The long-simmering feud between Rice Village bocce bastion Hans’ Bier Haus and some residents of the 2520 Robinhood condo tower next door has reached the courts. The condo association and residents are now subject to a restraining order that forbids them from tossing “produce, water, or anything” onto the bar patrons below. Hans’ Bier Haus’s owners are seeking a permanent injunction and compensation for the damage and lost business caused by projectiles coming their way from the 16-story condos. And 3 Robinhood residents have apparently been planning their own civil lawsuit against the bar owners.
But as of today, the battle’s obviously become much more serious, as the story has found its way into . . . the newspaper! Writing in the Chronicle, Mary Flood adds a colorful account of a few details bar co-owner Bill Cave appears to have glossed over in the description he gave to the Houston Press — namely, how he wound up with a misdemeanor assault charge after a scuttled gig on that fateful December 13th:
***
The bar laid out a Sunday night holiday buffet and had Ronnie Renfrow’s 15-piece big band set to play. But water cascading from the garage rained down on patrons, the band and its electrical equipment. [Bier Haus co-owner Paul] Kellogg said a trumpet player slipped in the water and broke a finger.
Cave said in court papers that he went to the condo and was eventually successful in turning off the water at a faucet on a condo’s porch. In the process, [2520 Robinhood general manager Art] Frederick said an angry Cave took the concierge by his tie, broke his phone and forced his way up in the elevator. And they have videotape of it all, Frederick said.
- Pub, condo feud near Kirby bubbles over into lawsuits [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: 2520 Robinhood Torments the Beer Drinkers Next Door
Photos: Jack H. (Hans’ Bier Haus patio); HAR (2520 Robinhood)
I suspect this will be more fun to watch than the lawsuit over 1717 Bissonnet and that definitely is going to be fun.
More well heeled douche bags.
Why can’t we all just get along? If you buy a condo next to a bar, you should expect to look off your balcony and see/hear a bar. If you operate a bar in the middle of the city, you should expect that you have to obey city noise laws, so I hope the folks at Hans’ are being careful to stay on the right side of the law.
A few years ago when I lived in DC there was a similar story: people bought $800,000 faux-loft condos that backed onto an alley shared with the clubs of the Adams-Morgan neighborhood (basically, a seething mass of drunken 20-somethings every weekend night) and were shocked to find themselves hearing pulsating bass noises at two in the morning. It being DC, they didn’t throw things, they just whined a lot. People in Texas are certainly more straightforward than Washingtonians. Meanwhile, all across the area, people read their tale of woe in the paper and said, “Duh.”
Perhaps the condos should try a new marketing strategy and position themselves as the ideal place for the hearing-impaired to live.
People really should look across the alley as well as the street when they buy. Especially at night. But some believe they can just huff and puff and blow it all away. Or in this case, drown it.
Matt Mystery, I think you are correct. This has the potential to surpass both the Wilshire Village and Ashby Highrise imbroglio for entertainment value.
Wish I could do the reverse to Sawyer Park who moved into our neighborhood and abuses our normal train horn-filled weekend evenings.
I’ve been in Houston for 3 years and I’ve noticed how many expensive townhouses and condos back up to fast food restaurants and other potentially noisy businesses. It would drive me nuts but I would also look around the neighborhood before I purchased or rented something there. I can’t imagine having to listen to the Jack-in-the-Box drive-through traffic all night long. “YA WANT FRIES??”
living in the city means being near bars and restaurants–guess what, they are noisy (be it mcdonald’s or sawyer park). katy has plenty of places for people who don’t want city life.
I have good neighbors in Dan Electro’s and The Rose Garden. I had good neighbors with the Empire Cafe, although my then husband was incredibly offended by them and their customers parking in front of “HIS” house, refrigerator trucks, kids, etc. Never understood his whining, the only reason we could afford that house was because of its proximity to the cafe, and we were fully aware of their existence. When the sewage backed up into our toilet and bathtub, Empire Cafe came in real handy as an alternate toilet and place to brush our teeth.
“… my then husband was incredibly offended by them and their customers parking in front of “HIS†house…”
Where do people get this weird idea that they own the public street in front of their house? There’s a guy near me who will run after you with a baseball bat if you park in front of his house. (I warn visitors.)
I have one of those neighbors too. He’s one of the newest residents on our block, but he thinks he’s entitled to a lot of things. He asked me to stop parking in front of his house. The other neighbors and I still do it out of necessity, but now we also get to enjoy pissing him off. Legally, there’s nothing he can do about it.
Not that parking-in-front-of-my-house thing! We have one of those on our block too. He takes it as a personal affront, an insult, if anyone parks in front of his house. But where does he thinks his friends park when they visit? Where does he park when he goes to someone’s house? This is a city, people. I just don’t get it.
Our guy (the neighbors tell me) once took the bat to a car parked in front of his house. (& got taken away by the cops) But really, it’s not worth pissing him off. I’ve also observed him staring daggers at someone who walked on the sidewalk in front of his house. I think he’s got some kind of mental illness, frankly, so (like all the neighbors) I just let friends know not to park there, and leave it alone.
