Houston Heights

Houston Heights
06/15/12 12:48pm

Torchy’s Tacos Taking Harold’s Old Corner Spot in the Heights

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Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail
23 Comments

Austin’s Torchy’s Tacos chain will be opening a restaurant in the former Harold’s in the Heights retail space at the southeast corner of 19th St. and Ashland, according to a flyer advertising a new development planned for the former clothing store and connected space. Harold’s closed last year after operating for 61 years at 350 W. 19th St. The flyer says Braun Enterprises — which bought the fifties-mod property from the family of Harold Wiesenthal last September — has already executed the lease with Torchy’s, which is shown taking up 3,340 sq. ft. in the corner spot. The development includes an additional unleased 7,260 sq. ft. of ground-floor space imagined as a cafe and 3,000 more sq. ft. upstairs shown as a dental office in the flyer.

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Houston Heights
06/05/12 11:42am

Making a Killen out of the Old Stella Sola Spot

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
3 Comments

MAKING A KILLEN OUT OF THE OLD STELLA SOLA SPOT A whole bunch more tables will be added to the restaurant Ronnie Killen is opening up at 1001 Studewood St. in the Heights, last known as the location of Stella Sola. Also, the name hasn’t quite been decided yet: either Killen’s Steakhouse in the Heights or KS2. Other details in Patrice Shuttlesworth’s report from the ready-to-demo interior: There will be outdoor dining on a new rooftop garden, accessible by elevator; and the floorplan will be mixed up a bit, with the front door and meat locker both relocated. Killen hopes to have the place open by the middle of next month. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Stella Sola

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Crime
05/30/12 10:59am

The MLS Rental Scam Going on Now in the Heights

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Houston Heights, Leasing
22 Comments

How do you discover that the house you’re renting out has become the focus of a scam? Well, If the scam’s targets show up on your doorstep, that’s one clue. The owners of the Heights home on Rutland St. pictured above found themselves in that situation last night. So this morning one of them sent Swamplot this tale, hoping readers will have some helpful advice to offer:

We recently bought a bigger house in the Heights and listed our current house for rent on the MLS. All went well (had a lease signed with a great tenant in just three days!) until last night. This friendly couple rang the doorbell and told me that they had been texting with the owner of the house for a week about renting it. She told them she was on a mission trip in Washington DC and couldn’t show them the house right away, but that they should come by the house and look in the windows. If they liked what they saw they were to send her a deposit check. I was flummoxed since I am the owner and had signed a lease two weeks earlier with someone else. I had heard about this happening with rentals listed on Craigslist but didn’t think the scammers would take it to this level. They had posted fraudulent listings on several sites, including Trulia.com and HotPads.com. They listed it for less rent than the real posting and said we’d take dogs and cats.

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Houston Heights
05/08/12 12:47pm

Stella Sola Rides Off into the Sunset

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
29 Comments

Are they still gonna serve crepes in the parking lot? Co-owner Bryan Caswell cites the departure of chef Adam Dorris along with the possible impending sale of the wild-western-style mixed-use building his restaurant is housed in as the reasons he shut down Stella Sola over the weekend. “For me to go out and try to recruit a chef would have been the wrong thing to do — to convince a young chef to get excited about something we couldn’t guarantee,” Caswell tells Chronicle food reporter Greg Morago. Stella Sola moved into the restaurant space at the corner of Studewood and 10th St. in late 2009 as a replacement for Bedford, which had opened with the building the previous year.

Photo: Stella Sola

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Construction Problems
04/17/12 10:48am

A Kink in the Path

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Houston Heights, Quicklink, Streetscapes
22 Comments

A KINK IN THE PATH “Walking the sidewalks in the Heights is sometimes tricky,” quips the reader who sent in this pic of the year-or-so-old sidewalk in front of the year–or-so-old house at 919 Arlington St.: “This walk is built to the 5′-0″ standards currently in place where as the older walks are built at 4′. However the alignment was so off from the 2′ distance required from the property line location of the other residents’ walks. I could only assume that the developer was thinking that he could allow more room to park a car between the street and walk if he shifted it west two feet.” Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Homes for Sale
04/03/12 4:41pm

Heights Home of the Spanish Acquisitions

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Houston Heights, Interiors
14 Comments

This home’s walls have ears. And eyes. And behind all the portraits lining them, a lot of nail holes for new owners to fill. Located at the corner of 9th St. and Tulane in the Houston Heights, this little casa is part of a small enclave of Spanish Colonial homes that rose on the block a decade ago. Inside you’ll find 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, and enough wall space to field a collection of collections.

