UNDERMINED SPORTS AUTHORITY TO ABANDON TEXAS AS OTHER BIG BOXES ADVANCE WITH GUNS 
Sports Authority, which in its glory days subsumed East End-based Oshman’s Sporting Goods, is now preparing to pull out of Texas altogether, writes Maria Halkias of the Dallas Morning News. The company laid off 100 employees in January, and was reported to be looking into Chapter 11 after missing a $21-million interest payment on its $643 million debt. Last week the company’s representatives told workers at a store in Dallas that all 25 of the Texas locations would be shuttered, though they didn’t say when. The closures look to include 11 Houston-area shops, part of 140 Sports Authority locations to be culled nationally; Jeff Kittleson of CBRE retail services in Dallas also told the Morning News that there will be “a garden variety of big box users who will want to reposition stores into these locations.†Indoor sporting goods not-quite-theme-park Cabela’s is already slated to open up in League City shortly, and Dick’s Sporting Goods signed leases on spaces at Baybrook, Deerbrook, Willowbrook, First Colony, and The Woodlands malls last year. [Dallas Morning News, HBJ] Photo of Sports Authority at 2131 Post Oak Blvd.: Gil G.
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Openings and Closings
Semi-boutique mattress chain Urban Mattress has jumped into the cluster of mattress retail options at the edge of West University, setting up shop between Einstein Bros. Bagels and Verizon Wireless just south of the sleepy corner of Kirby Dr. and Bissonnet St. Since 2008, the Boulder-grown franchise chain has opened 6 stores in Colorado, 3 in Austin, and a few others in cities including Berkeley, Albuquerque, Dallas, and San Antonio. The company purports to send 2% of its sales price to local charities of the franchise owner’s choice, and offers mattresses (both regular and organic) ranging from about $300 to $30,000.
The new store sits right across Wroxton St. from a few of its all-caps competitors: mattress and ergonomic furniture store Relax the Back is buffered from a Mattress Firm by narrow custom shoe store Foot Solutions:
Bouncing into the Market
Down in Galveston, seafood-slash-southern-focused Harborside Mercantile is opening up for a preview this evening, after clearing some liquor licensing hurdles that set back the planned December startup. The restaurant, located at 2021 Strand St., is a collaboration between Richard Craig (whose 3-wheeled Hubcap Grill will be getting a 4th location inside IAH) and Joshua Martinez (owner of The Modular foodtruck and the former Chicken Ranch).
The Strand, buoyantly styled as the “Wall Street of the South” in the 19th century, was battered by fires, the Civil War, and numerous destructive hurricanes before sinking out of prominence and settling into life as a warehouse district; historical restorations in the 1960s paved the way for the district’s eventual resurgence as a tourist destination.
- Houston’s burger king and ex-Chicken Ranch owner team up to create Galveston restaurant [CultureMap]
- The Strand [Texas State Historical Association]
- Previously on Swamplot: Local Restaurants You’ve Heard of Make It to the IAH Runway; New ‘Chicken Ranch’ Opening on North Main near Sunset Heights Will Serve Actual Fried Chicken; Openings and Closings: New Hubcap Grill, Funeral Bars, Downtown Phoenicia Delay; Tacos a-Go-Going to the Heights; Hubcap Grill Expanding to Shady Acres;
Photos: Harborside Mercantile
On the Island
The business wilted several years ago, but the location of the church-run St. Theresa The Little Flower Thrift Shop at 5334 Washington Ave is getting a new tenant: a branch of Dallas’s Clutch Bar will be moving into the space. An entity associated with the thrift shop bought the property back in 1991, and the store blossomed until the early ’10s, closing by mid-2013.
Clutch Bar’s website touts a Summer 2016 opening; as far as what will be served in the space, the site for the chain shows a large draft beer selection and mentions a weekly special on “adult milkshakes”.
