IS FISH AND THE KNIFE CUTTING BAIT? 
Restaurant review website b4-u-Eat appears to have given up all hope of sushi bar, nightclub, and restaurant Fish and the Knife ever opening. That’s kind of a big deal for a project that’s been under construction since 2010. The huge modern building at the corner of Westheimer and Stoney Brook Dr. (just west of Voss) appears to be complete, but all communication has suddenly gone dark. “They expected to open Oct, Nov, Dec 2013,” reports the site newsletter, “but didn’t and their facebook page with all construction photos disappeared this week.” [b4-u-eat; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
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Want to know how long it takes three guys to build a restaurant by themselves? See Fish & The Knife.
i have been watching this building go up in fits and starts since it was still an empty lot with a “coming soon” sign on the fence (I live down the street). I demand to know more about this: who was building it, why has it taken so long, why won’t it open now, what is happening?!??
They replaced one of the dead Italian Cypress trees along Westheimer in the last week or two. Each time I write it off they go and sink some more money into it and make me think the project is still alive. I’m guessing their equity is a rich uncle or collection of overseas friends. No way that a project using traditional construction financing would be allowed to drag out this long.
In cases such as this the answer is always money, or lack thereof. They must not have properly financed the project ahead of time.
The owners are based in New Orleans where they own at least 1 other restaurant there. I believe they are also looking at opening a restaurant in New York at the moment.
On the inside they are planning a restaurant during the day with big lunch specials to draw a crown and at night, half the space gets closed off and it turns into a club. There are moving walls to create private spaces. According to the person I talked with a lot of the interior was imported from all over the world and if true, is super costly.
The latest manager who started working there around April (I believe) said he got the ball rolling. I stopped in and they were having the floor polished, had a sound system installed and had the kitchen almost ready to go. I met him in September and about a month later he stopped answering my emails.