COMMENT OF THE DAY: REPORT FROM THAT NEIGHBORHOOD SOUTH OF THE RIVER OAKS SHOPPING CENTER THAT NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO CALL “Who says this is going to be townhouses? This is my neighborhood. While there are certainly plenty of townhouses in the area, the overall trend has moved decidedly toward single family homes. As I type, there are at least a half dozen new single family homes under construction within a few blocks of this site. While this house appears to be quite nice, I’m guessing whatever replaces it will be much nicer. I know it’s standard operating procedure for Swamplotters to hate everything new, but the single family homes (and even the townhouses) being built in this neighborhood are typically quite nice. This demo is more the exception than the rule. Most of what gets torn down around here is garbage.” [Bernard, commenting on Tiny Done-Up Woodhead Cottage Is Townhome Fodder]
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Montrose
This cozy little white-picket-fenced 1,224-sq.-ft. cottage on Woodhead north of Fairview went on the market just as the holiday weekend began. But already “developers are swarming with offers and not even looking at the home and gardens,” a source tells Swamplot. Why bother, when the 1930 home sits on a 5,000-sq.-ft. corner lot along Welch St., just 4 blocks south of the River Oaks Shopping Center? New driveways away! But . . . okay, what would $369,500 would buy here?
The familiar contours of a vast supermarket parking lot are already beginning to take shape on the 7.68-acre grounds of the former Wilshire Village Apartments at the southwest corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama. You’ll see the trees that have already disappeared from this site — or more likely, a few of their younger relatives — appearing at various sites around the neighborhood, promises a sign announcing the coming Montrose H-E-B market:
Opening date for the brightly colored new 40,450-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market on West Dallas and Waugh: June 22, the company reports. What about farther afield? A Whole Foods spokesperson says the company has no current plans for a store in Katy, but Nancy Sarnoff reports sources have told her the grocery retailer “is in negotiations to put a 30,000 square-foot store at the corner of Grand Parkway and Fry Road.”
- Montrose Whole Foods to open next month, expansion rumored [Prime Property]
- Previously on Swamplot: Austin Powers the New North Montrose Whole Foods, The New Whole Foods at West Dallas and Waugh, Whole Foods Galleria and North Montrose: Still on Track, In and Around the New North Montrose Whole Foods, A Few Signs the Montrose Whole Foods Market Is On Its Way
Photo: Candace Garcia
There’ll be a West-U-ish Molina’s Cantina location for the first time in 3 years — once the Tex-Mex chain opens up its new digs in one of the spaces left after the twin Terlingua Texas Border Cafe flameouts in March. Molina’s will go into Terlingua’s Braes Heights Shopping Center space on Bellaire near Stella Link. The last West U Molina’s, on Buffalo Speedway, closed down 3 years ago to make way for H-E-B’s Buffalo Market.
In other on-the-ashes-of-failed-restaurants news, the former Sabetta Cafe space at 2411 South Shepherd near Fairview is now the home of recently opened performance-art venue Greatfull Taco.
- New site back in the neighborhood for Molina’s [Bellaire Examiner]
- Self-Described “Elitist” “Asshole” Opening a Restaurant [Eating Our Words]
- Previously on Swamplot: Strip Center Lockout: Terlingua Border Cafe on Studewood Still Closed, Sabetta Café: In and Out on South Shepherd in Less Than 5 Months Flat
Photo of future Molina’s Cantina location, 3801 Bellaire Blvd.: West University Examiner
Is that just an old wall going the way of all stucco on the vacant former Felix Mexican Restaurant space at Westheimer and Grant? Or is architect Michael Hsu’s rehab of the space — which will turn it into a Houston outpost of Tyson Cole’s Uchi and Uchiko juggernaut from Austin, plus a few other lease spaces — already in progress? Candace Garcia’s brief photo report on one piece of the Great Lower Westheimer Restaurant Rejiggering, below:
And now, from roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia: exclusive pics of the brand new windows recently installed on the formerly blank south wall facing Hawthorne St. of the Kroger at 3300 Montrose, as part of the grocery store’s continuing renovations. Last we checked, construction was scheduled to be complete next month.