Ahh the shared experiences of city life. We have one of those too on our street, except she takes it a notch further. Street parking is only allowed on one side of Castle Ct — not her side — and parking is at a premium as most of the units on our block are multi-party rentals. Day and night our neighbor runs out of her house in a pink bathrobe and cusses out any one with the gall to park on the street across from her house. Her major beef is that a car parked across the street makes it more difficult to execute her driveway exit strategy, which requires her to back straight out of her driveway for thirty feet into the yard of the house across from her. She apparently does not believe in/understand the concept of angling your vehicle while backing up. Watching this go on is all fun and games and part of why I love city life in general and working from home in particular. What is unfortunate is her penchant for leaving threatening notes, screaming at unsuspecting passers by or calling HPD when she cannot locate the perpetrator in question to unleash verbal abuse. HPD in our area seems disturbingly willing to issue suspect tickets or tow in these situations. If only a gang member had parked across from her house during the Dunlavy Park riot — catastrophe might have been avoided.
Chronicle, Mary Flood adds a colorful account of a few details bar co-owner Bill Cave appears to have glossed over in the description he gave to the Houston Press — namely, how he wound up with a misdemeanor assault charge after a scuttled gig on that fateful December 13th.
WOW, swamplot is a bit slow digging up the truth on Bill Cave.
Do you really want to be a part of this story, or is copying and pasting from the Houston Press and Houston Chronicle fulfilling?
Here are some facts:
Bill Cave is a convicted felon.
Bill Cave assaulted with bodily injury a 61 year old man
Bill Cave assaulted a 67 year old man (felony).
Bill Cave unlawfully restrained an elderly man.
Bill Cave committed burglary with intent to assault (felony)
Bill Cave has a pending DWI charge.
Bill Cave committed perjury.
Bill Cave committed aggravated perjury. (felony)
Bill Cave aimed a laser device at residents of the hi-rise.
Bill Cave and/or his customers throw beer cans and other objects at the hi-rise.
In fact, almost everything Bill Cave is accusing the hi-rise of doing, Bill has done himself.
Have you ever been to the Houston Livestock Show and stood to close to the rear end of a bull? I wouldn’t stand too close to Bill Cave, you might end up with sh!t all over you.
Bill Cave assaulted with bodily injury a 61 year old man
Bill Cave assaulted a 67 year old man (felony).
Bill Cave unlawfully restrained an elderly man.
Bill Cave committed burglary with intent to assault (felony)
________________
Last I checked that’s why we have courts and trials and of course the jury will want to know what on earth made Bill Cave so angry.
And the jury will probably acquit him on that basis.
Sounds like 2520 Robinhood is filled with more spoiled brats like the ones in Southampton and Boulevard Oaks who think they can harass and threaten and terrorize people just because, well, just because they’re so special.
You harass someone at your own peril. Particularly where juries are concerned.
And on the subject of the Houston Chronicle and Southampton and Boulevard Oaks and spoiled brats who think they’re above the law, did the new “social scribe” really not know Lea Weingarten was Lea Fastow when she itemed her as an event chair or did she think she could pull a fast one?
matt mystery
how are your math skills?
$270,000 roach infested Hans Bier Haus = $6,800 in annual property taxes
$70,000,000 hi-rise = $1,766,600 in annual property taxes
100 registers voters versus 1 convicted felon (bill cave) and 1 convicted alcoholic (paul Kellogg), neither of which live in District C
You don’t stand a chance in hell of staying open.
Hmmmm, let me guess….truth speaks lives in a Robinhood condo with buddies Convicted Felon and AA.
I didn’t know you could be convicted of alcoholism.
“Her major beef is that a car parked across the street makes it more difficult to execute her driveway exit strategy, which requires her to back straight out of her driveway for thirty feet into the yard of the house across from her. ”
Having driven in many places, I have an observation about Houston drivers in general: people generally have no idea how big their cars are here, and often do not realize that you can keep turning the wheel and the car will turn more. Given that it’s rare to see someone successfully make a right turn without swinging into the oncoming traffic lane here in Houston, she sounds like just an extreme case of the general Houston driving disorder.
I avoid parking across the street when driveways whenever possible because I’ve watched people back out of driveways straight into parked cars a couple of times. I’m not sure why Houstonians are so bad at this stuff, but it’s really quite noticeable if you come here from almost anywhere else in the US.
on the other hand, it means there’s always cheap entertainment to be had by grabbing a table on a bar or restaurant’s patio and watching people parallel park.
Truth speaks, Convicted Felon, and AA…nobody here is saying that Bill Cave is a good person, that Bill Cave should not be prosecuted for assault if he assaulted someone or that Bill Cave should not lose his license if he is in violation of laws and regulations. What we all seem to be saying is that that is no excuse for you to assault people yourselves. When you pour water on a electric equipment with innocent bystanders around, you are assaulting those people. You are no better than who you say Bill Cave is. Had the horn player been electrocuted rather than broken a finger, you would be sitting in jail yourself with at the very least a manslaughter charge. Vigilante justice is not justice for anybody, just a way to make yourself feel powerful. Now, go to a meeting and do a proper third step.
@truth speaks:
You’re doing a very terrible job of making yourself look better.
