that has existed for such a long time and is still withstanding."

To learn more about White Rhino, its menu, hours and conservation efforts, visit whiterhinohoustontx.com.