OLD-SCHOOL CHICKEN WINGS TRYING WHERE CARLOS MENCIA’S MODERN MEX FAILED 
Pluckers Wing Bar will be moving into the vacant building at 1400 Shepherd in the West End, one of the 3 Maggie Rita’s locations that comedian Carlos Mencia and Santiago Moreno decided earlier this year to close. Some attributed Maggie Rita’s struggles to a stated misunderstanding of the tastes of some of its patrons; Moreno told Eater Houston that women care only about margaritas. Meanwhile, this will be the 16th Pluckers — a guy-friendly concept that sticks to sports, beer, and Dr Pepper-flavored chicken. Know thyself, eh? After all, reports Prime Property’s David Kaplan, “Pluckers was started by two University of Texas freshmen in a dorm room.” [Prime Property; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston
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Openings and Closings
A WOOD GRILL’S COOKING IN THE WOODLANDS 
This waiting-for-a-logo storefront on Research Forest Dr. just north of The Woodlands in Shenandoah will become the home of a new restaurant called Fielding’s Wood Grill, reports a reader. Both the Facebook page and website for Fielding’s are so far pretty skimpy on details, but they do indicate that the restaurant will be 1) selling food and beverages and 2) opening sometime this fall. And it’ll be doing so at the shopping center at 1699 Research Forest Dr., just west of I-45, between Six Pines Dr. and Grogan Mills Rd. [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Kerry Stessel
Sporting some of the more evocative ghost signage in Midtown, the vacant former Saigon Cafe #2 seems to be in the process of becoming the future Cafe Helene. This TABC sign is dated May 24, and a rep from the building’s leasing company says that the new sandwich shop should be open here at 3101 Main St. in the next few months. Located between the Ensemble/HCC and McGowen stops, the 8,000-sq.-ft. building dates to 1948, county records show, and it’s catty-corner from the not-quite-3-acre swath of the Midtown Superblock and that back-of-a-strip-center mural that was painted in April. For now, a thorough gutting of the building seems to be underway, at least judging from the size of the pile of scrap in the back:
Inside this mongrelized building on Blodgett St., Museum Park residents Matt Scheiner and Lisa Qualls have opened a friendly neighborhood art gallery they’ve named Gallery Jatad. Their suite at 1517 Blodgett — it’s the one with the unpapered windows — used to house a record and T-shirt shop; it shares the strip center with a nail salon, washateria, and food mart. County records indicate that the center, spanning La Branch and Crawford, dates to the 1940s, though it appears to have been bejeweled with those decorative diamonds and a stucco mask in the ’70s, says Scheiner. Inside, the suite has been renovated to feature museum-issue walls and lighting and the old building’s original slab.
The gallerists’ friend Victor Rojas says he will be opening a showroom right next door at 1515 Blodgett for his own furniture and metalwork; and they say they have another friend considering opening a coffee shop in the endcap.
- Fine Traditional African and Contemporary Art [Gallery Jatad]
Photo: Allyn West
KICKING OUT THE OLDIES ON WESTHEIMER 
Just a few weeks after a fire took out one resale shop in Montrose, Culturemap reporter Whitney Radley has noticed that another, BJ Oldies and Antiques just a few doors down, is for lease. Radley seems to suspect that this old watch-your-step reliquary is being booted out for yet another new Westheimer restaurant. Whether the foodies are coming won’t be determined until August, though, when antiquarian owner Becky Pieniadz ups and leaves for her new location just down the road at 1726 Westheimer, joining those like-minded retailers next to Empire Café. Still, Pieniadz doesn’t seem thrilled about having to vacate the 8,600-sq.-ft. building where she’s been since 2008 and box all that %&$# up: “The last thing I wanted was to move out of here.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user emilycovey
APPLIED TECHNOLOGY AT UH’S NEW COFFEE NOOK 
A pair of University of Houston alums will be running a coffee shop and wine bar out of this new retail center in the cranny of Calhoun Rd. and Spur 5. The Nook, they’re calling it, will open July 15, reports The Daily Cougar, with more student-friendly hours, staying open until midnight — even on school nights. And there will also be a kind of caffeine-expediting service well suited to a spread-out campus that can require some serious between-classes hoofing: “‘The unique piece of The Nook that we’re actually proud of is a smart phone app where you can actually order your coffee the way you like it. You tell us when you’ll show up, you pay with your credit card and come to the pick-up counter and pick it up,’ Shaw said. ‘Anything on the menu, except for alcohol, can be ordered on the phone app.’†[The Daily Cougar; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
First things first: Here’s the new location of Morningside Thai. Hoping to open June 22, says owner Ying Roberts, the no-longer-on-Morningside, no-longer-eponymous restaurant can be found at 2473 S. Braeswood Blvd., inside the Kirby Glen Retail Center, north of OST, right where the South Main neighborhood bumps into University Place. Got that? Of course, the Braeswood address might be a tad misleading in this case, since the restaurant actually faces Kirby Dr.
A pair of new restaurants are moving into old places in the Lazybrook and Timbergrove area. The former Queen Burger at 1802 W. 18th St., shown here, is being renovated and rechristened as Hughie’s Tavern and Grill. (A menu posted on Hughie’s Facebook describes the food as “Asian fusion.”) No date’s been given for the opening. And not half a mile away at 1951 W. T.C. Jester there’ll be a new Spaghetti Western . . .