Little Flower Going Wild
The Memorial Branch of Big Tex Tree Nurseries at 10939 Katy Fwy. is closed for good, and its tree-dealings have moved south to the company’s Sugar Land locale for now. The Christmas trees disappeared after the holiday season, and everything else followed suit: “even the port-a-potty,” writes the reader who sent in photos of the now-bare freeway-side lot at Wycliffe and I-10, just outside Beltway 8. A Big Tex employee says the company is planning to open up another Houston location at some point, but for now the other spots in Sugar Land, Conroe, and Spring will have to do.
The lot is shown below post-faux-forest-departure; meanwhile, someone was out marking up the sidewalk with orange paint last week:
Land Cleared on I-10
The king of big-box retail announced plans this morning to close the Walmart Supercenter at 7075 FM 1960 West, behind Willowbrook Mall at the intersection with Cutten Rd. The Supercenter will close on January 28th after more than 2 decades of operation; a Walmart Neighborhood Market at 2740 Gessner Rd. (south of Kempwood Dr.) will also close on the same day.
The Supercenter (not to be confused with the one 4 miles up FM 1960 at the corner with T.C. Jester) is one of 154 US stores that will close, as the chain works to assure that its “assets [are] aligned with strategy”. Currently, there are 17 Walmart stores on or inside Beltway 8, and 4 Walmart Supercenters along FM 1960 between 249 and Atascocita.
Boxing Up on FM 1960
Focus Refined Eye Care announced this week that the doors are open at 515 Westheimer Rd., at the far eastern end of the strip center also containing Osaka Japanese, BB’s Donuts, Nu Cuts Hair Salon, and e-cigarette shops The Vapor Lair. The storefront, next to the former home of lapsed-vegan Mexican restaurant Radical Eats, previously housed a Chartway Federal Credit Union branch.
A press release says the new shop will “eliminate the sterility of typical doctor’s visits”— the self-described ‘optometry spa’ will offer patrons alcohol in cocktail form as well as of the lens-cleaning variety, and eye-rubs will be thrown in for good measure at the start of each appointment. The spot will offer high-end tailored glasses (the combined product of new German diagnostic equipment and a fashion consultant).
Wide Open on Westheimer
Stuck downtown jonesing for a turnover, or a maybe a wedding reception? A satellite outpost of Rustika Café and Bakery has crept into the tunnel beneath 801 Louisiana St. in the spot previously occupied by Porch Swing Desserts. The cafe is now open for business with a taco-heavy mini-menu to kick off operations.
A tipster tells Swamplot that sweets fiends will be able both to order and to retrieve custom cakes from the new underground locale, though they will still be constructed at the cafe’s original strip mall location (at 3237 Southwest Freeway between Tokyohana and the Michaelyndon Salon & Day Spa). This first franchise of the Mexican-Jewish mashup will also offer catering.
A few fresh snaps of the newly-stocked pastry counters beneath Louisiana St.:
Taking the Cake Down Below
VILLA ARCOS TACOS’ PERSONALITY SPLIT 
A Sunday post to the Facebook page of Villa Arcos Tacos announced that the East End taco joint would be moving, changing its name, and offering barbecue alongside its familiar Tex-Mex specialties. An emphatic press release issued this morning, however, asserts that “None of these claims are true. In fact, they are completely false.” Villa Arcos operator Dena Gutierres (sister of recently deceased former owner Yolanda Black Navarro) told CultureMap’s Eric Sandler that she had been planning to end her 5-year lease on the space at 3900 Navigation Blvd. long before her sister’s November passing, in light of some $250,000 of modifications needed to comply with City inspectors’ requests. But Black Navarro’s son Christian insists that the restaurant will remain at 3900 Navigation Blvd., where it has operated for the past 38 years, and that he and City inspectors are “working together to determine what corrections are required”. Gutierres plans to open Texas Tacos and Barbecue at 1000 Telephone Rd. in the current home of Oak Leaf Smokehouse after her lease ends on January 31st. [CultureMap] Photo of Villa Arcos Tacos at 3900 Navigation Blvd.: Jamanta F. via Yelp
CHICKEN OUT TONIGHT ON MEMORIAL DR. 
