Openings and Closings

Featured Posts
01/02/14 11:30am

Last Bottle Roundup at the West U Recycling Center

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Openings and Closings, Recycling, West University
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West University RecyclExpress Recycling Center, 5004 Dincans St., West University, Texas

West University RecyclExpress Recycling Center, 5004 Dincans St., West University, TexasNote: Story updated below.

Yes, we have another Inner Loop recycling center closing to mark for the new year. Swamplot reader Jon Morris caught these shots of the final evening of bottle-clinking at the West University RecyclExpress at 5004 Dincans St., behind Goode Company Seafood, last night. You’ve got only a few minutes left to get rid of those New Year’s shindig empties — the center closes forever at noon today. “Scene was calm but with steady traffic when I was there,” reports Morris. “All the bins were overflowing though.”

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Inner Loop Recycling Apocalypse ’14
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Featured Posts
01/02/14 10:30am

Center St. Recycling Center Is Now Closed; Site Ready for Recycling

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First Ward, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Recycling
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Former City of Houston Recycling Facility at 3602 Center St., First Ward, Houston

The recycling center at 3602 Center St. closed “pretty suddenly” on New Year’s Eve, reader Debnil Chowdhury reports — with these pics from the scene at the corner of Harvard St.: “Not sure how long the sign was up . . . I don’t remember seeing it a week or two ago but I might have missed it.” The sign directs would-be bottle tossers to 2 remaining City of Houston facilities:

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Inner Loop Recycling Apocalypse ’14
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Openings and Closings
12/26/13 10:00am

Winter Snoballs for Houston

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Sunset Heights
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WINTER SNOBALLS FOR HOUSTON MAM's House of Ice, 1040 W. Cavalcade St., Sunset Heights, HoustonJust in time to serve up a white Christmas — at least before a few pumps of flavoring are added to your order — MAM’s House of Ice has opened its first-ever non-wheeled, year-round location. It’s at 1040 W. Cavalcade St. in Sunset Heights, about a mile east of the popular mobile storefront’s longstanding trailer-parking spot. That means snoballs (along with a few warmer dessert-y and snack-y items added to the menu) will now be available year-round. [b4-u-eat; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Mam’s House of Ice

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Bellaire
12/04/13 11:00am

Spotted: Bernie’s Bellaire Triangle Burger Bus Depot Roll-In

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
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Bernie's Burger Bus, 5407 Bellaire Blvd., Bellaire, Texas

Bernie's Burger Bus, 5407 Bellaire Blvd., Bellaire, TexasSwamplot reader Dave spots the signs up for Bernie’s Burger Bus in the Bellaire Triangle, giving an actual address (5407 Bellaire Blvd., in the former Christian Community Service Center Sunshine Retail Shop) to the growing vehicle-and-restaurant chain’s previously announced somewhere-in-Bellaire location. Like the other non-wheeled Bernie’s locations, this one will be called a Bernie’s Burger Bus Stop — but Bus Station might be more accurate: Owner Justin Turner told Eater back in September he plans to use the Bellaire spot as a “hub” where production and prep takes place and deliveries go out for all the restaurants — including the new one planned for Katy. And in addition to an in-kitchen table for occasional (non-burger) pop-up dinners, there’s an actual bus planned for the interior. Collaborative Projects’ design will let you pick up your orders as they’re passed through a bus window.

Photos: Dave

Hamburger Transfer Station
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Featured Posts
11/22/13 12:15pm

The River Oaks Plant House Will Be Gone by the End of the Year

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Openings and Closings, Retail, River Oaks, Schools
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River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, Houston

River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, HoustonThe River Oaks Plant House — also known as the greenery purveyor that regularly festoons the corner of Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway with dancing bears and other fake topiary — will be closing up shop at the end December. Headmaster Mark Desjardins writes in an email that St. John’s School notified the owners of the more-than-30-year-old store in September that its lease would be terminated by December 31. The prep school had purchased the property from the Henry J. N. Taub family, along with the land under Blanco’s Bar & Grill, in a 13-acre deal completed exactly a year earlier.