THE RETURN OF MARFRELESS 
It was only temporary, it turns out, the closing of Houston’s infamous den of PDA: Though reports in March suggested that River Oaks Shopping Center landlords Weingarten had hiked the rent, described cheekily in a press release by Marfreless as “the rising cost of doing business,” it appears that the bar that looks the other way has found new owners and will reopen with the same management in the same spot this summer — and they’ll be fixing up the place, too, they’ve announced in a press release that’s fairly dripping with innuendo: “All this comes with a complete renovation — from wires and carpet to the furniture you . . . sit on. You can expect an updated feel with the same Marfreless experience you’ve come to love. And don’t worry, our upstairs seating and iconic blue door will remain.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user jmcgeough
Now that it’s all said and done, and Feast is closing Friday, the restaurant seems to be taking its culinary whole-hog approach to a logical conclusion: It’s throwing a yard sale and silent auction this weekend to get rid of itself. Opening in 2008 at 219 Westheimer — despite John Nova Lomax adding that address to his list of cursed locations — Feast has been dishing up tongues and testicles and everything between ever since. And this Saturday it’ll keep right on going, selling off appliances, silverware, tables and chairs, paintings, and auctioning the real choice bits — like that old-timey black-and-white sign out front. (If you’re squeamish about witnessing this kind of butchering in person, Eater Houston reports that you can bid by email.)
- Everything Must Go! Get a Piece of Feast This Weekend [Eater Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: Bad Places To Start a Restaurant in Houston: A List, Feast: Going Whole Hog on Lower Westheimer
Photo: Keith Plocek
The 11-year run is coming to an end: According to a letter signed by franchise operator Charles Gibson and posted in the store’s window, June 14 will be the last day for this Webster Chick-Fil-A. The letter explains that TxDOT has purchased the property with plans to expand I-45. Across that freeway from the Baybrook Mall, this Chick-Fil-A is the northernmost chain of that cluster of ’em accessible via the feeder from Bay Area Blvd.
- Welcome! [Chik-fil-A Restaurant Bay Area Blvd.]
- TxDOT stories [Swamplot]
Photo: Panoramio user MrQuick
FLESHING OUT WILLOWBROOK’S DINING OPTIONS 
Rivals in that niche sports-and-cleavage market Twin Peaks and Hooters will have a bit more competition starting today, reports Eater Houston, and this from the only restaurant that’s legally allowed to call itself a “breastaurant:” Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill — which in April trademarked the term — opened its first location last month in The Woodlands; this new one will be at the former Burger Girl at 17117 Tomball Pkwy. near the Willowbrook Mall. And what, you might wonder, sets Bikinis apart? It might be the food: “In addition to traditional American bar-and-grill fare and cocktails and microbrews,” reports the Houston Business Journal, “Bikinis offers its Big Bucking Burger. Customers can win a T-shirt if they finish the $24.95 five-pound burger on their own.” [Eater Houston; Houston Chronicle; Houston Business Journal] Photo: Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill
Dunkin’ Donuts announced yesterday where it’ll be sprinkling 4 new stores across Houston. This rendering shows the standalone planned for 18315 W. Lake Houston Pkwy. in Humble. There’ll also be a location inside IAH’s Terminal E, one at 4130 Fairmont Pkwy. in Pasadena, and another, as suspected, at the renovated former Arby’s at 2330 S. Shepherd and Fairview. Last month, the chain opened the first of a reported 24 stores planned for the Houston area at 10705 Westheimer in Westchase.
- Dunkin’ Donuts names next four Houston locations [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Dunkin’ Donuts Opening Next Month in Westchase Strip Center, The First Inside-the-Loop Dunkin’ Donuts?, Maybe the Westchase SmashBurger’s Successor Will Do Better, Dollars to Donuts, Dunkin’ Donuts’ Big Texas Push, Dunkin’ Donuts Coming Back to Bellaire
Rendering: Rogue Architects via Houston Business Journal
An email sent out by the owners of re:HAB says that the bar will have to close and leave its Houston Ave. location by July. (A landlord issue, apparently.) But the email also says a new spot has been lined up — at 1658 Enid and Link Rd. in Brooke Smith — and that it could open as early as August “if everything goes according to plan (yeah right).”
So we’ll take things one day at a time, then. The bar first opened in the renovated (and repainted) former Houston Ave Bar spot along the Spring St. hike and bike trail. This new location is just a few blocks north of the renovated D&T Drive Inn on Enid and about a mile east of the proposed site of Town in City Brewing Co. on W. Cavalcade. The email goes on to describe this building as “nestled on the banks of ‘Little White Oak Bayou,’” explaining that you’ll be able to get to re:HAB this time “by car, bus, bike or kayak.”
It’s coming soon, the sign says, that international power trio of donuts, kolaches, and tacos. (In the suite beside El Greco, the Mediterranean restaurant, to boot.) West of Idylwood and Country Club Place at 5420 Lawndale St., this strip center is less than a mile east of the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse on Telephone and that complementary retail activity recently opened inside the Tlaquepaque Market.
