Upper Kirby

Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

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Here’s the big hole being dug at the corner of Branard and Argonne, just off Kirby Dr., where it looks like Carrabba’s Italian Grill is moving forward on its plan to build a 275-car multi-story parking garage. After Mission Constructors completes the garage, the next step in the multi-stage expansion plan — which includes 2 additional restaurants and some office space — will be to build a new Carrabba’s right next to the existing one along Kirby. That Carrabba’s is one of only 2 still owned by the family of restaurant cofounder Johnny Carrabba. The more than 200 locations in the Carrabba’s Italian Grill chain are owned by Outback Steakhouse’s corporate parent, OSI Restaurant Partners.

77098, New Construction, Parking-Garages, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Comments

02/25/11 2:13pm

Comment of the Day: Where Was All That Booze When We Needed It?

Nightlife, Quicklink, Upper Kirby

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE WAS ALL THAT BOOZE WHEN WE NEEDED IT? “Yep, I wonâ€™t be doing any drinking in that building. Attended too many funerals there; which would have been helped by an open bar.” [miss_msry, commenting on Heavy Drinking in the Old Funeral Home: Kirbyâ€™s Settegast Kopf Going Multi-Bar]

77098, Bars, Comments, Funeral Homes, Nightlife, Upper Kirby

Openings and Closings

02/25/11 12:52pm

A Not-So-Moveable Feast: Sorrel Urban Bistro Wants Local Foods Only at Ziggy’s Old West Alabama Pad

Restaurants, Upper Kirby

3 Comments

The owner of the Pepperoni’s Pizza chain — which has locations in First Colony, New Territory, Pecan Grove, Riverstone, Rosenberg, Greatwood, Woodbridge, Sienna Plantation, and Fulshear — plans to open a bistro focused on local ingredients in the former Ziggy’s Healthy Grill space at the corner of West Alabama and Greenbriar. (Before Ziggy’s, the down-in-front space in the 2-story office building at 2202 West Alabama housed natural-foods store A Moveable Feast.) A sign advertising Sorrel Urban Bistro now hangs out front. Ray Salti tells the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam he expects his new farm-to-table restaurant — which will feature a new menu each week — will open up by early May, and that he’ll count both Mark’s and Haven as his closest competition. Salti also owns Ray’s Grill in Fulshear.

Local-food movement bites another restaurateur [Houston Business Journal]
Sorrel Urban Bistro

Photos: Aaron Carpenter

77098, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Nightlife

02/25/11 11:56am

Heavy Drinking in the Old Funeral Home: Kirby’s Settegast Kopf Going Multi-Bar

Renovations, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

15 Comments

The vacant Settegast Kopf funeral home on Kirby and Colquitt, long the butt of jokes from the proprietors of Radio Music Theater across the street, will soon be home to as many as 4 separate bars, according to plans now working their way through the city permit office. Club Rush, a Railhouse Restaurant and Bar, and Twist Bar are the names attached to the permit applications, though a comment from the fire marshal notes that the plans themselves label the establishments Twist, Fountain Bar, Club R Oak, and Hendricks Pub. It looks like the Hendricks Pub would be carved out of the former Chase Bank drive-thru next door at 3312 Kirby; a TABC application for that building is tied to an attorney by that name.

The entire block of Kirby between Colquitt and West Main, including the 2-story retail building on the north end that includes a Cafe Express, is owned by an entity controlled by New York investment firm Thor Equities, though New Regional Planning broker (and planning commission member) Blake Tartt III, who sold it to them 3 years ago, still has a sign out front. Thor’s plan to build a complex called the Kirby Collection on the site apparently stalled not long after it was announced, though the project still has a placeholder page on the company’s website.