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Leaving Soon
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Adaptive Reuse
11/21/13 1:00pm

Katy Contemporary Arts Museum Creating Its Own ‘Museum District’

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Art, Katy, Museums, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments
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Katy Contemporary Arts Museum, 805 Ave. B at First St., Katy, Texas

Where is the new Katy Contemporary Arts Museum? “In the heart of Katy’s Museum District,” boasts the brand-new institution’s website. That appears to be shorthand for “right across from the Katy Railroad Park and Tourist Center“; the Katy Heritage Museum and Park and “G.I. Joe” Museum are a half-mile northeast. The white concrete-and-brick building at 805 Ave. B, at the corner of First St., was originally built in 1953 for the Katy Lumber Company. The museum chose the structure for its easy access to I-10, among other features. Like its more sophisticated metal-clad sorta-namesake in Houston, admission is free; but art blogger Robert Boyd notes there are plans to expand the 5,000-sq.-ft. facility to house an actual permanent collection:

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Trains, Guns, and Art
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Featured Posts
11/20/13 3:30pm

New Sign Announces Doom for West U’s Soon To Be Canned Recycling Center

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Openings and Closings, Recycling, West University
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RecyclExpress Self-Service Recycling Facility, 5004 Dincans St., West University, Houston

RecyclExpress Self-Service Recycling Facility, 5004 Dincans St., West University, HoustonLooks like the typical rush to get rid of empties right after New Year’s could be a little compressed this year from Rice Village to Upper Kirby. A Swamplot reader sends in pics of the new sign that’s gone up at the sort-it-yourself recycling center at 5004 Dincans St., across the street and behind Goode Co. Seafood. West University’s city council voted in October to close the 24-hr. drive-up facility, and the sign announces the January 2 closing date.

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Clink’s End
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Downtown
11/15/13 11:00am

The Cherry Limeade at the Bottom of the Escalator

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
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A Downtown office building named after an oil company featuring a new drive-in in its basement? Well, minus all the close-in parking spots. Swamplot reader Doug Gober sends pix showing signs advertising a new Sonic Drive-In plastered earlier this week on the darkened windows of the spot occupied until a few months ago by a General Joe’s Chopstix — in the tunnel-access basement space of Pennzoil Place at 711 Louisiana. Walk-in seating for underground customers is already available, but you’ll probably have to place your order inside.

Photos: Doug Gober

Slurp!
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Energy Corridor
11/13/13 11:30am

Where the Food Trucks Are Parking on Hwy. 6

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
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WHERE THE FOOD TRUCKS ARE PARKING ON HWY. 6 One advantage of the new Energy Corridor-area food truck park that officially debuted last week at 800 Hwy. 6 South, backing up to the Addicks Reservoir: the 3.5-acre grounds mean there’s room enough for a variety of trucks — as well as seating areas that comply with City of Houston regulations by keeping 100 ft. away. Katharine Shilcutt finds plenty of parking, music, fire pits, and ambition there too: “‘We want to make a farmers market over there,’ [My Food Park HTX co-owner Liz Gandy] told me, pointing to a series of metal structures that already form the shape of a roadside produce stand. ‘We get so much shade in the afternoons right here. It’s just beautiful.’ Behind the future market area, the acreage goes from gravel to grass, surrounded on three sides by dense thickets of trees. Back here, where many people choose to dine, it’s quiet. You can barely hear the traffic from Highway 6; you feel like you’re in the country.” [Houstonia] Photo: My Food Park HTX

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Memorial City
11/08/13 10:00am

Bally’s I-10 Shopping Center To Be Blasted Away for New Office Tower

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Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail
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BALLY’S I-10 SHOPPING CENTER TO BE BLASTED AWAY FOR NEW OFFICE TOWER MetroNational has immediate plans to tear down this 2-story 12-year-old former Bally Fitness Shopping Center on a 3.44-acre site facing the I-10 feeder at the northeast corner of the Memorial City Mall — and replace it with some sort of new office tower, Real Estate Bisnow‘s Catie Dixon reports. The health club (along with all 9 other Houston Bally’s locations) was taken over by Blast Fitness last year — and shut down entirely this spring. As of the end of last week, all remaining tenants in the building at 9801 Katy Fwy. have closed up shop as well. MetroNational (as usual) wouldn’t comment on plans for the site half a mile east of its headquarters, but Dixon gets the scoop from the stores themselves: Le Peep plans to be gone from the site only for 14 to 16 months, however; it’s been promised a ground-floor retail space in the new building. T.N. Tailor Alterations also says it has a spot in the new development; no word on the Starbucks. [Real Estate Bisnow] Photo of Bally Total Fitness at 9801 Katy Fwy.: MetroNational