In fact, it’s making just look more and more like BOTH parties are obviously the issue here. Your continued attacks just make you look petty and disruptive. We heard you make the same schpiel in the other thread, continuing to repeat yourself makes you look silly.
I presume, also, that all of those “facts” you point out are independently verifiable? Otherwise, you could certainly be exposing yourself to your own legal risks.
No matter what Cave has done, there is NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER for people to be putting the safety of visitors to his bar in danger. No matter how entitled you feel, nor how bad Cave may or may not be, the situation appears to be that there are MORE nefarious actors here than just one.
I don’t care how bad the owner is, if I’m visiting his bar, and one of your neighbors drops a beer bottle on my head- I’d go after your neighbor with every bone of my body, and your excuses for the dangerous activities would mean jack before a jury or judge.
!c
Wow, at this juncture, everyone needs to focus on the Big Picture…
see the Forest despite the Trees…
and exhale very deeply to expel the dead old CO2 and let oxygen into your lungs…
Bill Cave admits his GUILT to the criminal charges while on the witness stand, under oath, in front of the judge.
Bill Cave also admits he never saw anyone do the things he has alleged in his affidavit (perjury).
Anyone for a game of bocce?
From court reporter:
Bill Cave admits his GUILT to the criminal charges while on the witness stand, under oath, in front of the judge.
Bill Cave also admits he never saw anyone do the things he has alleged in his affidavit (perjury).
__________________
I guess all his customers never saw anything either. All in their imagination.
Someone could have been electrocuted by the antics of spoiled brats who live in a hirise and think they are “above it all” and can do whatever they want.
I doubt too many juries would support the spoiled brats.
I don’t know why Bill Cave feels vindicated, he admitted under oath to the assault and other criminal charges.
Bill Cave is now 100% GUITLY and will be spending several months in Harris County Jail.
Bill Cave stated that he was trying to stop his customers from being electrocuted, yet no one was electrocuted. Bill Cave believes a criminal jury will actually believe he had a right to almost kill an innocent man, yet Bill Cave could have simply cut the power off, without ever assaulting an innocent man.
Bill Cave will now face a huge lawsuit from Ron Renfrow’s band if Bill Cave failed to install GFCI circuits on his property as required by law.
If the GFCI circuits were in place, then there never was an electrical hazard. One more fact missed by reporters.
“If the GFCI circuits were in place, then there never was an electrical hazard. One more fact missed by reporters.”
Does that make it acceptable to douse your neighbor’s porperty with hoses? A similar argument would be “If all of the bar patrons were wearing hard hats there would have been no hazard from us throwing stuff off the parking structure”.
Not one of these actions on either side makes the other action acceptable. NOT ONE!!!
I guess it’s Bill Cave’s fault for not velvet-roping his customers. If they had all been cartoon characters, electrocution would just have produced wacky sound effects and a new hair style.
GFCI’s can and do malfunction. It’s irrelevant to the situation. Nobody was injured by a lack of GFCI’s. The relevancy was that the water could have injured patrons, workers and the band. And people could also have been injured in other ways such as slipping. If one of the bar owners assaulted somebody that should and obviously will be addressed. And rightly so! But it still sounds like the folks in the condo are the aggressors here and the bullies. Pushing folks to the limit and breaking point. Juries and judges can indeed see the forest from the trees…
I have recently become aware of the situation between 2520 high rise and Hans. After a little reading of all the post and articles I fail to see how this is so complicated. Being objective and not having any ties to either establishment I would like to make the following comments.
1) It appears that there is only a hand full of residents in 2520 who are upset about the Han’s very existence.
2) Out of that handfull it also appears that only 1 or 2 residents have been vocal and on a hate campaign against Bill Cave.
3) If the residents looked at the condo before they purchased it, which I imagine anyone who can afford to spend several hundred thousand dollars on a condo would. They would have noticed the bar below their balcony and with any thought at all known it would be noisy.
4) Did the residents who are upset premeditate this attack on Han’s? It appears that is the case if you knowingly move next to a bar in a city that does not have zoning.
5) Did the residents or Bill ever attempt to meet like men and talk it out face to face? If not why? If someone hates me and wants to ruin my business I would expect them to be enough of a man to be able to look me in the face and tell me why.
6)Objectively the high rise residents launching the attacks are wrong. I have not read any libel about any named residents of 2520. Who and why is someone doing so against Bill Cave?
7)This is America, a country where any willing, hard working man can start a business and feed his family. I fail to see why another American would want to take that away from a neighbor.
8) There is a tremendous amount of hate brewing inside the people posting on here. The bar should not be your outlet. Everyone who patronizes Hans bar is not an alcoholic, white trash low life. I have seen doctors, lawyers,working men, college students and soccer moms enjoying the patio and cold beer at this local establishment.
9) convicted felon is obviously a resident and probably the leader in the cowardly attacks on the bar. It is humorous to read his ranting and just imagine his anger as he types away on the computer. Just a reminder that this great country was built on values and principles and men coming to agreements and working out their differences. Please try to remember this when you look down upon your neighbor who is just the little guy next door trying to make a living doing what he loves.
Cordially,
American