77098, Bars, Nightlife, Renovations, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

Highland Village

01/12/11 11:49am

The Sweet Deal Waiting for Tootsies at West Ave

by Jenny Staff Johnson

Leasing, Retail, Upper Kirby

2 Comments

Highland Village owner Haidar Barbouti â€œprobably didnâ€™t get hung up on the legal nuancesâ€ of how to shake Tootsies free of its Westheimer store when its lease ended, a source explains to Swamplot. But both he and Tootsies owner Mickey Rosemarin are ready to move on. Now that the court skirmish over the eviction and the store’s subsequent request for a restraining order have been formally resolved in Tootsies’ favor, Rosmarin’s clothing boutique will be able to stay at its Highland Village location through the end of the month. At which point, according to a store spokesperson, â€œThe store will close one night and open the next business dayâ€ at West Ave. The new mixed-use complex at Kirby and Westheimer reportedly lured the retailer into a lease with generous terms: forgoing base rent in exchange for a percentage of Tootsiesâ€™ sales.

77027, 77098, Evictions, Highland Village, Highland Village Shopping Center, Leasing, Retail, Upper Kirby, West Ave

Fires

10/05/10 3:45pm

Hot Hot! Pumpkin Alert: Jack O’ Lanterns Burn the Kirby Whole Foods Market

Retail, Upper Kirby

42 Comments

The scene outside the Whole Foods Market on the corner of Kirby and West Alabama this afternoon, where a ginormous outdoor pumpkin display turned into fire and smoke. Five fire trucks later, the flames were out, and the store was closed. Store managers report there were no injuries and no damage to the store’s interior.

Breaking News: Whole Foods on Kirby Catches Fire [Hair Balls]
Whole Foods Houston [Twitter]

Photo: Justin

77098, Fires, Grocery Stores, Retail, Upper Kirby

Proposed Developments

09/13/10 11:49pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: What We Could Do by the Freeway

Retail, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood youâ€™d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we canâ€™t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

What’s to dig up from last week’s question:

Upper Kirby: Whatever traffic study was being conducted on the Southwest Freeway feeder road nearby, it has nothing to do with the strip-center, bank, and maybe drive-thru development Lovett Commercial is hoping to get going on that patch of grass along the feeder to Lexington St. at Greenbriar, leasing agent Elizabeth Jacob tells Swamplot. Lovett has a sign up, is waiting for phone calls, and has a site plan to show (see below) as “an example of what we could do,” she says. Any involvement with the site by H-E-B (as was claimed by one commenter) would be news to her, she tells us.

77098, Proposed Developments, Retail, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby

09/07/10 7:40pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: The Crying of Lot 59

77098, Commercial Real Estate, Upper Kirby

Upper Kirby

13 Comments

Got an answer to this reader question? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Hereâ€™s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

Upper Kirby: “Someone is conducting a traffic study along the Southwest Freeway at Greenbriar,” a reader reports. “Is that someone finally going to build on the vacant block between 59 and Lexington?” Someone? Anyone?

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Openings and Closings

08/03/10 11:44am

Now and Forever Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

Retail, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby, West University

7 Comments

All thatâ€™s left of the Now and Forever Bridal Boutique — looking wistfully at Lakewood Church from across the Southwest Freeway — is this lonely sign by the shop’s old entrance. But don’t fret: Next door, in the same feeder-road strip center, Party City still rages! Now and Foreverâ€™s new location: the 3701 Kirby office building a block south of Richmond, not far from Hardcore Pilates.

Now and Forever Bridal Boutique

Photos: Swamplot inbox

77027, 77098, Feeder Roads, Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Centers

08/02/10 7:24pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Potholes and Pads

Demolitions, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby, Woodlake Plaza

5 Comments

Scuttlebutt on that decrepit parking lot on Richmond, plus whatâ€™s ready to pop up on the site of the Hooters on Gessner:

Upper Kirby: â€œHow many professionals in kenneth cole loafers or nine west heels want to navigate lake Ponchartrain just to get to our restaurant for a meal?â€ asks a commenter from Yelapa Playa Mexicana, one of three restaurants sharing the potholed (and occasionally flooded) parking lot between Richmond and Portsmouth west of Greenbriar. But . . . nothingâ€™s doing:

We would love to force our landlord to get this mess fixed as soon as possibleâ€¦any advice from anyone? Weâ€™ve been on him for the last 10 months or more (since we took the space in mid-September 09).