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Condos
04/03/12 2:00pm

Meanwhile, at the Corner of 11th and Studewood

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Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction
40 Comments

Some burger stand, street signs, a car wash, bungalows: So many little Heights-y things muck up the foreground in development blog Going Up! City’s construction pix of the 6-story concrete-and-brick condo building going up just north of the restaurant-heavy corner of 11th St. and Studewood. 1111 Studewood Place, which at last report included 9,000 sq. ft. of retail space on its ground floor, has a website up which for now carefully avoids use of the word “condo.”

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Apartments
03/16/12 12:24pm

Peeling Off a Corner Near 22nd and Yale

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Construction Problems, Houston Heights
2 Comments

Repair work on the exterior of the 2125 Yale apartments in the Heights, built 4 years ago on the site of Kaplan’s Ben Hur, has been taking place all week. Gone already: the aluminum panels on the building’s northwest corner, facing 22nd St. But: Couldn’t find any explanation of what’s going on in the complex’s newsletter for residents, a neighbor reports.

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Houston Heights
01/25/12 12:24pm

Recently Derugglefied 11th St. Cafe To Reopen — as Ruggles Green

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Lawsuits, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
19 Comments

The new restaurant opening in the space left behind by the shuttered 11th St. Cafe, also known for a time last year as the Ruggles 11th St. Cafe? Ruggles Green. No, seriously. But apparently it’s not the same Ruggles the restaurant started with.

For about 5 months last summer, the 11th St. Cafe at 748 E. 11th St. took on a new name: Ruggles 11th St. Cafe — after Ruggles Grill owner Bruce Molzan agreed to operate the restaurant. But Molzan later pulled out of the arrangement because “he considered the quality of the food there poor,” he told Chronicle reporter Purva Patel last month. A trademark-infringement lawsuit Molzan then filed against the cafe prompted owner Archie Patterson to remove the Ruggles name from the restaurant in early December; he closed it entirely — after 35 years of operation — at the end of the year, announcing that a new tenant for the space would be named in late January.

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Houston Heights
01/06/12 12:48pm

The End of the 11th St. Cafe

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
13 Comments

THE END OF THE 11TH ST. CAFE Next step for the 11th St. Cafe after covering over the “Ruggles” on its sign: shutting itself down entirely. A sign on the door from owner Archie Patterson Jr. noted today by the Heights Life blog indicates the restaurant closed at the end of the year — after 35 years of operation. What’s next for the building at the corner of 11th St. and Studewood? “The new tenant will have a press release in late January,” the notice says. [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life

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Houston Heights
12/29/11 11:02am

The Lawsuit Behind the Paper at the 11th St. Cafe

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Quicklink, Restaurants
17 Comments

THE LAWSUIT BEHIND THE PAPER AT THE 11TH ST. CAFE Reporter Purva Patel documents the extensive menu of lawsuits embroiling “more unlucky than most” Ruggles Grill owner Bruce Molzan — which provides Swamplot a terrific opportunity to showcase one of the several photos of the papered-over sign at the now-formerly-Ruggles 11th St. Cafe in the Heights sent in by readers earlier this month. Molzan has charged the cafe with trademark infringement, and tells Patel he pulled out of an operating agreement with the 11th St. restaurant “because he considered the quality of the food there poor.” But cafe owner Archie Patterson says Molzan refused to sign a partnership agreement after running the place for 2 months. Patterson says he had the word “Ruggles” on the signs covered — in advance of getting new ones — as soon as he heard about the worker walkout at Ruggles Grill. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Buildings for Lease
09/28/11 1:40pm

The Last-Ever Sale at Harold’s in the Heights Is Over

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Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Heights, Modern Design, Retail
9 Comments

The new owners of the Heights building at the corner of 19th St. and Ashland that for 61 years housed the Harold’s in the Heights men’s clothing store have wasted no time in advertising the modern structure for lease or “redevelopment.” The Chronicle‘s David Kaplan reports that a partnership led by local development firm Braun Enterprises bought the property from the family of Harold Wiesenthal last week; a flyer for the 13,600-sq.-ft. property, which comes with a parking lot in back, hawks restaurant or retail space in chunks as small as 1,750 sq. ft. The glass-front building includes a 3,000-sq.-ft. second-story office space. Harold’s closed its doors for good in August.

Photo: Braun Enterprises

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