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Openings and Closings
11/06/13 4:30pm

Blockbuster Busting Its Last Blocks

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Quicklink, Retail
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BLOCKBUSTER BUSTING ITS LAST BLOCKS Did you realize there was still a Blockbuster Video store open near you? There are 13 of them in the Houston area, in fact — though only 2 of them (at Studewood and North Main and South Post Oak at Bellfort) are in Houston proper. (The rest are in Katy, Seabrook, Baytown, Kingwood, Spring, Humble, Sugar Land, Channelview, Pearland, and Pasadena.) Well, at least until January. The company announced today it will close all 300 remaining stores in the U.S. by early next year — and shutter its DVD-by-mail service by the middle of next month. When Dish Network bought the company out of bankruptcy more than 2 years ago, Blockbuster had 1,700 U.S. stores. [Bloomberg] Photo of Pasadena Blockbuster, 3950 Spencer Hwy.: Yelp

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Art
10/23/13 12:00pm

Bars Within a Bar at Lowbrow in Montrose

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Interiors, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
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BARS WITHIN A BAR AT LOWBROW IN MONTROSE Eater Houston reports that Lowbrow, the restaurant and bar from Free Press Houston founder Omar Afra, will open tomorrow night here at the corner of W. Main and Mandell in Montrose. This photo shows the mural that’s replacing the former Sophia sign. Inside, there will be even more art: The place will have wallpaper that sports drawings of the Astrodome, Houston Oilers logo, and Barnett Newman’s Broken Obelisk sculpture at the nearby Menil Collection. And it appears that there will also be a channel of rather meta reality programming for you to watch: “[A] projection screen . . . will play scenes from other local bars.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Eater Houston

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Montrose
10/18/13 11:20am

Bienvenidos, Brick and Spoon

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants, University of St. Thomas
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BIENVENIDOS, BRICK AND SPOON Eater Houston’s Darla Guillen reports that brunch and bloody mary purveyor Brick & Spoon is almost ready to open in Montrose after renovating the spot to which Bocados said adiós at 1312 W. Alabama, just across the street from the University of St. Thomas. Owners of the Louisiana chain Bryan Jewell and Ryan Trahan tell Guillen that they will be ready to go November 11. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Bocados: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

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Buildouts
10/17/13 3:30pm

Where the West End Three Brothers Bakery Will Be

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor, West End
2 Comments

Here’s a pic of the new storefront of Houston’s 3rd Three Brothers Bakery. You can see it for yourself at 4602 Washington, between Shepherd and Patterson. (It’ll share that retail center with Bedrock City Comics.) Apparently, behind those mirrored windows there’s quite a buildout of the former District Lounge going on: This new location will be open a bit later than the others and will include a coffee bar and patio where you can chill outside with your dawgs. Or dogs. Both, it seems, will be welcome. There’s been no opening date announced, but a PR rep says that the place should be ready to go early next year.

Photo: Allyn West

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Midtown
10/17/13 11:15am

Affecting the Bar-to-Restaurant Ratio in Midtown

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Restaurants
12 Comments

AFFECTING THE BAR-TO-RESTAURANT RATIO IN MIDTOWN An update about the former Midtown bar that a Swamplot reader reported was turning into a new Midtown bar: It’s gonna be a restaurant (that will serve drinks). Eater Houston reports that Michael Paolucci, who owns Pub Fiction, will be opening Cook & Collins, not (as had been reported) Bremond Street Grill, here in the former El Xuco Xicana space at 2416 Brazos near Bremond. Was there a change of heart or something? Nah, says Paolucci: “I know [M]idtown very well. There are too many bars and not enough restaurants. Until the restaurants start coming, it won’t become a world-class neighborhood. I’m from Chicago and in Chicago, for every bar there’s a restaurant; in [M]idtown, for every 20 bars there’s one restaurant.” [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

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