- 2314 Waugh Dr. [HAR]
The proud new owner of the scuzzy former Skylane Apartments on the corner of Richmond and Hazard St. is the same real-estate agent who snapped up and renovated the 2 smaller Montrose Skylane Apartments (on West Alabama) last fall — local apartment collector Cody Lutsch. Those of you keeping score at home (or using the stats to play your own round of Fantasy Montrose Landlord) will note that the addition of the 44 apartments on the half-acre site at 1901 Richmond jettisons Lutsch into the Number 5 Montrose Property Owner position — by number of units. Lutsch expects that status to be short-lived, though — as long as the expected sale of some of his other neighborhood properties goes through.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GO DISCO, DISCO KROGER! “’Stina – is there a petition or FB page or something for your effort? Can we also request a DJ booth, or at least a curated playlist for the sound system? Maybe get the King of Grief to do a few special Kroger Classic Club Hour sets?” [Nonsequiteuse, commenting on Discovered at Disco Kroger: Historic Disco Wall Print]
Shopping Disco Kroger on Montrose during its ongoing renovation, reader Derek Brotherton spots a newly uncovered panel of what he “can only imagine” is old wallpaper — above the produce cooler section on the store’s north wall. “There’s still a few panels up,” he writes. “Hopefully they leave them unmolested and cover them up or maybe someone can rescue them for posterity’s sake.”
- Previously on Swamplot: Here’s Your Montrose Kroger, All Dressed Up
Photo: Derek Brotherton
Never mind the construction work still going on in the parking lot next door: B4-u-eat guesses El Real Tex Mex No. 7 will open quietly at 1201 Westheimer this Saturday — well, at least for a broadcast of the Southbound Food radio show. Actual opening date for the vintage Tex-Mex venture put together by Bryan Caswell, Robb Walsh, and Bill Floyd in the old Tower Theatre? Uh, “soon.” Chefs were busy pouring on the lard, and waiters were getting some training there earlier this week. If you’re looking for El Reals Nos. 1 through 6, you’ll need to wait a bit longer.
- Ramping Up: Waiter Training [El Real Tex Mex]
- Previously on Swamplot: Lard Almighty: Tower Theatre’s Coming Attraction Is Grease II, Critic’s Choice: Tower Theatre Will Go Tex-Mex, The Tower Theatre Puts No Name in Lights, Drive-By and Walk-By Reports on the Tower Theatre’s New Headliner, What’s Playing at the Tower Theatre?, Going Attractions: Hollywood Video Gives Up on the Tower Theatre
Photo: Candace Garcia
Two immigrants from El Salvador who survived what they describe as a “precarious existence” as undocumented workers in Houston for several years plan to buy the 3 Ruggles Grill buildings at 903 Westheimer, tear them down, and build a new 7,500-sq.-ft. restaurant on the site just east of Montrose Blvd. Jose and Gloria Fuentes met each other in Houston after fleeing their war-torn native country in 1978. Their Salvadorian restaurant chain, Gloria’s, now has 12 locations in the Dallas area and one in Austin. The Ruggles purchase hasn’t been completed, the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam reports. But the company also plans to open 3 additional locations nearby: in Sugar Land, The Woodlands, and West U. Ruggles chef and co-owner Bruce Molzan hinted last month that he’d reopen the Ruggles flagship in a new location if the building sold. The 26,812-sq.-ft. property was listed for sale at the end of last year.
- Dallas restaurant eyes Ruggles, plans four Houston locations [Houston Business Journal]
- About Us [Gloria’s Restaurants]
- Is Ruggles Grill on the move? Westheimer institution’s building for sale [Culturemap]
- 903 Westheimer [Moody Rambin]
Photo: Moody Rambin
Found relaxing in the Waugh Dr. median over the weekend, just north of Peden.
- Street Art of the Week: Tittering Also Banned [The Loop Scoop]
Photo: Paul Viscontini
YES, THE LOVETT INN SALE IS STILL ON 
Despite rumors to the contrary, Hostelling International USA was granted a parking variance by the city for the Lovett Inn and plans to convert the Montrose B&B at 501 Lovett St. into a hostel are moving forward, says organization spokesperson Mark Vidalin. No permitting problems with the city have cropped up, Vidalin says, though the organization’s option period for buying the building has been extended. Lovett Inn owner Dan Lueken says the sale is still on, but declined to say when the option period would end or when a closing might take place. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Bart Vis [license]