Hybrid Peruvian-Mexican restaurant Pollo Bravo will be flying the coop at 5 PM — the Memorial Dr. and Reinicke St. location will close permanently this evening. The chain’s remaining 2 locations on Hillcroft and Richmond will remain open, and the owner is currently looking for a new space to roost. The locale, which previously housed Hartz Chicken Buffet, converted to a Pollo Bravo by the end of 2012. An LLC connected to developer Amir Taghdisi purchased the property in May, adding to his existing holdings a few blocks west across the street; his strip center at 5801 Memorial Dr. currently houses a Dunkin’ Donuts and Piada Italian Street Food. Photo: Google Places
Vegan-friendly dance landmark Te House of Tea, at the corner of Fairview and Woodhead, will officially close its doors tomorrow at 7 PM — then briefly reopen them for an after-Christmas sale of equipment and interior furnishings the following Saturday. According to the restaurant’s December 1st closing announcement, owner Connie Lacobie attempted to sell the nearly 10-year-old business citing health issues, but a buyer couldn’t be found before the landlord made other plans for the space. Te opened in March 2006 with a lion dance for good luck (above); the final weekly swing-blues-fusion dance was held this past Saturday, and Monday was the last Open Mic. Photos: Te House of Tea
Down to the Dregs
Direct flights to Cuba from the US are back on the table (probably, eventually) per last week’s agreement between Havana and the State Department — and whenever that happens, Southwest Airlines is looking to get in on the action from its newly-minted international concourse at Hobby Airport. The concourse has been launching passengers to Central America and the Caribbean since its mid-October opening, which marked the airport’s return to the international game for the first time since IAH opened in 1969.
Other major additions to Hobby include a 3,000-spot parking garage (shown above) still partially under construction on one of the former EcoPark lots, just west of the original garage (now labeled the Red Garage). The new structure (known as the Blue Garage) is rising in phases: Phase I opened just in time for Thanksgiving, and the rest of the structure should be ready to receive rather less anxious travelers some time next year. The pedestrian bridge shown in the photo above connects Level 3 of the new garage to the newly-expanded Terminal area:
Park and Fly
 Hobby Airport... "Pin It")
Deep beneath First City Tower, something is lightly frying — Indian fast-casual joint DGN Factory, previously known by its less-coy former moniker The Dosa Factory, is now serving the no-longer-titular stuffed crepes and other South Indian vegetarian staples at its newly opened counter in the tunnel below 1001 Fannin St., 4 blocks west of Discovery Green.
The sign isn’t up yet, but sales are already taking off: Fly High Little Bunny commenced regular business hours yesterday at its new location on W. 19th St. and Rutland, following Saturday’s opening for the Holiday in the Heights shopping event. The former Shepherd landmark left its old storefront at the corner of W. Alabama earlier this year to make way for a CVS and pad site.
- Previously on Swamplot: Fly High Little Bunny Preparing for Safe Landing in This Little House in the Heights;Â The Last Words of Fly High Little Bunny; The Last Hours of That Shopping Center at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama, Where The New CVS Is Going In
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Flight From West Alabama
You have until tomorrow, maybe, to grab some of the cartographic treasures remaining at the longtime Inner Loop home of Key Maps, Houston’s homegrown map company. Items you buy will be 70 percent off — or free if you fish them from the yellow Dumpster parked out front at 1411 W. Alabama. But it’s a pretty chaotic scene, a reader tells us: Framed wall-maps, Key Map books that used to be found in the back seat pocket of most Houston cars, and other items are being loaded into moving trucks in preparation for a relocation to a new storefront at 5622 Richmond Ave., on the north side of the strip near Chimney Rock.
Which Way from West Alabama