Commenter marmer notes a repair job may involve significant drainage work. â€œSimply patching the holes wonâ€™t last long enough to be worth the trouble.â€ Plus, where are Yelapa, Blue Fish House, and Hobbit CafÃ© customers gonna park while the work gets done? Also left unanswered: Is the existing parking lot required to meet any drivability standards?

Next: What comes after Hooters?

77063, 77098, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Grocery Stores, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby, Woodlake Plaza

07/27/10 5:22pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Too Many Bumps

Demolitions, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby, Woodlake Plaza

27 Comments

Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Hereâ€™s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

Upper Kirby: “I can assure you that there are some bone crunching potholes underneath the lovely puddles,” writes the reader who sent in these rain-drenched photos of the ancient, multi-layered, and pockmarked parking lot shared by 3 restaurants at 2241 Richmond, just west of Greenbriar. When it rains, the lot gets even worse, claims the reader, who wants to know why it’s so “pitiful”:

While I can kind of understand Blue Fish and Hobbit [CafÃ©] not wanting to spend too much money on improving the parking lot since they are not high dollar places, Yelapa [Playa Mexicana] is trying to position itself as this new chic Mexican/Seafood eatery and thus I would have thought they’d care more about a customer’s initial impression.

A related question from the same reader: “Are there any City ordinances that require a parking lot used by the public to have a certain amount of drivability?”

Next: What about the Hooters?

77063, 77098, Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby, Woodlake Plaza

07/05/10 12:49pm

Very Small Business: The 14 Tiniest Commercial Buildings in Houston

Griggs Terrace, Houston Heights, Montrose, Oak Forest, Office Buildings, Retail, Seabrook, Sunset Heights, Upper Kirby, West End

13 Comments

Armed with your suggestions, roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia set out to document the smallest freestanding commercial buildings in Houston she could find. And here are the results! Above, “The Spot” hair salon at 1207 Westheimer in Montrose, at the corner of Commonwealth.

More tiny:

Parking

06/24/10 8:34am

Carrabba’s Kirby Recipe: 3 New Restaurants and a Parking Garage

Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby

23 Comments

Note: Story updated below.

The owners of the original Carrabba’s Italian Grill on Kirby between West Main and Branard plan to demolish the restaurant, rebuild it, and construct 2 more restaurants on adjacent blocks. First step: building a new 275-car parking garage one block to the north, at the northwest corner of Branard and Argonne. Next, a new and larger Carrabba’s (marked [A] in the site plan above) would go up directly south of the existing building, which would remain open during construction. Once the new digs are complete, they’ll tear down the existing restaurant and put in a parking lot and porte-cochere in its place. Two more restaurants — one possibly named Grace’s, and one with office space upstairs — are planned for blocks north of Branard, one facing Kirby and the other at Argonne.

The Kirby Carrabba’s is one of 2 still owned by the family of co-founder Johnny Carrabba. All other Carrabba’s Italian Grills — more than 200 in 27 states — are owned by OSI Restaurant Partners, the same company that runs Outback Steakhouse and Fleming’s.

The new Kirby restaurant complex may be the first in the city to take advantage of the “transit corridor” incentives passed by city council last year. In return for building a 15-ft.-wide pedestrian area and street-front entrance along Kirby, designers get to push 2 of the buildings close to the street, well into the normal 25-ft. setback. The planning commission approved the site plan earlier this month — along with several related parking variances — even though the transit corridor itself (the University Line on Richmond) hasn’t even started construction yet.

77098, Demolitions, Mixed Use, Parking-Garages, Pedestrians, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby, Variances

06/18/10 8:54am

Bye Bye, Mai Thai? Feeding Another Kirby High-Rise Rumor